Internal Auditor Magazine – There’s an app for that!

The IA magazine, published by the IIA, is probably one of the best audit resources on the market.  The content is usually relevant and with over 70,000 members across the globe, the distribution is covers a diverse group of professionals.  It is one of the valuable membership benefits.  It has been available in print format for many years.  Additionally, the IIA distributes content via the internet.  Recently, the IIA released an app for the IA magazine.  This article is a review of the application, however, it does not address the content contained in articles.

Perspective

The primary review is done using a new Asus Transformer Prime.

I also performed some performance and functionality testing on the Android based T Mobile My Touch 4g and an IOS based iPod Touch.

 Features and Functionality

• The IA app is available on Android and Apple devices.  It is free to download, however, you must be an active IIA member to access content.  At the time of this writing, an active membership is approximately $210 USD.  There are student, faculty and governmental membership options that are less expensive.

• The following 3 issues are currently available: December 2011, February 2012, and April 2012.

• The app itself is fairly light weight and it alone will not bog down your system.  However, storage space used increases as you begin to download and read issues.

• Its display has crisp colors that mirror the hardcopy magazine.

• The app downloads the requested issue onto the device.  I am assuming this means there is the ability for offline reading, but have not been able to confirm this yet.

• Advertising appears just like the hard copy magazine.  The only exception is that ads directly link to the advertiser’s webpage

• There is an option to “read” article text.  This is feature strips out the graphics.  Users can flip through pages similar to a Kindle.  There is a small strip for advertisements at the bottom of the page.
  

• The Navigator function provides quick access to content without using the magazine view.[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

  

• There is a “Save” articles feature that allows you to save your favorite items.

• The font size can be easily adjusted, making it easy to use the app on almost any devices.

• There is the ability to share articles with others.  The share function works well with the default sharing feature on your device.  This means you can share via email, LinkedIn, twitter, Evernote, etc

• One interesting feature was the ability to view IIA Magazine Twitter Feeds.  It was quite slow during the tests on the Asus, Ipod Touch and MyTouch 4 g.

Pros

• The ability to read article text in two formats/views…..magazine and text only.  The text only format loads a lot faster than the magazine view.  The magazine view provides a sleek look for those of us in to aesthetics.

• The navigator function, similar to the “read” article function, provides quick and efficient access to content.

• The adjustable font size is great and made it easy to read the magazine on a tablet as well as a phone.

Cons

• The application loads slowly on all three devices on various wireless networks.

• I did not see the value in the “view feeds” feature.

• Some advertiser destination hyperlinks were dead or had been moved.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a solid app.  If you like the content in the IIA magazine, I would definitely suggest using the app to read, bookmark and share articles.

Screen prints

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