Apple takes Newsstand and Cards live in iOS 5

The update onslaught from Apple continues today. The company, previously releasing iOS 5, iCloud, iTunes Movie Trailer, and Lion 10.7.2, has also just taken Newsstand and Cards live.

Newsstand ships with the iOS 5 update and comes complete with a news app store, and Cards is now available in the iTunes App Store.

Newsstand

Newsstand is Apple’s answer for shedding some extra light on the news and magazine applications that were clogging up the App Store. Instead of heading to the iTunes App Store, you can now access Newsstand, and its store, from within its own app. The application acts like a folder, but instead of looking like the traditional iOS folder, the Newsstand folder looks like a bookshelf with all of your magazines and newspapers neatly displayed on a shelf.

The application may look like iBooks, but the similarities begin and end with the shelf user interface. None of the functionality of the iBooks app has made its way to Newsstand. Instead, it’s a new group, with its own app store.

It’s a welcome move, but it’s not exactly something someone couldn’t do on their own with a group before iOS 5. The major perk here is getting the magazines and newspapers out of the App Store entirely, and instead into the Newsstand store.

Cards

Unlike Newsstand, Cards is only available on the iPhone, and iPod touch. Well, to be honest, you can use it on your iPad, but it’s not a universal application.

Cards was announced at the last Apple keynote is Apple’s attempt to make printed cards relevant again in a digital world. The customizable card app is also available on the App Store currently, but again, it’s not optimized for the iPad.

You can get it for free by using the download link below.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.