Times for iPad Review: Lacking Where It Counts

App Name:	Times for iPad
Platforms:	iPad
Publisher(s):	Acrylic Software
Version Reviewed:	1.0
Genre(s):	RSS reader
Release Date:	August 10, 2010
Price:	$7.99
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Avid RSS fans are truly becoming spoiled for options on the iPad. From the eminently usable Reeder (review) to the slick and snazzy Pulse (review), there’s a lot of apps out there vying for the feed reader’s dollar. Recently entered into the fray is Times for iPad from Acrylic Software, the reader that wants to treat your news like a newspaper.

Visually, it succeeds. You’ll load up Times, and you’ll immediately be impressed with the columned layout, the newspaper headline style, even the “stacked pages” edges.  Feeds scroll independently, and you can even alter the way they display to fit your own tastes (or to squeeze more headlines on the screen at a time). When you open a story, you get a neat little animated paper scroll, tucking the main page down at the bottom, almost like you’d folded back the page. I almost expected a “rattling paper” sound effect whenever I opened a new story.

They also give you a ton of options for displaying, organizing, sorting, and prioritizing your feeds. I really liked how much I was able to shuffle things around and put things where I wanted them, how I wanted them to display. On the level of presentation and display features, Times gets full marks.

This A+ for presentation, however, does not translate into a fine reading experience. Once you start reading, you will find yourself frustrated by limited design.

First, there are navigation issues. With other readers on the market that allow you to swipe, tap, and back button within, around, and between stories, in Times you can only close a story by swiping up from the bottom, returning to the front page, and open another story from the front page.  There’s also no way to navigate from one story to another without closing and returning to the main page — even the next story in the same feed — and zero ability to jump feeds except through the main page.

Another thing I definitely did not like about Times for iPad was that common features like reading the Web version, sharing via e-mail and social networks, or saving a story for later, can only be called up in Landscape mode.  These buttons appear on the side in Landscape, but disappear in Portrait with no ability to call them up. If you’re like me, and you prefer reading in Portrait, then you’ll quickly get downright annoyed at having to rotate the device whenever you want to call up the full article or tweet a story out to your friends.

But then, Times was apparently designed with only Landscape in mind. The visual layout, nice as it is, spreads across the page more pleasantly in Landscape mode; Portrait mode feels cramped. And every screenshot on the app website is in landscape.  I don’t mind apps designed to work in one mode; but then, don’t give us a half-measure of the other mode. If Times is meant to be used in Landscape, lock out rotation; but if you’re going to let it rotate, build in all the functionality in Portrait mode.

I also did not like the complete inability to use Google Reader as a feed source. I’ve used feed readers limited to only using Google Reader, and I’ve seen feer readers that have it as an option, but never has a feed reader without it stayed on my iPad for long. And Times doesn’t even have a feed search feature; you need to know exactly what URL to point to in order to subscribe to a feed. Very annoying, especially if a site that I know has a feed (like my hometown newspaper, the Detroit Free Press) won’t register with the app because the RSS is somewhere other than the homepage. So I have to close the app, track down the URL, and cut and paste it; or, more likely, close the app and open up Reeder, which already has the feed subscribed.

Times for iPad has a well executed newspaper aesthetic, and its customizable layout options are great. But where it counts — in the reading experience — the app is lacking. Future improvements to navigation, feed management, and Portrait orientation will go a long way to improving this app’s score, but it’s just too limited right now for it to be judged worthy of the $8 price tag.

Our Score: 2.5 out of 5.

About the Author

Writer@Large Brian P. Hudson is an educator and freelance writer currently living in Dearborn, MI.

 

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