PREVIEWS Publications for Pc

Having the massive monthly the app catalogue available in a digital format is a dream come true. Unfortunately, this app is my worst nightmare. A number of the other reviews do a great job in listing all that is missing from this app, by my main caveats are: 1. The catalogue takes forever to download, literally like hours, and it is not due to a slow internet connection on the user end, 2. You can only view the catalogue in landscape view on an iPad, which is rather ridiculous, 3. The app continuously asks you to update to the latest version after you have already updated, and 4. The downloaded catalogue often vanishes, forcing you to download it again (more hours wasted). It’s a shame that Diamond has contracted with this company to host this product, as obviously the company has no interest in improving their product. In fact, this app is so horrible that it should have never even have made it to the App Store.

My favorite time of month is when the the app catalogs come out, so I was really hoping this app would be a much needed upgrade to the old 2inch thick print catalog. But alas, it is missing some very basic features that I am very surprised aren’t present. The biggest is it doesn’t seem to ever download on my iPad. There’s a little download button, you press it, it goes away. But then the catalog never downloads, never appears in your library, gives no indication that it is processing, nothing. On the iPhone it seems to download, but if you set your phone down to let it, it will turn off and stop downloading. Plus I don’t want to look at it on my tiny iPhone. The second biggest feature to be missing is that it does not remember your place. The catalog is very large, never have I gone through it in one sitting. So unless you keep the app open and active every time you open you have to go back to the beginning of the catalog. Bookmarks. Often when I look at the print version I have some sticky notes with me to mark the things I’m interested in and want to go back and check. Nothing like that here. Lastly, this isn’t a missing feature, but why the heck does it ask me for my Apple ID every time I open the app. That is really annoying. You should only ask for that if I buy something.

This would bean awesome app if it worked right. In this case, right would include navigation that made sense, and not waiting 5-10 seconds (yes, I timed it) to turn a page. One would think that receiving no 4 or 5 star ratings would be incentive to improve. But when you’re the only game in town, why bother?

I love browsing through the the app catalog every month, but this version doesn’t allow you to download for offline reading and doesn’t remember where you left off. If they add these features I’ll subscribe, until then: pass.