Wired magazine unveils iPad application

Wired magazine unveiled its application for Apple's iPad on Wednesday, an interactive version of the popular technology publication for five dollars a month, the same price as the print edition.

"Wired is finally, well, wired," editor-in-chief Chris Anderson said in a statement on the Wired.com website.

Anderson added that the Wired editorial team appreciated the irony that a "magazine founded to chronicle the digital revolution" was now available on something other than "the smooshed atoms of dead trees."

Anderson, an influential technology writer and author of the books about the Internet "The Long Tail" and "Free," said the arrival of tablet computers like the iPad represent "a grand experiment in the future of media."

"The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of," he said. "It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics."

The magazine's June edition includes an interactive Mars map, a video tour of the recording studio of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Pixar's "Toy Story 3."

Readers browse stories and photos in the digital Wired, which is available through Apple's online iTunes store and contains advertising, by swiping the iPad touchscreen with a finger or pinching to zoom in or out.

US newspapers and magazines have been grappling with a steady decline in print advertising revenue and circulation and Wired is one of a number of US publications which have turned to the iPad as an avenue for new revenue.

Wired owner Conde Nast has also released iPad applications for two other magazines in its stable, GQ and Vanity Fair.

To produce the iPad application, Wired teamed up with Adobe Systems, whose popular Flash video software has been banned from Apple products.

Anderson said the Wired iPad application was created in a yearlong effort using "new digital publishing technology developed by Adobe."