So using the iPad to read the morning papers was one of the main arguments for buying the machine in the first place. What are the first impressions? Well it is clear that if the Times wants people to pay for their on line content they must do a whole lot better.
As I mentioned yesterday I bought the iPad app for the Times and was less than impressed. Today is no better. The first thing you have to do is down load the paper, I am assuming this is so you can read it on the go if you are out of a WiFi/3G area. Fair enough only this means that it is a static item which, given the speed of the internet news development, becomes a daily comment magazine rather than a serious internet players. Ok I can live with that as I have found myself just reading the leaders and opinions section anyway.
However, you then get the biggest fault of all – it is not properly designed to work with the iPad. If you read the paper in portrait everything is fine, the layout is wonderful and you get to see everything as the designers intended. However, this is an iPad and can be swung around from portrait to landscape very easily – it is just a shame that the app doesn’t seem to understand this. When you view it in landscape the page doesn’t layout at all well – it cuts off the bottom half of the page and I have yet to find a way to access this. In short it starts to become very cumbersome.
Talking of cumbersome, the app some times just doesn’t work, either it doesn’t download or when it does it just freezes. I haven’t recreated the fault I found yesterday when it would only let me access the 3rd of June but it is early and so this might reappear during the day – let’s hope not.
I have just written a review for the app on iTunes along these lines. Whilst I was doing this it struck me that what this is is a PDF – hence you have to download it and it doesn’t update. If this is the case then it is a PDF put together by people who do not understand the internet, let alone the iPad. It is very very disappointing and you can only hope they will do so much better.
Now for some good news. The Guardian seem to have produced a series of wonderful apps for the iPad/iPhone worlds. They just seem to work and so if you are looking for an app(s) for your iPad/iPhone you would do worse than downloading these.
Beyond this I am starting to get used to the iPad and what it can deliver. The more you use it the more you realise just what you could do with this machine. It is a very interesting concept which will get better over time.
Simon Marchini LRPS
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