Outside+ Magazine Reviews

by Grassroots Fundraiser

Outside magazine claims to offer full access to the Outside+ app for print subscribers, but unfortunately this isn’t true. As a print subscriber, I am unable to download or view any of the issues. I can sign in, but am prompted to subscribe or buy each time. In short, poorly designed app, and OutsideMagazine customer service (Zinio) doesn’t pay attention to the actual problems transpiring. They say to reset password and choose “Digital Subscriber” when logging in which isn’t an option. Only “Print Subscriber” is which I mentioned multiple times. No response on how to actually remedy the situation, and Outside refers me to OutsideMagazine developer Zinio for problems. If you are considering subscribing, don’t do it for OutsideMagazine access because it’s so poorly designed and serviced. I still enjoy the print copies though. Hopefully they improve OutsideMagazine or change developers.

by ETexK

I've been an Outside subscriber for years, and have continued to subscribe primarily because of the convenience of iPad access. However, that has all changed. Initially my new issues quit downloading, then, after deleting and reinstalling OutsideMagazine , my issues would download, but the reading interface had completely changed.

The pages now just display like a static scanned image rather than the former scroll down feature for each article. Why bother to use the iPad to see a miniature version of what I can more easily read in the print version?

I am so unimpressed and aggravated by this apparently arbitrary change that I cancelled the last full year of my subscription. Return to the former iPad-friendly format, and I'll rethink my subscription decision.

by Kdanas

I wish I could give OutsideMagazine 0 stars. Had the same issue others are having with accessing my issues. Zinio support was able to fix it for me with a work around, although no indication of whether they can actually solve the problem. Now that I do have access, I'm still unlikely to read any issues due to the extremely poor quality of text, images, and UX (why would I pay tons of money for state of the art Apple technology only to use it to read what looks like low quality scans of a print magazine???).
In contrast, I found the old app to be wonderful. Why Outside took something that was a great experience and turned it into garbage is beyond me. Will certainly not be resubscribing unless something changes significantly.

by B-PO

I have had this ap for over 6 months and have yet to read one issue due to the ap being generally useless. Most disappointing is that I paid for a full year subscription. Outside is a fantastic publication, but they really need to get behind this ap. I have yet to have an issue download and when it is attempting to download, I cannot access anything in my library with a warning saying "already downloading. please wait until the current download is complete." I have tried "updating" the ap multiple times with notices saying, "download cannot be completed at this time." I have excellent wifi connectivity and am able to load other publications such as NYT, WSJ and Time. The folks at outside need to get inside and re-configure this.

by Jminpa

I love Outside, I've subscribed off and on for decades, and I've had the iPad only version for almost two years. OutsideMagazine is an abortion. I've got a double listing of each issue - a top section and a bottom section - the same issues - you can't tell if you've actually downloaded the issue, or not - the listed status is not accurate. And then there's the Preview Issue teaser for every month - you've got the Feb 2014 issue and the Feb 2014 Preview issue - this duplication exists for *every* issue in your library! - effectively halving your screen real estate. How about if I've downloaded the actual, complete issue, I can delete the Preview Issue teaser? The actual magazine is fine, but the library is a f*g mess!

by Smithpj5

OutsideMagazine has been broken for the span of my two annual subscription. Either the new issues do not appear in OutsideMagazine or if they do appear, OutsideMagazine does not recognize my subscription and my only option is to purchase the issue. I have communicated with the Zinio support team on multiple occasions and while they are responsive and generally courteous, they can’t seem to fix the problem. On each occasion they have sent me a dummy sign in and password to use. OutsideMagazine is more trouble than its worth and I’m astounded it cannot be fixed over the at least two years I’ve experienced this problem. I also can’t believe anyone would deploy a product like this in this condition.

by LordOfTheFlies777

This is a whole different app. While it is pushed out as an "update," it looks completely different & a request for help with it goes to Zinio, not Outside. The content now appears just as it does in the hard copy magazine, and now includes every page, which means you now have to page through all the ads. Most annoyingly, all of this issues I had on my iPad have disappeared and restore purchases" does not work even when I sign in to my account. As far as I can tell, I have to download each issue all over again one at a time.
Maybe this is now being outsourced to save $, but it should have been tested to preserve downloads. Bad form, Outside.

UPDATE -- Zinio people are useless. They think the problem is I can't log in. NO! READ MY COMMENTS! The problem is all my previously downloaded issues are gone and I can only retrieve them one at a time. Also, app only shows last 5 years of issues, I've been a subscriber much longer. I'm not impressed. Or happy.

Sent from my iPad

by Jsr8878

This is not a reader friendly app. If you want to just be able to read your magazine go with Zinio. OutsideMagazine makes reading, which should be effortless, unnecessarily complicated by incorporating annoying vertical scrolling elements on the page. If you just buy OutsideMagazine , you can only read it through OutsideMagazine whereas print subscribers can read the magazine through OutsideMagazine , in print, and through Zinio. With OutsideMagazine , you have no account number so no additional access to anything. Plus, the print subscription is the same price so you might as well get that.

by RC#£

I just canceled my print subscription to take advantage of the digital version on the 3rd gen IPad. So far I'm disappointed with this version of Outside+. Like the other reviewer, I'm experiencing really aliased text and photos making it difficult to read on the new IPad. To contrast, the Zinio magazine app has a much more readable version that takes advantage of the Retina display. It may lack some of the interactive features of Outside+ but its also a much more comparable reading experience to the print version which can be pretty important for some. (You get the same layout even the adverts).

by Gladtoseethis

I’ve been an app subscriber for nearly 6 years.
This was the coolest through 2015,16,17. Cool Interactive content. Pics looked better on the iPad and phone than anywhere else, the way the pages turned and the easy access to content overview was amazing... maybe it was too expensive for Outside. Maybe I was the only one that loved it... I don’t know but that all really took a turn for the worse when OutsideMagazine became “simpler.” Now it reminds me of when my boss reads an awesome article and decides to enlighten the team and he scans the book and emails us PDFs. Really disappointing. I’m dropping my online subscription. I LOVE OUTSIDE! OutsideMagazine is no good.

by Chukktron

I never quite know what an outside+ subscription actually includes. I think the published could articulate that clearly in about two sentences but they never do. I just down load the new one and hope I am not paying extra for it. ( tip back issues are full price) one you actualy figure out how to download a full one ( previews are all that show up in the store part at first) it is amazing to get the same top notch mag with videos and interactive maps. Great magazine but OutsideMagazine is not quite user friendly.

by WindwardJoy

I thought that I'd try out the new "Newstand" feature with iOS5. I downloaded OutsideMagazine and then tried to purchase the Winter Buying Guide as a single issue. Despite the fact that I had previously purchased items with Outside's old app I had to reenter my password and update my address multiple times. Finally I was brought back to the "purchase" button but after clicking on it I was told that I had to buy OutsideMagazine . What? The only app to buy is the free one that I downloaded! Useless app.

by BrockLi

Just confirmed that it still doesn't recognize print subscribers.

That said, OutsideMagazine seems decent—comparable to the Wired app, with which I am quite enamored. Make sure to read the How To Use OutsideMagazine first, because they use some odd gestures and I found it frustrating to try to get back to the menu before I actually read the help and learned how to do so.

I'm going to read an issue or two on here to see if it's as smooth as I'd like. I really like reading magazines on the iPad, so I may well cancel my print subscription and switch to the digital versions here.

by Wirespeed14

I love Outside magazine, and I enjoy getting the monthly issues. There is however an issue with OutsideMagazine that is extremely annoying. I use 1Password to manage my passwords across my Mac/iPad/iPhone. It allows me to paste in a complex password for my AppleID. When I attempt to buy an Outside magazine, it clears the clipboard every time before I'm able to paste in the password. I then have to manually type my (lengthy) password into the AppleID field to approve the purchase. No other app works like this. Please fix it and I'll happily change this to 5 stars.

by Nrmattila

As a new print subscriber, I was shocked that the online magazine version was not included with the print purchase - it finally has changed! The online version of the magazine is just as great as the print, except now I can always have it at my finger tips. The pictorials are of excellent quality and the articles are fantastic as always. Thank you for a producing a great product, this magazine will be a life long subscription for me.