WRP Digital Editions

This app looks and behaves like it was written by somebody trying to teach themselves how to write a mobile app without any guidance on proper mobile app development whatsoever. A simple sort of magazine issue by date doesn’t work leaving you hunting for the magazine you just downloaded. Filtering by magazine type uses check boxes on the opposite side of the screen from the magazine type. Unless you draw a line with your finger or count rows you’ll struggle on selecting the right box. The magazine thumbnails are vertically squashed out of proportion. Old issues are no longer available after a certain date. Anemic help information. No payment history or payments through the app. As a result, magazine issues can’t be read after making payment. Takes a couple of days for that to resolve. Just a weird, clunky, poorly “designed” (I use that term loosely) really, really bad product. Please dump this abomination and hire a pro or go back the old reader that Model Railroader also uses. But don’t take my word for it. Look at all the other 1 star reviews!

The PDFs of RMC are pixelated, show up about 1/4 screen size on my iPad, and are very low quality. When I zoom in to full screen, I can barely read the text. Searching for an issue is completely broken. The interface displays the issues in chronological order so I have to scroll through every single one to get to the most recent, then scroll back through all of them to view the most recent once I downloaded it. I really like RMC and want to support it, but seriously this app is awful.

New version is an improvement over the previous one. The layout is now magazine format, and is apparently a pdf rendered either online (using the pdf rendering of the system browser, not in the browser) or by downloading to the device and using a local rending app - not sure which one, would be nice if I could use Sidebooks which does a very nice job with pdf magazines. On my iPad it comes up in smaller than full screen, and the trick to get and expanded view is not obvious, nir is reducing again. Several issues with some things which I passes on to customer service. Over all, getting there, but very obviously a beta version of a rewritten app.