Astronomy Magazine Reviews

This new app, version 7, is a complete redesign from the ground up of the previous Astronomy Magazine app. Unfortunately, the result is terrible. This new app crashes all the time. It's slow. No enough zoom. Badly designed. The worst thing is, the previous version of AstronomyMagazine worked well. Why did you change it? It was a really nice app. I will wait one more month and then I cancel my subscription. I cannot read the magazine in AstronomyMagazine. It's unusable. The Sky&Telescope app for ipad is not great, but even that is better than what has been done here.

I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do after managing to log in. There’s no way to manage your subscription from AstronomyMagazine. Grrr.

Does not even load. Sky and Telescope here I come.

Once worked however now does not. You call for support and they steer you elsewhere? Ripoff

This is indeed a great magazine that I have enjoyed for nearly 20 years. But as so many others have said, AstronomyMagazine is as bad as the magazine is good. Previous versions have been a little wonky now and again but the current one is unusable. My local library will thank you for the print copies to which I will now subscribe and pass on when finished.

i love this mag... wanted to get the digital version, read the reviews and thought i would still give it a try... would not even load.

i would be embarrased if i were part of the developer team or their manager... and where is qa... do the magazine publishers even care... wow... pretty darn lame

With the new update when it try to restore Apple purchases, it just sits there spinning forever!! Wonder if I can get my money back?

Keeps asking for a password but I signed up through Apple 🍎
It’s not rocket science people. I’m so disappointed.
Can’t read my favorite mag ☹️

I renewed my subscription after a 4 year hiatus.

I never received info on how to access my digital subscription.

When I called Kalmbach publishing they told me that they no longer support the Astronomy magazine app. So why is it still in AstronomyMagazine Store.

So sad to see how horrible the magazine has become.

The new app is cumbersome and unusable. I lost all of my downloads and can’t use offline. I enjoyed AstronomyMagazine and magazine for five years, but no more.

Without warning, this new version of AstronomyMagazine showed up. Clunky and unusable. Endless spinning disc on startup. Magazine is great, app is a disaster. Please fix soon!

As others have said, AstronomyMagazine is as bad as the print version is good. Honestly, how could you release an app that is so awful?!

I have tried and tried to get this to work but fails
They never reply to any messages and bombard me with offers
Please do not waste your time or money
The content excellent AstronomyMagazine bloody useless

Have never been able to read a single issue since AstronomyMagazine does not work. Have tried reinstalling many times but it still won’t work.

I’ve tried to reload the new app several times, and it will not “restore purchases”....just sits there trying to update? If not fixed soon, I will delete my subscription. I’ve had Astronomy magazine for decades and sad to see the new app fail...

Very low level and effort into AstronomyMagazine . Logged out, cant log in, no “forgot pw”. Canceled subscription. Can’t believe how mediocre it is.
Still same pathetic app. They did not fix it. Now cannot access my issues that I PAID FOR. Will never buy again. What a shame, great content wasted by a poor app.

I have a question for, Kalmbach: are you seriously not ashamed of yourselves maintaining a garbage app like this? AstronomyMagazine is designed before the release of AstronomyMagazine Store … you ought to tell people before signing them app for a digital subscription that there’s no way they’d be able to access the digital content ! This is garbage.

Since the new version downloaded AstronomyMagazine just hangs. Tried several reinstalls. No support for iTunes subscription. Unfortunately I just renewed for another year.

AstronomyMagazine is workable, but barely. Please have mercy on your older readers and allow the pages to be zoomed MUCH more than they are in the current version.

Literally, we'd be much better off with a simple PDF viewer at this point.

In the archive view, only some of the issues show if they have been downloaded. The download/trash bar at the bottom of the cover thumbnail comes and goes as you scroll and doesn’t show up at all on the right column. The previous version was user friendly. The update is almost to buggy use. I may cancel my subscription until this is fixed.

AstronomyMagazine crashes every time I open it on iOS 7.0.2. Only way to fix is to uninstall AstronomyMagazine , reinstall AstronomyMagazine , restore purchases, then redownload every purchase. Needless to say, this is time-consuming. Then, AstronomyMagazine works fine ... for a few days. Inevitably, the crash problem comes back, and I have to redo the ridiculous reinstall procedure just to get a few more days of reading before it goes into constant crashing. As such, AstronomyMagazine is unusable. And if I'm going to pay full retail prices for a digital copy (I must be crazy!), then this business model is a failure. I might as well just buy it off the shelf at the store - at least the print copy doesn't crash! Please fix, or lose another customer. (FYI, also happens with Discover Magazine.)

Just updated to the latest version with all its changes and massive bulky changes too and two years worth of subscriptions are missing - 2017 and 2018. Unbelievable! Restore has done absolutely nothing to restore a single missing issue - two years worth of issues at that. 2019 seems intact, then there is one issue for 2016 and then it picks up all the earlier years. Seriously, this is how customers who subscribe, paying yearly and monthly are treated - robbed.

Until now, there has not been a single problem with the digital magazine - it operated beautifully, flawlessly in fact. This cannot be said now.

How can one possibly restore all the missing and paid for issues for the missing two years?

You cannot even contact anyone.

Disappointing.

If this problem is resolved, I will provide a better review and I will continue my subscription. If not the review stands as it is and I will be canceling. I am certain there are better magazines available to give my money and this too is sad because until now I did think the Astronomy magazine was really a great magazine - digital and paper.

Update:

The developer may respond to an inquiry but if you are lucky enough to get a response, it will be generic and referring you to contact Apple. AstronomyMagazine is a mess save your money, look elsewhere as there are several other astronomy magazines, digital and otherwise that are just as good, if not even better, and that will not remove your already purchased magazines.

I have canceled and deleted after nearly three years as a subscriber and due to this shady developer I will not be purchasing even the paper issue of this magazine. Why support a business when that business apparently supports and or condones the shenanigans of a developer that removes back issues and magazines purchased outside of the normal magazine itself - this magazine is not worth the headaches.

It doesn’t load. It just sits and spins.

Unsubscribing.

This is a true science magazine, with informative articles and of course great pictures, as well as great ads for the amateur astronomer (yes I said great ads! And yes I’m a real user). It’s great to find out what’s going on in the sky now, learn about some of the latest science, and to wonder at the universe.
I've been an iOS user since the original iPhone in 2007. I tried the newsstand magazines back when they first came out. I was not impressed. I've recently started checking them out again and am glad to see they've come a long ways. The Astronomy app works great. It's just like flipping through the real magazine, which I have subscribed too since I was a kid. It's nice to have it with me to read articles while waiting around somewhere.
For those complaining about the workings of the newsstand, (i.e. download a magazine app, download and browse through the free issues, then subscribe if you like it) it did take some getting used to for me also. Also, since different companies make mag apps in the newsstand, the experience is different for each company. However, it does seem to be getting more consistent.

As far as those complaining about the cost of the subscription, give me a break and grow up to the real world. These specialty magazines cost a lot to create and we have to pay accordingly. When you grow up you will realize that the “free” (or more likely, stolen) idea, is the wishing of children who don’t understand how the world works.