NewsTap Lite (Usenet Reader) Reviews

Don't expect to keep up with large groups or binaries, but it works fine for casual use.

Please fix

Makes it hard to set up servers and connections. Not user-friendly, cannot recommend.

I think this software is great and the bugs with connecting to news servers have been fixed in this new version and it works fairly stable. It is a little difficult to use for instance if you want to go to the next and previous posts you have to slide your finger across the screen as opposed to pressing a single button to go forward and back. That's only a minor setback though. Also there should be an option to delete read posts without having to reconnect to your newsserver in order to process it. It would also be nice if it supported SSL and multiple connections to speed up header downloads. Other than those minor things it has everything I was looking for.

OK, so I enter a newsserver in settings and NewsTapLiteUsenetReader launches and since it's the first time it downloads all groups, right. Well not quite. Instead I go to a screen called Connect with a bunch if settings and a download button. Pressing this starts downloading the groups... MODALY!! Other tabs on the tab control are DISABLED!! But wait, it's a tab control? Huh?

Well maybe initial setup is a bit odd... let's add a group to My Groups and dive into some articles. Adding makes sense, a plus button in the NavBar takes you to a list of all groups, tap one, and there it is in the My Groups list.

OK so now I tap it and it takes me to the articles, right? Wrong. It takes you to an empty list. Hmmmm. What to do?No Refresh button in the NavBar. Maybe that odd Connect tab will help? Ah. That's it. Back to Connect, hit button... articles start to download... and WE ARE LOCKED OUT OF THE OTHER TABS AGAIN!!!

Hey developer! Downloading content like the articles in a newsgroup is an action in the context of the current view (of the newsgroup), NOT a navigation to another tab and definitely not a modal operation!!!! Read the UI guidelines, they are extensive and very well written.

First of all, the setup and operation (which requires a strange manual send and receive step) reminds me of trumpet winsock or something.

But is it just me or is the thread list not able to be sorted by date? I guess if I was looking for pr0n or warez it'd be useful to sort alphabetically but I can't really use it this way. I don't see an option to sort by date.

Well other than that the idea of a nntp client on the iPhone is really useful. Hopefully I'm just overlooking something obvious.

I tried every one I could find and this is best by far. If I hadn't tried so many, I might have only given 3 or 4 stars. Apparently, it is hard to make one works worth a $h1t. This one is rock solid. Or at least it was until I upgraded to iOS 9. Please fix it!

I needed a way to read one newsgroup on one server so this lite v. works well for me.
The Help info and Set-Up info is very easy to understand and I had it running in no time.

Thanks for NewsTapLiteUsenetReader . Works great but sometimes has trouble reconnecting to the free newsgroup server I'm using. Not sure if that is NewsTapLiteUsenetReader or the server (probably the server or both).
I'm considering the full version but I'm not sure.

And yes, the subject line is misleading. NewsTapLiteUsenetReader does work, it's just missing the one function USENET readers live by - sorting by date. Alpha sorting is pretty but really useless in the greater context of USENET. Newsgroups (and, if you really take the time to notice, blog comments) are primarily sorted by date, then by thread. NewsTapLiteUsenetReader does download content - that's great. But /finding/ that content in a relevant manner is frustatingly difficult.

Ah well...

Setup and connection was not difficult. However, a group sorted alphabetically is useless to those who use newsgroups as they were intended - for reading and posting discussions.

We need a sort by date!

My initial impression is "eh". Very clunky. It works, but a long road before success. Then again, the price is exactly right.

I guess if it won't connect to Individual after 20 minutes it's not going to connect. I guess that's one feature I'd like added. The ability to actually get to a server.

Wow.. Great app. Nice to be able to take usenet on the run. Very user-friendly as well.

The best free newsgroup app available on App Store. Setup can be a bit complicated, but the additional options are welcome.

Please add yenc support so I can view pictures!!

Setup seemed simple, but it never would work w/ my Giganews account. Poor sorting, filtering, & no documentation made this hard to use & understand. Needs to be more like a std newsreader.

After upgrading to the new version, NewsTapLiteUsenetReader doesn't show any messages in the group I'm reading. Tried everything. No errors in the log. It's just broken.

Skips all Binary data so what's the point. Unless all you wish to read are text messages it is useless. Skips all pictures (binary data).

Don't need to read the body if the header isn't interesing.