Popular Science Reviews

by Encino Man

Like I said for my review of the Time Magazine App I wanted to like it, but while I found the Popular Science Magazine App to be marginally better than the Time Magazine App I still could not give it more than 1 star. The only feature that really separates it from the Time Magazine App is that it comes back to where you left off when you restart PopularScience . The "Dog Ear" feature is awkward to set and impossible to undo. The navigation and UI are just ok and there does not appear to be any way to change text size. PopularScience takes over the entire screen so you loose the iPad status bar at the top, which means you have no idea of your WiFi or Battery status. For an App where the issue you are reading was downloaded prior to your reading it, it can be very slow when going to the next page. And that ridiculous price of $4.99 an issue with advertisements, what were they thinking! I would rather purchase the printed copy and access their website. The sad thing is I wouldn't read PS with PopularScience if they gave it to me for free. Where is a good focus group when you need it!

by Cheeseandglory

I bought a subscription yesterday, and it isn’t letting me access the most recent issue. I’d like my money back. I should have looked through the recent reviews before subscribing.

by Shardison

Wanted to go on a camping trip and read a few back issues downloaded to my iPad. Turns out, if you’re off-line, PopularScience can’t call home to the mothership to authorize the content on your own iPad. Fail.

by Grumpy Sweeper

Will not renew can’t read it off line and once you leave PopularScience have to reload it again.

by Rob Loves22

Terrible app from a terrible company that censors all comments on its website. If they don't want the hear from readers online why would I buy the digital copy of their mag or any other copy for that matter--they don't care what apI as a reader think. And what is worse, unbridled propaganda and stupidity on the part of unethical propagansist that masquarade as journalists, or a few Internet trolls? Obviously it's not a few "Internet trolls." And really who is an Internet troll? Mostly they are people that vehemently disagree with the status quo. Before the 1960's that would have been black Americans that disagreed with Jim Crow, in 1917 it would have been women that thought they should be able to vote, to this day it's native Americans who think their country was stolen from them, in the 1950's it would have been those that didn't go along with the red scare, and in the 60's those that didn't support Vietnam. It is BEYOND INSULTING THAT THOSE THAT BUCK THE STATUS QUO ARE BEING CALLED TROLLS. THE REAL TROLLS ARE THE THE PROPAGANDIST AND THE MONSTERS THAT CON-TROLL OUR MEDIA TODAY THAT WANT TO SILENCE ALL DISSENT. WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS.

by Donresto

What a great way to get a magazine, I first thought, no trash to throw out or recycle, and Popular Science tries to spiff the digital issues up with videos and animations, which I must admit are clever, but often do nothing to enhance the story. The first glitch I noticed was that the videos often lost their sound. The touch interface often does not do what I thought I was asking it to do, I really think it is a case of too many options, (vertical,horizontal, touch, double touch) a swipe that is just a little off is read as sideways rather than up and down. The final insult was the common one in all of the bad reviews: when a new issue appeared on the news stand app icon, I would go to my library only to find that not only was the new issue not there, all my past issues were gone! The last two months I was able two restore the issues using the "missing issues?" button, but this month - NOTHING! I tried to access my account, but it told me that none of my passwords would work. There should be a way to contact popsci easily through PopularScience to tell them about the problems, but I look through PopularScience in vain, maybe you can do it through the inaccessible "my account" ......A good idea, but poorly done..

by John56318

Bought an issue to try out. Spend $4.99 on an issue. after purchasing I kept getting “ error opening”. Disappointed and won’t return

by SRC2016

I did a year subscription for this and you should not make the same mistake as I do here. First off this is one of the worst mag apps for showing magazines in PopularScience store. Almost every other page is a ad. So 40 pages 23 ads. This is a paid app so inserting a few ads might be okay but every other page is just ripping off people here. Like I said I paid for a year of this junk and when you go to your account in the iPad app store and select this Subscription, you can "NOT" Turn off the AUTO RENEW for a year. Every other one I have purchased you can turn off the AUTO RENEW but on this one you can't. I have submitted a ticket to Apple on this and an still waiting for a reason why you can not turn off this AUTO RENEW on PopularScience. I sure do not want to paid for an additional year of this AD magazine.

I really hate being this blunt on anyone's apps but really I feel others should know just how bad this really is because it is not cheap. Just pass and find something else as there are wonderful options on PopularScience store that will not plaster so many ad's in your face.

by Mortarman81mm

I'm very disappointed by PopularScience. I expected content comparable to the print version of the magazine and that's just not the case.

Although PopularScience itself presents absolutely beautiful images, navigation is random and unintuitive, and app is extremely light on content. One interface device they've employed that's actually kind of nice is the ability to hide text so you can view the imagery without clutter, but it doesn't make up for the other UI issues. Articles are shallow, and there just isn't much "there" there. If all I wanted were pretty pictures of science and technology topics with pithy commentary I would stick with USA Today, or some similar mass media outlet. Additionally, rather than downloading the current issue to your Mac for synchronization, it downloads the current issue upon launch, which is extremely poor implementation, IMHO; I don't want to have to wait 90+ seconds to read the magazine after launching.

PopularScience would be worth it at perhaps $0.99, but definitely not for $4.99. I would suggest the editors at PopSci go take a look at Wired, which hasn't skimped on content at all and is a better model (though still needs improvement) of how to deliver content in the iPad era.

by Judge J

The interface is bright and fun, until you jump in and try to read the articles. With all the swiping and finger gestures required to read a single article, you would think this was Need for Speed video game!

I give them credit for trying to get PopularScience out early, but it needs a LOT of simplification (look at how clean the USA today app is). It's as if the first year web designers locked the old print media guys in the closet during the whole design of PopularScience. I'm all for exploiting the potential of the iPad, but isn't the point to have the interface 'fade away' so you can just focus on the content? Instead, the snazzy interface just seems to get in the way.

Better luck next time. P.S. If they think we're all going to pay more per edition than the comparable cost of the print subscription, I think that's a recipe for failure. We all know they are saving boatloads of money by not having to print physical magazines and ship them. Pass on those savings, or I'll just subscribe to other magazines that do.

by Jal100

The popular science app is very slick, but marks a departure from the established image of popular science as a somewhat crowded and clearly non-slick magazine. The new app is at times hard to use, but in the end is interesting and enjoyable. However, on balance, it should take advantage of the ability to display many images as opposed to the few that are present in the iPad version. The text floats over the images and can become disconnected from the images so you are not sure what the text refers to.
Also, I am not tempted to buy future versions unless the price is around $1 - $2 ! Lastly, PopularScience does not have a personality, but appears to be a collection of stylish programing tricks to float text and images. The authors should not forget that they are communicating information not just an experience.
After having said all of that I congratulate the magazine for attempting to go where no one else has gone - keep it up.

by PatHMV

I can deal with the large size of the files, but a number of problems make the size of the files particularly problematic. First, I can't tell it to automatically download my newest issue automatically at some point when I'm not actively using the iPad. Second, today I spent 10 minutes or so downloading an issue, really wanting to read that issue over lunch. After it downloaded, I tried to open it, only to be told that I needed the latest update to PopSci+ to read it. So I downloaded the update, which took only a minute or so. But then, I discovered that I had to download that issue AGAIN, from scratch! Ridiculous.

Also, developers, please add the ability to tell it to STOP a download. I accidentally clicked to download an issue that I didn't want to read, but then there was no way to stop it. At least the latest version allows me to simultaneously download a different issue, but that dual download undoubtedly slowed both downloads down considerably. If I click on the meter showing the download progress, that should give me the option to stop that download for now.

by Orion7019

I have to say reading the mag in this format is fun, and feels kinda techie. The layout, art and text, feels like a magazine. The way you scroll through the stories and pages feels natural. Scroll up/down through a story like you would a web page or PDF file. Flick left/right for the next/previous article.

Only complaint on the interface was it didn't track left/right swipe very well. You have to swipe pretty straight, or it thinks you are trying to scroll up/down. The cost is a little over the top considering printed costs as little as $10/yr or $0.83/issue. $1 or $2 per issue wouldn't be unreasonable. April issue is only $2.99, instead of $4.99.

I think it would be better to just have an info button or just one page to summarize how to navigate the mag. People are already familiar with scrolling and swiping. No need to beat them over the head with it.

by Itai

Popular Science is one of my most favorite magazines, and probably one of the best out there. It has great articles, and the iPad design is really cool (once you get used). The pictures look stunning on the retina display. The one issue I, as well as many other people are having is the ads. For every article page there is AT LEAST one add page and sometimes even more. That is absolutely ridiculous. Even more annoying is the fact the that every page is so immersive you some times don't realize you are looking at an add! I can imagine this is done in order to keep costs down (and it does, a one year subscription for $14 is a very low price) but honestly I would pay double that to eliminate the annoying adds. What should at least be done is all add pages should be clearly marked as adds to eliminate confusion.

by Bart Szyszka

I really enjoyed reading this issue of Popular Science and all the large photography used in the iPad edition. My biggest problem with it is that things aren's linked. There are places where you see a "coming up" list of articles but tapping them doesn't jump to that article. Ads also have addresses to websites that I can't tap to view in my browser. It's strange to be using such a modern device as the iPad without something as basic as links.

It's also annoying that I can't select text to be able to copy things and search for more information in my browser. I wonder if this entire magazine issue isn't just giant images to make stuff like that impossible. I hope not. It's 2010 and this isn't print!

I would consider the lack of hyperlinking a big enough issue to give the magazine 3 stars, but I enjoyed it so much as a first-pass at an iPad edition that I gave it 4.

by JacksonWrath

I love PopularScience , and the way the magazine is designed. And naturally the magazine as well, I bought a years subscription. =)

However, I liked the old interface better. When I'm reading I'm lazy and relaxed, and honestly double tapping is more effort than I'd like (I know right? Never thought that'd actually be a complaint). I also preferred the old style of "where you are in the issue," where it displayed the little bars for each article that varied in length on each side of the screen. The new bar is uniform and doesn't give you an idea of how the magazine's content is organized. You guys left in the "drag up from the bottom" control without saying so, so why not give the option for other legacy controls and features as well?

In addition, the "contents" section of the home screen doesn't convey what each article contains well. A specially designed thumbnail for each article is needed.

Lastly, the home and bookmark buttons are not necessary (for me anyway) and only serve to clutter the screen since there are other ways to access those functions just as easily.

An option to enable these old features and fixes to the thumbnails and corner buttons (or an option to disable them) would make PopularScience worth five stars again!

by Jhcovert

I enjoy reading PopSci through PopularScience as I feel it takes advantage of the rich media possibilities without the authors and editors having to reinvent the wheel. Of note, there is a lot of downloading and updating that seems to be happening, though to be fair I'm not sure if it's a design flaw or the engineers tweaking the program, in either case I'd like my required participation in this end of things to be a little more hands off. I just want to pick up my tablet and read the articles - I don't want to have to update, archive or download when the mood strikes. Issues should just download when they become available unless that functionality is disabled in PopularScience 's settings. With all of that said, I intend to stick around while they get this thing worked out - in the end, content is everything and the convenience of not having paper magazines lying around is substantial.

by Christofurious7

I downloaded the December 2011 issue and have only made it halfway through. The first thing that sticks out is how awful the interface is. Article after article is presented in an inch, maybe inch and a half, wide column that just scrolls and scrolls. I'm using landscape orientation which gives me 7 1/2 inches width. It's like the layout designer really wanted to make sure you touched your touch screen, because that feels like all I was doing! For a single article, I'd have to swipe up like 6 or 7 times while the same picture stays stagnant in the background, completely wasting my screen real estate. Even on the "single" pages, they tried to be fancy with a slight scroll up/down to add reflections or just move the page title up a bit. This just added confusion to an already confusing layout.

The content that I was able to read was nice though.

by R.Middlebrook

While I understand the issue of pricing, the application itself is amazing. You can really tell how long and hard the design team spent rethinking what a online magazine could be. I have purchased every online magazine available for the iPad and there are simply no others that come close. I have stopped reading magazines all together due to the bulk, wasted paper, and the inability to keep up on what issues I had read. Now, it's as easy as a keystroke. When friends and family ask me what makes me love the iPad, I simply show them the future of print technology contained in Popular Science and USA Today. This is simply the future. Anyone not on board will feel like they are still selling or using floppy disks. This makes virtually every other media print resource obsolete. Couldn't be more excited about how we obtain and digest our information.

by Jason143221

I just wanted to chime in and give a 5 star review to offset somewhat all the 1 star reviews based on price alone. I almost passed on even considering PopularScience because of the relatively low user rating. Thankfully I read through the reviews, and saw while most agree it's a bit expensive, the actually app is great. I installed and downloaded the last 2 issues. I gotta say after the initial getting use to the interface, I really love this format. When I show off the iPad, this is one of the apps I use. And after reading through the first issue, I'm hooked.

So yes, while each issue is expensive for now, I'm hopeful the price will come down in time as more people start buying. I hope they can make this work, because I really love the format and it presents the content beautifully! For now I'll just wait until the previous month drops in price, and cross my fingers they come out with some lower cost yearly subscription.

One suggestion though, make any URL's listed active. You can't click on the link, and there's no way to copy and past it either.

by Give Me Honest Apps!

My very first iPad magazine purchase and my June issue displays alternating black and white pages. No text, just entirely black or white pages. (I rebooted PopularScience . I rebooted the iPad. I re-downloaded PopularScience .) The new July issue seems ok but there is no feedback when you touch it to begin, so you touch it again, then again, then it starts up.

And I know, call me naive, but I was actually surprised to see full page ads in a magazine subscription I paid for. Of course, they do that in the printed version and of course they'll say it keeps the subscription price low but, still, I imagined the digital version would be all Popular Science and a feature of the next generation magazines.

Anyway, I'm going to download the July version again if archiving it will let me do that. Oh, that reminds me, PopularScience really should turn off auto-sleep while an issue downloads and then turn it back on when it finishes. These suckers are big and I had to monitor and touch the screen every minute so it wouldn't go to sleep and stop downloading. (And no I'm not going to change the auto-sleep timeout value just to download a magazine.) Just a thought.

Oh, one more idea. I'm wondering if the digital version could take out embedded video and access it when needed via the net. Yes, it might not be available if you are away from a connection but maybe PopularScience could provide a choice for those of us with slower connections.

by Tristan Clements

Ok for one if you get an iPad why would you get the small 16GB version when their is a 32GB out their for only 100$. More if all you are going to do is complain about a great magazine that obviously takes up a lot of space because if you think about it all you are reading is a popular science magazine that is in the format of a PDF and on top of that is HD. I mean I have the first iPad 32GB and I have 6 seasons of family guy on it all HD and I still have 12 GB left over and 6GB of magazines is not on my worries I mean it is only 6GB.I mean popular science has done a great job on their magazines and if you are just going to complain just don't buy them.