Scientific American App Reviews

This review addresses the app for Scientific American which is an excellent magazine. The updated app include several improvements including the ability to read and download issues onto your mobile device such as an iPhone. On the iPad, youre now able to view in horizontal mode which makes it easier at least for me to read. Overall an excellent app for an excellent magazine. I personally, have not had trouble with the apps crashing

So if I have a subscription to SA magazine Im supposed to have a digital subscription also, but after two months Im being asked to pony up for a renewal. Think I stick with the paper

Just renewed my digital subscription and downloaded the iPad app. Clicking the app brings up a screen with Scientific American and a click box for subscribing. Clicking produces no responses and no access to the magazine.

After waiting many years for iPhone support (iPad was always supported) we now have access to SA on the decide I carry with me! Also, instead of trying to provide a magazine like experience each article is formatted properly for easy reading as text (not a scaled image or PDF of the magazine layout). Thank you for such an improve experience!!!

I would enjoy this app IF I could see the full Table of Contents, not just the cover page articles. And Im surprised there is not more of a discount for electronic only versions.

Frustrating. Keeps losing my subscription information and asks me to pay again for downloads. Sciam was not able to help

You would think that Scientific American would have a leading-edge digital magazine, but that is not the case: for openers, it is deeply distrusting, does not remember that you have a subscription, and frequently demands that you re-enter your credentials. Then, the magazines download very slowly, because they are using an inefficient layout and/or compression method. (Contrast this with The Economist, a weekly that trusts its readers and downloads quickly.) Navigation is not particularly intuitive, but the pages do look nice. All-in-all, it is much easier to use and read the print edition than this digital one.

Bad experience with Hectic downloads, repeated, failed 4 times. Had to wait iPad untouched for 10 minutes for download to finish. How come this API consumes 1.6GB flash even after I remove every edition ? This is insane. Do I need to uninstal it each time I need 2GB ? This API is supposed to be 8MB and every issue no more that 200MB. Thats not what I see.

It only works in portrait format, often leave the page being read and keeps asking for subscription when I have a yearly one. Its a good job I like reading the journal or I would never open it !

I am a big fan of Sciam and Mind and I am happy we finally could read it on iphone! I also love the scrap book feature where I can save articles I liked! Keep it up!!

I havent managed to download the November issue. The process fever ends!

Easy interface, small files for issues do not take space on the iPad, unparallelled content and ilustrations!

This used to be a nice app, with great looks, breathtaking high res, high quality images, and nice interactive enhancements of print content. I cant fathom how anyone could have agreed to have it replaced by this broken mess that gets literally everything wrong: useless font sizes, broken typography with lines running into one another, ugly low resolution 8 bit images that look like were back in the 90s, no more interactive features... Plus all the already downloaded issues are gone. This is really 0 stars, but its not possible to rate it at 0.

This used to be a 5* app due to a really great reading experience. Now I really would like to go to a 0* rating. What on earth did you think when deciding to get rid of the beautiful HiRes pictures properly embedded into the texts, additional features and well designed design of the articles? Please "upgrade" to the old version! Meanwhile I prefer to read the PDF version of SA, not very convenient but a lot better than this.

Features and user-experience are on the level of an Australopithecus compared to the Homo Sapiens level of the previous version.

Why would I honestly spend $35 on a digital only subscription when I can get a print/digital subscription for basically the same price. I cant find an answer that justifies that enormous act of stupidity.

Its fantastic my print subscription gets me access to this app. However, it doesnt appear to support retina and as such is a blurry mess. Good first step but needs additional polish.

Great content, but an eyesore for anyone who owns a Third Generation iPad.

I am using the original iPad, but the display looks great to me. I can confirm the digital subscription works with this app at no extra charge. I had no trouble signing in. The app was long overdue, but otherwise works exactly as advertised.

I love SciAm, but I have spent hours trying to sign in and cant (Im a digital subscriber, I know I have my login info correct but it keeps saying "authentication failed"). I emailed support the other day and no response yet. If I get a response and I can sign in I will change my rating. Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas? UPDATE: Almost a MONTH and STILL no response from customer service, what is going on!?