Broken?
I downloaded this after a long interval of reading on the web or on paper. Crashes on launch, sadly.
Association for Computing Machinery could do better
I am disappointed that the premier professional organization for computing professionals couldn't deliver a higher quality app. Setting aside the fact that it looks like it was built by a Ph.D. Grad student in the 1990s for X11 Motif, it crashed on me twice just trying to open the current issue.
Good but can be a lot better
The app works, and the content is great, but it is impossible to share the articles (app crash) and the user experience is limited. ACM should follow the example of their Interactions app
Disappointing
All the usual good CACM content, but the app provides a very poor user experience. It is slow to use, and does not support offline access. This results in a significant wait on page turns, making it painful to use.
Direct to web is better.
I have used a lot of apps on the iPad for reading magazine content. I've reviewed the leading ones in my blog. This is the absolute worst of all I have ever used. It crashes. It does not handle figures properly. And the interface seems to go out of its way to prevent you from doing what you could have done by just using Safari. To whomever worked on this app. I'm sorry. You need to actually try a few reader apps, and then go back and try to use this one to actually read the whole magazine.
ACM: BE EMBARRASSED to have your name associated with this app.
ACM: BE EMBARRASSED to have your name associated with this app.
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Buggy
The application doesn't work on ios 6.1.3 It crashes immediately after I sign in. I reported this bug almost a year ago and nothing has changed. I find it a bit ironical that ACM cannot build a good app for the community.
Version 1.0 crashes
Like others already mentioned - app crashes after you sign-in. Needs an update for the newer iOS version
Poor
The article content is there, but the interface is awkward, there appears to be no offline reading, and the login-every-time thing makes this "app" feel like a bad swallow of a web page. Some aspects are good, but on the whole this app needs some serious help. I'm hoping for a redesign rather than an update; until then it ranks as the first app I will actually delete.
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Fairly Disappointing
I love that I can get the CACM contention my iPad easily.
What I really don't love is the user experience of this app:
- It doesn't save your user name and password in the keychain, so you have to enter it every time. This is a real impediment to using the app, especially if you use a reasonable password for your ACM account.
- It's not Retina everywhere. It's been many months since the iPad with Retina Display came out, but many graphical assets haven't been updated. At least it shows real text, not bitmaps (like many terrible magazine apps show), so reading is itself easy.
- It's poorly organized. The sidebar/article layout would be much better if it were a traditional iPad-style master-detail split view layout (with popover/slide-out in portrait orientation) than the way it's currently set up. Similarly, it has "tabs" across the top that would be far better implemented as a tab controller in the master part of the master-detail view.
- It doesn't use Newsstand. "The Communications of the ACM" is the perfect candidate for a Newsstand app and should really be one. This would let it download the latest issue in the background automatically, show the latest cover as its icon, and so on. It would also show what a Newsstand app could be, as (if the above issues are addressed) it would take advantage of the iOS platform well to provide a good reading experience.
Fortunately all of the above issues should be fairly straightforward to overcome, and I'm hopeful that they will be. Perhaps the ACM would consider making the app Open Source so members can contribute to making it great,
What I really don't love is the user experience of this app:
- It doesn't save your user name and password in the keychain, so you have to enter it every time. This is a real impediment to using the app, especially if you use a reasonable password for your ACM account.
- It's not Retina everywhere. It's been many months since the iPad with Retina Display came out, but many graphical assets haven't been updated. At least it shows real text, not bitmaps (like many terrible magazine apps show), so reading is itself easy.
- It's poorly organized. The sidebar/article layout would be much better if it were a traditional iPad-style master-detail split view layout (with popover/slide-out in portrait orientation) than the way it's currently set up. Similarly, it has "tabs" across the top that would be far better implemented as a tab controller in the master part of the master-detail view.
- It doesn't use Newsstand. "The Communications of the ACM" is the perfect candidate for a Newsstand app and should really be one. This would let it download the latest issue in the background automatically, show the latest cover as its icon, and so on. It would also show what a Newsstand app could be, as (if the above issues are addressed) it would take advantage of the iOS platform well to provide a good reading experience.
Fortunately all of the above issues should be fairly straightforward to overcome, and I'm hopeful that they will be. Perhaps the ACM would consider making the app Open Source so members can contribute to making it great,
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hard to believe for an application bearing the ACM logo...
Really bad.I could get it to show 2 lines of the cover... and it does request the credential again after it crashes! Not worth the effort.
I gave it one star in the hope that the people working on it may get encouraged to do better...
I gave it one star in the hope that the people working on it may get encouraged to do better...
It does not work
This app does not work at log, it gives a network error. I guess the association of the computing machinery does not care about promoting the knowledge over computer machines. Interesting...
Almost perfect
This app os almost good enough to give up the print version. All it needs is a way to stay signed in, and a way to add bookmarks
Room for improvement!
First, I do LOVE reading CACM and the blogs on my iPad since I can increase the font size (print version is too small).
This app could be improved:
Fundamentally, it assumes that it is a fresh start when it opens. It asks for username and password and it refreshes the left column. How can I keep track of where I was or what I've read? Is there a way to scan and flag items I want to read? Can I keep my place while I check my email? Or play a quick game of Words with Friends?
Are you really so worried that someone is going to read you content and, perhaps learn something, that you need to reauthenticate each time the app opens?
This app needs to better fit the way we use our mobile devices.
This app could be improved:
Fundamentally, it assumes that it is a fresh start when it opens. It asks for username and password and it refreshes the left column. How can I keep track of where I was or what I've read? Is there a way to scan and flag items I want to read? Can I keep my place while I check my email? Or play a quick game of Words with Friends?
Are you really so worried that someone is going to read you content and, perhaps learn something, that you need to reauthenticate each time the app opens?
This app needs to better fit the way we use our mobile devices.
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Crash crash crash
Open app, log in with my member details, says loading, and then just crashes back to the desktop. Every time. Have rebooted iPad and ensured all other apps are closed. iPad 1 32GB 3G. Pity.
Would like to like this app
Currently I read CACM by downloading the pdf and transferring it to the iPad. That's somewhat cumbersome, and when I learned about this app, I wanted to try it. However, there are a couple of problems with it that make me hesitant to switch over:
- It requires that I enter my credentials each time. Every other subscription-based app that I have remembers my credentials. This is a serious usability issue.
- All of the graphical elements of the print CACM are lost, making the iPad version much less pleasing to look at.
- The ads for upcoming conferences are missing, as are the conference calendar and jobs listings. The ACM is doing themselves, and us, a disservice by leaving those out.
I would be satisfied if the app simply displayed a replica of the print version, although I know that there are differences of opinion on whether or not that's the right thing to do.
- It requires that I enter my credentials each time. Every other subscription-based app that I have remembers my credentials. This is a serious usability issue.
- All of the graphical elements of the print CACM are lost, making the iPad version much less pleasing to look at.
- The ads for upcoming conferences are missing, as are the conference calendar and jobs listings. The ACM is doing themselves, and us, a disservice by leaving those out.
I would be satisfied if the app simply displayed a replica of the print version, although I know that there are differences of opinion on whether or not that's the right thing to do.
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Better than nothing
I've read a few articles in the app on my iPad 1 with iOS 5.1. When I go to Safari to look something up and come back to this app, it asks me to log in all over again.
Other apps cache my credentials, if even for only 5 minutes, why doesn't this app.
Also, this app does not preserve articles for offline reading, which is necessary for areas with poor or no connectivity (3G or otherwise).
I'm glad the ACM got it out there, they just need to push it across the finish line.
Other apps cache my credentials, if even for only 5 minutes, why doesn't this app.
Also, this app does not preserve articles for offline reading, which is necessary for areas with poor or no connectivity (3G or otherwise).
I'm glad the ACM got it out there, they just need to push it across the finish line.
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Not very convenient
Why do I need an interactive reader that apparently requires me to be online to use it when at the same time I have archived on my mobile the PDFs of the past CACM issues that I can open and read at my leisure regardless of how well connected I am at the moment?
Good content, poor presentation
The content is of course of high quality, as you'd expect from CACM. Unfortunately there are a few issues that mean this just isn't a great app.
The app doesn't remember you, meaning not only do you have to authenticate every time you use it but that you can't view content offline (even though the app does let you save articles, you need to be online to see them).
Presentation of content is limited to either page-at-a-time browsing of the current issue (which doesn't, AFAICT, include zooming) or a plain text display of the articles from the website. If you subscribe to CACM you get a better experience by downloading the magazine PDF into iBooks.
The app doesn't remember you, meaning not only do you have to authenticate every time you use it but that you can't view content offline (even though the app does let you save articles, you need to be online to see them).
Presentation of content is limited to either page-at-a-time browsing of the current issue (which doesn't, AFAICT, include zooming) or a plain text display of the articles from the website. If you subscribe to CACM you get a better experience by downloading the magazine PDF into iBooks.
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Works great on 3rd Gen iPad with 5.1
I almost didn't install this because of the other bad reviews. I have been a member of ACM for years and just found this app for Communications. This was a first time installation but I tried to break it and couldn't. Logged me in, first try, to my ACM account and pulled my latest copy of Communications. Works great!
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flash back
I cannot use it.
It will flash back after I sign in.
It will flash back after I sign in.
