Washington Examiner Digital

Why does the app version for IPad require one to go back to the homepage after viewing an article? You can’t even look at all the news articles or opinion pieces without going back to the main page. Can’t Washington Examiner afford a back button?

Proving once again that competent tech geeks work for Google, not conservative publishers operating on a shoe string, the people behind the Weekly Standard app have provided the worst possible smart phone interface for their magazine. To call the app buggy, glitchy or finicky would imply that it sometimes works. As of this writing, my iOS subscription gives me access to the April 2 issue, which is at least 6 issues behind. Trying to update my subscription produces this message: “Your subscription to the Oklahoman is current and will renew on December 31, 1969.” I am not making this up. A call to subscription services resulted in a nice lady reading to me over the phone a mile-long URL link for a 90-day digital subscription. As you may have guessed, the requested URL was not found. So no app, no access, no help, and I paid something like $60 for the annual subscription. This makes Trump University look like a bargain.

The content of this publication is first rate. The app is so badly executed it should be executed. Issues failed to load. Then they fixed that problem but now when you try to read articles they don’t scroll properly. Bugs and crashes are so common with this app you could use it as a training tool for how not to make an app. I really hate writing this review because I’ve been a subscriber since this magazine started many years ago. Such a terrible shame that no one at the publisher cares about the quality of the app. I’m running a 2016 model of the iPad Pro 9.6 with all the latest updates. So it should run properly if they were keeping up to date on Apple’s developer standards. Since the app has been broken for months and through a full update earlier this month, they clearly just don’t have the competence to manage an app. For your own sanity, stick to the print version of this fine magazine.