http://www.homecomputermagazine.com/
Thanks to Chris for the tip…it’s a great find. I downloaded both issues yesterday and browsed through them this morning. First of all, they’re free. And by free I mean free as in beer. And the content is suprising well done! The layout and graphics work is exceptional. The technical articles are well written and accurate. I would say the target audience is beginner to moderately experienced user, however, I found the reviews very useful and enjoyed the electronic format (Adobe) of the magazine. The company is based in the U.K., so some of the content (online shopping sites, for example) only apply if you live there and all prices are listed in British Pounds. Ignore it. The content is good enough that you can look past it.
You essentially download the entire thing as a .PDF file and read it on your machine. I thought the digital format would not be easily consumed. I have never been a fan of reading things on my computer monitor – I’d rather print them out and read them on paper. I found the Adobe Reader application and format of the magazine, however, very easy to read at my computer monitor with my cup of coffee this morning. There’s Quicktime and Flash-based content (ads, etc) built into the .PDF but, quite honestly, they are not distracting at all. The neatest benefit to reading this online is that they’ve built functionality into the magazine that allows you to interact with it. Throughout the pages are sprinkled little “send this to a friend” buttons and “print this article” buttons. I found them incredibly useful. I printed out the review on Sid Meier’s “Priates!”, for example, so I could casually leave it where my wife would find it. ;-)
http://chris.pirillo.com/blog/_archives/2004/12/25/215755.html
Check it out: Home Computer Magazine!
Home Computer Magazine is FREE to its readers and is sustained by advertising revenue. Home Computer Magazine is a monthly computer magazine, written by professional journalists. We have over ten years experience in publishing consumer computer magazines. Contributors to these pages have worked on a wide variety of titles including Microsoft Windows XP: The Official Magazine, PC Plus, PC Format and many more.
Each issue is downloadable in PDF with no account required. Its quality definitely rivals that of the magazines you've probably been paying for all these years. David Taylor has raised the bar for all PC magazines - including the one I write for. Magazines are sprinkled all over our house like they were potpourri; I've been trying to convert my fiancee to digital, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.