New Scientist Reviews

I love New Scientist, and love reading it on the iPad, but NewScientist is disappointing - every month or so it refuses to recognize my subscription for a couple of days. I write to customer service but it appears NewScientist recovers itself.

However, the ad at the bottom of the screen is just horrible. It gives the whole thing the feel of Candy Crush - Free Mode. Very tacky for content I’m paying for, and a major reduction in user experience. I think it’s tragic that NewScientist product manager(s) have so little respect for the fabulous magazine content.

NewScientist took my money when my subscription renewed but it refused to recognize that I had paid. I couldn’t restore purchases because NewScientist would not recognize me. Thirty days later with no relief, I contacted Apple. (An excruciatingly painful process) Apple gave me no options other than to push through a credit to my credit card - which they did.

But it’s worse than that. Every issue that I had not gotten around to downloading when I was a subscriber wants $4.99 now so I can read it. So - New Scientist magazine has ripped me off.

While I was a subscriber I thought NewScientist was a just bad joke - as you already you, or so you will realize - but I read the magazine anyway because I really liked it. Now I’m convinced NewScientist is dangerous, both to ones’ mental health and wallet.

Amazing that such an incredible magazine about science and technology is delivered through one of the worst apps out there. Terrible UI, with lame features and, worst of all, a tendency to lock up on issues and then never release them. You can't even delete them when they get like this, short of uninstalling the entire app. Which would be fine, except you then would lose the scrapbook of saved articles. And seems like the problem gets worse with time. I have half a dozen issues from the last 6 months I can neither read nor delete.

Which is the second worst thing. Great you can save individual articles. But no way to sync these across devices or somehow save them in the cloud for later syncing if you buy a new device.

Too bad really. Because the content is, as New Scientist has always been, fantastic.

I subscribed this on 10/8 but can not set up password. Sent email and called left message to customer service and no body get back to me. I called couple times and finally get in touch with one lady but she obviously a clock water and more interested to get of duty than solve my issue. Her explain to me is that my account will not be effective until 10/21. I was surprised about this and never met same situation with any other magazine. So I told her I have done with this and ask for cancellation. Good, she told me they wont process it five days later. And no confirmation number no other follow up call or email. Guess she just lie to me and I have to waste time call them again to make sure they will process my cancellation.

App doesn’t seem to exist in the same space-time continuum as the website or the daily/weekly briefings sent by email. Can’t login to website with an app subscription (really, New Scientist???) to read articles referenced in New Scientist emails, and the search feature in NewScientist is worse than useless-won’t find articles using the entire title of the article as the search terms, can’t search more than one issue at a time... Total garbage!

Do yourself a favor and get the subscription for the web-based version.

From year to year this magazine became poorer. More and more of politicized blah-blah about climate and less and less about real science. Some areas like material science became out of scope of New Scientist. I guess this is because for writing about subjects like materials need not political position but understanding of the subject. And last blow is google ads that appear in mobile version. Hey, I paid (more than for others magazines) for subscription and you place those adds. You have a lot of money from me you have money from google ads; maybe it’s time to hire better contributors?

Sadly, this version again reverts to the “dump user into Home Screen” when you start NewScientist , rather than straight back into the most-recent article being read. This is the single most important feature to add back (for like the third time?). I have no idea why this keeps disappearing and reappearing. :(

There are some potentially nice audio features now. The navigation between audio and text is a mess and difficult to match up, but it’s a start at least. New Scientist could learn a lot from apps like The Economist in this regard.

Typography is still weak. Font size can either be too tiny, too large, or billboard sized. It needs additional scales and a decent way to preview.

Finally, it remembers where you left off reading and starts up there. I’ve been waiting years for that.
When I choose “copy” how about just putting the URL on the clipboard without the gratuitous vapid text before it?
And when I follow a link to the new scientist web site, could it please leave me logged in so I don’t have to enter credentials every single time? Better yet, if the article is already on my device, why not open that?

I am using iPhone 13. There are three levels of font size in NewScientist. The first level is too small and the middle level is too big. Wondering can you add one more level which can bigger than first level? I am also a subscriber of the economists, their font size setting is perfect. They have much more convenient setting.

UPDATE: After a few days I had to delete and re-download the individual issue and it seems like it was updated to include the cover story.

I bought an individual issue for 6.99 (December 4th issue) specifically to read the cover story. After downloading the issue I realized it included all sections except the cover story which is the basically the only section you can’t read for free on their website. Very disappointed to find out I paid 6.99 for an organized version of their free content.

It’s a Love this magazine and although I have subscribed to a plethora of magazines in my life this is the only one I have kept. Every time it would expire I would find myself perturbed when it wasn't in the mail box. And with NewScientist , I can read it on my phone so the kids can page through the hard copy. I was always asking them, "where's the new scientist" and would have to dig it out of their room, or search the car, now I don't have to.

I was never any good at science at school - maybe it was the presentation? But I just love New Scientist. It’s ideal for picking up when you have a random 10 minutes, or sometimes I binge read several issues. The quirky British humor of the last couple of pages is worth it alone! It’s sort of the People Magazine in format, on a far more interesting level. Everyone who finds it at my house loves it. Totally worth the money.

Really enjoy seeing the new issue cover. Graphically a joy. Yet the science is first rate, detailed and well written. Editing is tops. The coverage is comprehensive, meets you with coverage you didn’t realize you were looking for. For the informed lay science reader, this is the weekly summary of your world, bring you the best of the moment as it is unfolding.

You build character as you seek to remain calm while waiting impatiently for the next issue, and you improve your information retention skills as you work on remembering which articles you read yesterday and attempting to recall the central thesis of said articles! Love it! Keeps the grey matter churning,

Super duper magazine full of well written and illustrated stories about - not only science subjects - but much more. I’ve subscribed to New Scientist for 4 decades. I never tire of scanning the news and reading several articles in every issue. The accuracy is outstanding, the insights plentiful, and the humor, puzzles and games delightful. Best news magazine out there.

Warning - do not use NewScientist. It says I don’t need a log in, because I bought my year to year subscription thru the iTunes Store - but guess what? NewScientist asks me for a log in anyway. (Which doesn’t exists, because I bought NewScientist thru the apple. What horrible junk...

I am enjoying my subscription to the magazine. The articles are well-written and informative. The explanations provided in diagrams and side bars are done well too. I do have several requests. Please consider providing a highlighting feature in a future version of the application, and request the ability to view the pages as they appear in the original text version of the magazine. Thank you.

Been reading new scientist for over 40 years and can’t live without it! I love reading the articles in order of my curiosity when they come. I’ve just changed to digital and find it a great asset with even more resources available than having hard copy. I never thought I’d say this but I’m finding I prefer digital as the copies were always stacking up. The scrapbook option for articles is brilliant, as a new user I’m not sure how to scrapbook across devices but I’m sure I’ll figure it out:)

Concise, clear, and interesting. The best feature is a link to the original paper. This publication is worth the time. It is written for busy people who want to keep up, but can’t spend hours reading. The graphics and overall presentation are on target for one who enjoys science and its rapid pace of change.

This is a great app, easy to use and the content is saved on your device so you can view it off line. It will do its own housekeeping by automatically deleting old issues, or not, and you can easily browse through the older issues and download what interests you.

NewScientist functions well enough but Google ads appear at the bottom of the screen, covering magazine content unless wi-fi is turned off. I don’t know if New Scientist is making money by agreeing to allow Google ads or if Google if doing this without permission. I can’t give a good rating on this ap since the ads cover content and there doesn’t seem to be any way of stopping them from covering content (reporting that that ad covers content does not stop the content from being covered).

I love to read the content of the magazine provided. But one small thing I like to point it out for NewScientist . Every time I open NewScientist , it is jumping to the homepage but not the place I read before I recently quit. Is it possible that I can go to the place where I stopped? Thank you.

Love this magazine! Having it so accessible is causing me to be informed of so many amazing science news stories. It’s hard to put down when you can look at previous articles so readily, it’s become a learning addiction. Thanks!

In regard to the report that says females lead in just 7 of 76 mammal species: Female lions lead the kill for food, yes, but who eats first? When the male moves in, a space is cleared. Female lions lead the hunt, but males dominate and protect the pride. Females do not lead the pride. Same thing for elephants. Females lead the migration, but which one wants to fight the bull elephant? I just think the authors of the article tried too hard to find an abberation in nature that favors their point of view.