Austin Statesman eEdition Software

This app has gotten better. It still had some bad days when it can't find the current paper, or you can't return to the app's main screen... but not nearly as often as it used to. I like being able to download for offline use, and also double-tapping a story to bring it up in reader view so you don't have to flip pages for longer articles. All in all, the features are what you'd expect. If not for the occasional implosion, this would be an easy 5-star. A couple of minor gripes: When sharing to Facebook, it would be nice to share to a person's wall instead of a general post. Also, when emailing a story to someone...could we ditch the pre-printed text "Nice article for you to read: (Headline) check it out." At least get rid of the run-on sentences? Overall though, it's great to go all-digital delivery and still have the paper laid out the way I'm used to. Keep working on the bug fixes!

I'm a man but I can change, if I have to...I guess. I can deal with the "fuzzy" effect as the pages/articles load, although it is pretty annoying even on a fast broadband connection. I figured the last iteration of this app wouldn't be free long, but I don't get switching to a new app and beginning charging for it all at once. Although it is a great way to tick a lot of people off and if that's what the publisher was going for it is a huge success. What is near intolerable is how easy it is to inadvertently skip from one article to another, and how time consuming it is to get back to the paragraph you were reading. Just breath on the screen hard and the app skips to another article whatever view you are using. And when you try to get back to where you were, it is always to the top of the article and never the paragraph you were on. The old app was less touchy in this way, and would go back to the same spot you were last viewing. I don't think I'm being picky here, it happens way to easily and often. I generally stop reading the paper when my blood pressure spikes to dangerous levels, although I guess that is a great way to wake up quickly in the AM...no more coffee needed for me. Lucky for the Statesman they are the only local paper or this improvement might have been enough to tank them for good.

I had hopes for the app when they finally increased the resolution a year or so ago, but apparently that was the extent of their work. Most recent problem with this terrible app is that it now takes a long time to load -- usually more than once because it also frequently crashes. I complained again to Customer Service which this time sent me instructions about Safari -- not the app. (They suggested using Chrome, not Safari. Apparently, they can't bother to make the web paper work on multiple browsers.) When I repeated that I was talking about the app, not using a browser -- no further response on the subject.) This newspaper has been showing signs of going out of business for a while now -- laying off staff, closing their Austin printing facility. Eventually, they will be internet only, so why won't they at least try to make the apps work? Apparently, they are either too dumb to care or too afraid to spend any money. Cox must be a terrible company to be so short-sighted.