Its image might be thought to be venerable, but the Henry Ford Museum is a vibrant institution, and, in news this week, is looking decidedly 21st Century. The museum has made its magazine available as an iPad app, as well as an Android tablet app and in electronic magazine format for the PC and Mac.

The first magazine on offer is the 2012/2013 Henry Ford Museum magazine - containing all things museum, Ford, and more. It is the app and online version of the 106-page hard copy magazine, but because of the electronic format(s), there is additional content available, such as "access to special collections through historic photos and videos, exclusive interviews", plus visitor tips should you be planning a trip to the museum.

If you are downloading the app to your iPad or Android tablet, be warned, as it will be in excess of a 200 megabyte download. The app itself is quite light, however it's all the content of the magazine itself that carries the download weight.

It should also be noted the the app has been designed for tablets, not smartphones. The app makers advise that the app cannot be downloaded over the via 3G.

As for the computer version, at the time I tried to view the magazine it was buggy and unviewable using the Chrome and Firefox browsers, but worked fine on Safari. Hopefully that will be attended to shortly, or it was merely a localized problem for my connection. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

Articles in the initial issues include:

• A Moving Experience - Henry Ford Museum's 'Driving America' exhibit tells the fascinating story of people, cars and our culture
• Three's Company - why Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Apple's Steve Jobs play in the same innovation space
• Better by Design - today's innovators keep an eye on the past as they look ahead