The Times and The Sunday Times

This seems like an update for updates sake. A few minor tweaks to the app offer little improvement but two specific tweaks are completely counter intuitive. 1. The edition selector at the bottom of the page now runs the opposite way with older versions being to the right instead of the left. 2. The new method of completing the sudoku puzzle is a complete nightmare and far inferior to the previous way the puzzle worked. I have tried getting used to it but generally find I have made a tactile error somewhere and loose interest. Additionally it now requires me to log in again every time I use the app which is very tedious. Having seen the reviews I left upgrading to this version until the bitter end and was forced into it when the previous version ( which I was entirely happy with) closed down. Even worse, downloaded todays edition and was working OK, went to open it again when data connection patchy and it went into an update loop. Connection not good enough to update BUT could not get out of that screen and return to menu to read previously downloaded stuff to read off line. So completely useless until I got a data connection a few hours later! This morning I completely downloaded todays edition. Some 5 hours later with my iPad in Aeroplane mode I open the app and it wants me to log in before it will work! It’s all bar useless without connectivity. I’d take that one star away if I could.

I have been using the latest version of The Times / Sunday Times App for a couple of weeks and I would go as far as to say it is unusable. What user testing has it actually been through? Has anyone even tried to read the newspaper on it?? It is impossible to track which sections you have read - I read the Sunday Times sections across the week, if I get partway through a section, and go back to it later, it starts back at the beginning. And now all of the sections run into each other rather than being separate entities. There is no way of telling which sections I’ve actually read, I have to try and remember. Downloading takes ages and you have to download the whole thing, whereas in the past I have downloaded just the sections I want to read. And there is repeat content chucked in each day (say, into Times2) which has already appeared elsewhere. The app jumps around when you move to different sections, and when you are reading / scrolling it jumps and zooms in constantly. I am always having to zoom back out again. We are at the point of cancelling our subscription, which we have had for many years, as the app is just not usable any longer. This is so disappointing. If the developers wanted to make such huge changes, they should have made it an option for people to use the new app that way with people also having an option to read their newspaper as they always have.

I have subscribed to The Times app since 2011 when I first saw an iPad demonstrated with the app. I was working in the Newsprint industry at the time and a Times paper edition subscriber. I thought it was a game changer...and a further problem for my industry! Over the years I have had some problems with the app, however for the last 2 years none whatsoever. It is really slick now, downloads easily, looks great on my v1 iPad Pro and I would not want to be without it. I have just 2 niggles: 1. The Culture magazine on a Sunday does not show the performance adverts, music gigs etc, though this is overcome by receiving the paper edition on my plan. I would prefer to see these on the tablet also. 2. Videos can only be read while connected to the internet. I get that they are storage heavy for some people, however it is really annoying not to be able to view them when I am not connected at times. Brilliant app, great journalism, wouldn’t want to be without it!