QOTD: Do You Subscribe to Tech Magazines?

[Shadow703793]

I don't buy mags any more but I do buy printed guides (containing tips, tutorials, walk trough) for some games.

 

[siddharth]

Yes, I have subscribed to Tech Magazines - Chip, Digit(Indian Versions). The main reason behind me purchasing them is that they provide localised content, news about whats happening in my own country. These Mags also provide local prices of PCs and peripherals which the tech websites likes Tomshardware doesnt. Also they provide different perspective towards current technology that is more relevant in for my country.

Also, reading a Mag is a different experience than visiting a tech website. You get a very different feeling while reading a Mag. The feel of paper is still enticing....

 

[fausto]

nope. i prefer day to day info, not something behind the times

 

[AdamB5000]

Sound & Vision & Popular Mechanics. Love PM & I just recently began my S&V sub.

 

[sublifer]

I get a few at work that I usually don't have time to read:

TechNet, eWeek, InformationWeek & Healthcare Informatics. All dry stuff but sometimes there is a useful or interesting article.

 

[caliman64]

Maximum PC and PCWorld

 

[average joe]

I think I stopped subscribing to my last magazine in about 2000. I used to subscribe to a ton of them. I remember when the magazines would have games in the back which was just printed code you had to type in and save to floppy disc. It would take a whole weekend for me to code the 30 pages just to see if I liked the game. I think the last mag I kept was the Computer Shopper when they canceled "The Hard Edge" I quit buying it.
There was no content left at that point. I bought a Time Magazine around Christmas time to through the holiday travel boredom. It cost like $6.00 US and had maybe 5 full pages of content the rest was spam. It was a complete ripoff.

 

[average joe]

PC Gamer was decent in the 90's as it had the free game demo's every month. XBox magazine does the same thing for that console.

Now we all have high speed internet so you can download the free demos from nzone anytime you like. The hardware reviews that a magazine can provide are typically months old before they get printed. Prices and Products change too quickly in PC hardware for a print medium to keep up.

The biggest change I have noticed in Print media is that there are no long articles anymore. Computer Shopper used to be 3 inches thick now its 1/2 and inch and costs more. Where's the content? The content was the value and all the publishers dropped the content and just tried to hang in there on Name and Reputation.

Consumer Reports survives because it focused on durable goods like cars and washing machines.

 

[dark_lord69]

I don't have any subscriptions. I read online sites...
Like Toms Hardware

 

[ahslan]

subscribed to pcmag...which is now only in digital form...the only reason why I have it is because my girlfriend just keeps updating my subscription every year for my bday...

 

[69camaroSS]

Why, when you can read everything online before it hits the stands?

 

[FSXFan]

Like most others here, I get my fill of tech stuff on the net. I still have a few off road mag subscriptions to read while on the pot though.

 

[flyer_11]

I still get PC World because of their low price "special offers" for a year's subscription. But when this subsc. is up, that's it. The main problem is they've decrease the size of the font and lightened the print. I have to use reading glasses and this makes it difficult to read. Just about everything they print is on line anyway. I wanted to support them by getting the mag. but they're shooting themselves in the foot by making it too hard to read.

 

[flyer_11]

I still get PC World because of their low price "special offers" for a year's subscription. But when this subsc. is up, that's it. The main problem is they've decreased the size of the font and lightened the print. I have to use reading glasses and this makes it difficult to read. Just about everything they print is on line anyway. I wanted to support them by getting the mag. but they're shooting themselves in the foot by making it too hard to read.

 

[garydale]

I subscribe to a number of tech magazines because:
- I don't usually need to be that current. a couple of months behind is fine when you're talking new/emerging technologies, products, etc.. The weather report needs to be today's news. A comparison of IDEs for Linux can be months out of date without losing validity.
- I can read them anywhere there's sufficient light. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't spend all my time sitting at a computer.
- They introduce me to topics I may not find if I was simply browsing through the web.
- They contain trusted analysis and opinions from people I respect.
- They provide an archive, a little solidity in a world where things appear and disappear seemingly at random. I have control over the retention period.
- It's often easier to flip through a magazine article than to read the same information hyperlinked on the web. Besides, 100dpi or so screen is still harder to read than paper.

 

[blackened144]

I dont subscribe to anything myself but we have a desk here in the office that is just piled with tech mags. Just a few that are on top of the pile right now, Cables, Automation Integrator Guide 2009, Radio Resource: Mission Critical Communications, E-Week, Processors (More of a newspaper than magazine), Nuts and Bolts, and of course the latest Tiger Direct catalog.

 

[Guest]

I used to subscribe to PC World and a few gaming magazines a long time ago, but now all I have is a subscription to Wired. I would have canceled that too, but it's only $10/year, and it gives me something to read on slow days.

 

[gm0n3y]

No.

 

[firesoul1]

Maximum PC

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

Nope, the internet is a faster way of getting tech news, but i do browse the tech mags and buy one occasionally to read an article or two. Usually CPU or Custom PC.

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

but then again most of there articles are online as well lol...

 

[rosskey711]

I subscribe to Pop Sci

 

[NightbladeXX]

While I love internet sites like Tom's I still love my magazines, too much of a PITA to read an internet site on the crapper!!!

Or while waiting in a doctors office, etc

I will always subscribe to magazines but I still love my internet sites

Tom's Hardware Magazine, anyone???

 

[jitpublisher]

If they could figure out a way to print all the ads in the mag on toliet paper, they would be more eco friendly.

 

[jsloan]

nope, not no more, get them for free or just use what's online for free.