New Scientist International

The standard of writing has improved with fewer basic scientific howlers. Minor irritations are 1) the iPad app irritatingly shoots up to the beginning of an article should one have the timerity to rest a digit on the screen This is especially irritating on long articles as swipong up to get back to the point which one was reading frequently results in jumping to the start of the previous or next article if the swipe is insuffiviently vertical. 2) the gaps in the text which sometimes change in size and sometimes want me to join the Wellcome institutes. Recently there is more variation but they appear with tedious high frequency. Perhaps you could produce an add-free edition? 3) the irritating mini ads which appear at the base of the screen after the text is moved once.

It's taken a while, but now it pretty much replaces my print edition, which sits unopened...but it could be a lot better as an app: A) why does it feel it needs to barge in to whatever I'm reading, close the edition and bring up the new edition without asking...sometimes I've spent ages finding an article or not quite finished reading something and the new edition closes it without asking and plonks me on the front page....now I have to remember what the heck I was reading and go hunting for it again. I'm smart enough to realise it is Friday and there is a new edition there if I want it...ill go and get it when I'm good and ready thank you! B) I like doing catching up when on holiday and it would be good if there was a way to read on a kindle which is more sunlight / sitting outside friendly...this might be possible, but not found a way to do it yet...and I don't want to sit under a towel squinting at an iPad. Fix these things and it would be great...

Every three months or so, this app malfunctions and I have to go down the rabbit hole of “customer care” from the New Scientist. The app tells me to resubscribe while showing that my subscription is active; I get notifications when there is nothing to be notified about, and it deletes my downloaded issues due to a “lack of space” when I have used less than 10% of the space on my iPad. I get the same problem on the iPhone, where I’ve used less than 20% of the available space. Uninstalling and reinstalling haven’t helped. Customer care is not up to scratch, and it takes several weeks to resolve a query. (The first one took about a month.) I send loads of screenshots to demonstrate the issues but they don’t seem to read the emails properly - the last time their response was only tangentially related. They did respond when I rated their service poorly, but didn’t follow up. Something as simple as “problem should be solved now; please check” would go a long way. I got the dreaded trio of problems again this morning. Since I can’t face weeks of struggling with customer care again, I’m giving up on the app. (Back to using the website again, despite its annoying inability to “remember me” and requesting a login every single time.) Why the serious brainpower at New Scientist can’t figure out how to provide access to their subscribers in a user-friendly way is beyond me.