iPad app - not a great experience
Sun, Sep 9 2012, 9:22PM
I've just tried Gramophine's iPad app. It seems each page takes several seconds to render, they're not cached, and so it makes the whole thing annoying and pointless. BBC Music Mag doesn't have this problem, plus you can easily zoom in in a true iPad-styled. so I won't be paying Gramophone any money for this.
Mon, Sep 10 2012, 10:05AM
#2
RE: iPad app - not a great experience
Martin
I wonder whether the time may have come to offer subscribers to your print edition free or cheap access to the iPad version? Many other publications do this, and, after all, we are paying for the stuff once!
Paul
Mon, Sep 10 2012, 10:53AM
#3
RE: iPad app - not a great experience
Hello,
The way the magazine and digital editions will be priced is to change in coming months (along with some extra elements) - sorry I can't be clearer at this stage, but do watch this space...
Martin
Mon, Sep 10 2012, 10:31PM
#4
RE: iPad app - not a great experience
My breath is duly being held...
Wed, Sep 12 2012, 8:59AM
#5
RE: iPad app - not a great experience
I agree that the iPad app is disappointing. I have a subscription, each month the magazine downloads well, but the experience of flipping through pages is very slow. I have the iPad3 with lots of memory to spare, so the hardware shouldn't be the problem. Other newspapers and magazines don't have this problem. So I would appreciate if Gramophone could improve the app.
I also agree with the comment on subscriptions - I had asked the same question a year ago to someone at Gramophone on the phone who promised to get back to me but never did, and neither did I get a response when emailing that question. I'll be interested to see what will happen soon then, although now it's too late for me, I stopped my paper edition subscription in favour of the iPad edition.
Thank you for your message, and I'm sorry you've not found the experience a smooth one. To address your queries, if you take out a subscription to the digital edition your device should download/synch with the issue, which means pages should appear immediately when moving through them. As for zooming in, the normal Apple zoom technique should work. You'll also notice that all disc covers now link straight through to iTunes so that you can sample the music you are reading about, while a number of other references link through to features on our website, including the Gramophone Player.
I hope this helps, but if you continue to have problems, please do get in touch again and we will investigate further.
Best wishes
Martin
Editor, Gramophone