I’m heading out to Austin today for my Lightroom seminar tomorrow. It’s a miserable day for air travel in the southeast (hence the photo above). After racing to make a connection in Atlanta, I’ve just gone through the worst turbulence I think I’ve ever felt. Anyway, while I’m in the air I thought I’d write a quick update on some common Q&A’s I’ve gotten for Lightroom Magazine (link to app store).
DISCLAIMER: This post is only meant for people who have an iPad AND have (or wish to) download the Lightroom Magazine app on their iPad. If you don’t fall into that category, then stop reading now because you’ll just end up leaving a mean comment that will eventually get deleted.
Q. Are the download issues resolved? It was taking forever to download or it simply just timed out on me.
A. Yes! Thank god! There were some issues with where the file was hosted and it’s a longer story than you care to hear. But we got everything sorted out in the first few days, and I haven’t heard a peep about long download times since.
Q. Will you still be including Lightroom articles in Photoshop User Magazine?
A. Of course. It’s kinda funny because people seemed to automatically assume the worst – that we were launching a Lightroom magazine to make more money, by taking away Lightroom content from Photoshop User magazine. Now, don’t get me wrong. We’re definitely launching Lightroom magazine to be profitable, but we’re not taking anything away from Photoshop User Magazine. It’s still the same magazine it always was with the same amount of Lightroom content. But now, people who don’t use Photoshop much (and believe me, my seminars tell me those numbers are growing), can have a magazine totally dedicated to the program they use most.
Q. Why isn’t the magazine app in Newsstand?
A. Because Newsstand requires that you have subscriptions. Right now we don’t have subscriptions, so we can’t be in Newsstand.
Q. What about subscriptions? Will you offer them?
A. For now, we’re not planning on it. Along with subscriptions, comes a whole slew of other issues. For now, we’d like to concentrate on creating a great magazine app.
Q. Is it true you guys get huge kick backs from Apple for releasing iOS only magazine apps?
A. Absolutely! In fact, I’m not even sure why we’re charging $4.99 for the magazine. With the money we make in kickbacks from making an iOS only magazine app, we’ve been burning $100 dollar bills as kindling for our fires, we have so much of it 
(that’s a winky face by the way, which means I’m kidding).
(This photo is just here because I thought the clouds outside of my plane looked cool, and to divert your attention from the iOS/Android debate that will eventually happen 
)
Q. Why did you include Photoshop content in a Lightroom magazine? I’d rather the Before/After video using Lightroom and Photoshop stop at the point where you’re done with Lightroom. Don’t we already have Photoshop User magazine for that stuff?
A. Yes, Photoshop User is the magazine for Photoshop. But I chose to include Photoshop content in the magazine (mostly just the Before and After video) because not including it, is only showing people part of the process. Let’s face it, Lightroom’s retouching, cloning and healing tools just aren’t there. If you’ve got a telephone wire in your photo you’d like to remove, you need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Plus, there’s a bunch of other things you can use Photoshop for. So, while Lightroom is the program we all start in, sometimes you need that extra step. Trust me, I hear more and more from people out there that Lightroom is the only program they use and they don’t want to leave it. If that works for ya’, then great. But there are things it just can’t do and I think part of having a magazine on Lightroom is showing you when you’ll need something else. And if you really just want a Lightroom Before/After video then you can simply press the STOP button when I jump to Photoshop.
Q. What about the Android version?
A. Really?! Nothing has changed. Like before, consider yourself warned before you leave a comment.
To finish up, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has made this launch of Lightroom Magazine a success. We’ve already shattered our initial estimates on how many people we thought would download the magazine. I do apologize for any inconvenience concerning download issues at first and hopefully all of those problems are past us. We’re finishing up Issue #3 now, and I’ll keep you posted with more info soon. Thanks
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