The iPad is supposed to be the saviour of the publishing industry - if you believe the hype - and that means digital magazines galore on the device from Apple.

Trouble is, it turns out that those same magazines take a bit of time to make and so, some time in, we've yet to see anything but a handful of "connected mags" attempting to tell us they are the new beginning.

In steps a stop gap, Zinio - an iPad app that will sell you a digital copy of your favourite mag (hopefully) for you to scan and enjoy on your new wunder gadget.

Zinio Magazine Newsstand & Reader

Format

iPad and iPhone

Price

Free

Where

iTunes

The Zinio App provides access to more than 2500 full-colour magazines worldwide, ranging from Wallpaper* and HELLO to National Geographic.

Rather than all singing all dancing (some of them are, kinda), you get a digital carbon copy of the magazine to read, adverts and all.

The downside is that this is really just a pdf scan. Although you can copy and paste content from it, or even search the content for set key words.

You can also zoom into the page, with the resolution good enough to read even if you can see it all.

Readers can pay once for a magazine subscription or a single issue, which then can be accessed cross-platform - including the iPad, iPhone or Mac - and the magazines are automatically downloaded to your device when released.

There's even a shop to buy more mags while you're out - handy if you need something to read and there isn't a newsagents for miles around.

This isn't the knight in shining armour the publishing industry is hoping for with the Apple iPad, but it does plug a gap for now. And it gives the publishing businesses a vital new newsstand to sell from.