The New Yorker's Free Apps: Goings On and Festival. Cartoons come with it too

What I love about iPhones (and that's NOT an endorsement) is that each day there is a new cool  App for it - to satisfy any tastebud - from silly, entertaining ones to very helpful ones, like navigation, travel guides, traffic or personal organizer Apps. Moreover, now any company, organization and/or individual can create an application - and that's what they do and that's what makes me very envious of such enterprenural technical skills to do so.

Courtesy of The New Yorker

I especially like the media Apps, especially when it concerns a publication/site I read/follow. And this is exactly the case with The New Yorker magazine. It now offers - not one - but two FREE Apps:

The New Yorker's Goings On: The New Yorker and The New Yorker's Festival - an App for one of the most popular beloved by all NYC festivals.And now you can find out about of the events on and around the festival dates right from your iPhone, which is particularly helpful when you are on a road and have no access to the festival's website.

These two Apps, unlike its iPad versions - are free: they're built using the magazine’s intellectual DNA. And instead of the $60 a year the magazine charges for its primary app, this one is 100 percent free.

The “Goings On” app is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: The magazine’s weekly listings of New York art exhibits, concerts, etc., tethered to an interactive map.

There are a few extra goodies, too, like audio recordings from New Yorker authors that will work as walking tours: Food writer Calvin Trillin will lead listeners through his favorite eateries and stores, and architecture critic Paul Goldberger navigates the city’s amazing elevated High Line park. And you also get the cartoons!

According to All Things Digital / Wall Street Journal (follow on Twitter @allthingsd) Goings On app isn’t a straightforward replica of one  the magazine. Instead, the app leverages the New Yorker’s brand and its intellectual property to create a new standalone product.

And the free platform of it is sponsored by the MasterCard  add that will be the app’s sole sponsor,via a package deal that also gets the brand into the print magazine. But at this point we shouldn't really care about constantly seeing a MasterCard ad - because we get the free cool magazine we love for free.

A regular participant - Woody Allen

Click on the image to follow Festival's Twitter

I've downloaded it the other day and have been playing with it. The App is very easy to use, and it's as appealing on an eye as the things they write about.

By the way, tickets for the 2011 New Yorker Festival go on sale September 9, 2011. For the latest in New Yorker Festival updates, sign up for the Festival Wire.

And remember, it doesn't mean that you need to now stop subscribing to a good old copy of The New Yorker, I still like to hold a hard-copy of mine before the bedtime.