The Rīga daily newspaper Diena now offers an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch application that lets readers around the world view full copies of the newspaper, says Inese Dābola, the publisher’s marketing and public relations director.

While the application is available for free through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store or App Store, downloading the paper will cost readers. (Diena offers three free downloads so users can explore the application.)

The application allows readers to view Diena, the weekend magazine SestDiena, and the Izklaide entertainment supplement. Cost of a single copy of Diena is EUR 0.79, while a monthly subscription that includes all three publications is EUR 8.99.

The newspaper is the first in Latvia to provide an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch version, Dābola noted in a May 24 press release.

The application does not provide current headlines or breaking news. For that, readers will need to refer the Diena’s website, www.diena.lv, or follow the newspaper’s Twitter timeline, twitter.com/DienaLv.

Like many other news applications, the Diena software allows readers to share stories by email, Twitter and Facebook. It also allows readers to print text-only or graphical versions of stories.

One criticism: Clicking on a headline opens a text version of a story, but the text is justified (squared off against both left and right margins). That leads to unneeded white space between words, which results in lower readability, especially on the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The Diena application requires use of an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.2 or higher.