Very
good
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PressReader - Newspaper Replicas
Tested version: 2.5.11.0927
Latest version: 2.6.12.0123
Requires Android: from 2.1
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Summary
Many commentators and journalists have proclaimed the “death” of print media in the era of instant online information. As the logic goes, newspapers and magazines are simply not fit to compete with online media and are slowly going the way of the dinosaurs. But does it have to be this way?
PressReader is an app that tries to make reading a newspaper on your Android as similar to actually paging through the real thing as possible. Find out how PressReader can bring back the joy of reading a newspaper on your smartphone.
Features & Use
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I may be a proud member of the online generation, but there is something priceless about leafing through the hard copy of a newspaper or magazine. Being able to scan across the pages looking for interesting process is something I enjoy on an intuitive level. And even though nowadays I get most of my news from the web, I still like to indulge myself by purchasing an actual magazine every once in a while.
PressReader tries to bring the best of both worlds by adjusting authentic newspaper layouts to fit onto Android screens. Unlike Pulse, Taptu and other news readers PressReader doesn’t just list the online articles from the websites of different news sites. In fact, Press Release doesn’t work with RSS feeds or Google Reader. Instead of aggregating the news, this app allows you to download high quality scans of virtually every single publication on the planet, tailored to fit your Android screen.
When you start up the app, you are automatically redirected to “My Library” where you’ll find a default list of British publications. All of the news sources can be organized by most current or alphabetically by tittle.
The entire app is separated into three sections:
- My Library: Includes a list of all the newspapers you read.
- Store: A directory of all the publications available to download. Over 100 countries are represented with all the major international, national and regional newspapers.
- Settings: Here you can adjust your delivery settings, manage your account, view the FAQ and adjust data access options.
Head to the store first and browse through all the different newspapers presented to find your favorite news sources. Once you’ve found a newspaper you like, say the NY Times or The Guardian, you can click on it to download the latest issue. If you follow a specific newspaper on a regular basis, mark the checkbox to automatically download the latest issue as soon as it comes out.
The download process may take a while because the app downloads high-quality scans of the actual newspaper to your SD card. Once the green bar next to a newspaper is full, you can proceed to opening it up and reading it on your screen.
When you open a downloaded newspaper issue, the entire newspaper is presented to you in a series of high quality. Go between pages by simply swiping across the screen and either pinch or double-tap the screen to zoom in on the text. As crude as this may sound, all of the newspapers and magazines are basically displayed in PDF format. Basically, it’s like reading a PDF except for the fact that you can zoom in and flip pages with simple finger gestures.
Although the newspapers look truly stunning on Android screens, it is a bit difficult to navigate and /or read columns that are broken up across several different pages. To make your life easier, Press Release automatically highlights every article title in blue. Tap any highlight to view a plain text smartphone-formatted version of the original article. When viewing a specific article you can listen to the app via text-to-speech (although this did NOT work during my test), share the article via Facebook, Twiiter and email as well as adjust the font size. Be careful when changing the font size because it can really screw up the formatting. Unfortunately, you can only do so when you are fully zoomed out of the newspaper, something that I ended up having to learn the hard way.
At the top of the screen there are two arrow buttons for switching between pages (although swiping is always an option as I mentioned). Squeezed in between them is a button that gives you a quick overview of the entire newspaper. You are given the option of either viewing the entire newspaper in grid view or the app can breakdown any news source based on a table of contents. This allows you to quickly navigate to the section of the newspaper that interest you most.
WARNING: After downloading several newspaper issues, I realized that Press Reader limits you to 7 free downloads because it's actually a trial version. Anyone wishing to continue using the app after the limit will have to sign up for a subscription plan. Unfortunately, the prices for the subscriptions are through the roof because you are basically getting a full newspaper replica in digital format.
Bottom Line: Press Reader is definitely a one-of-a-kind newspaper reading experience and I enjoyed using it much more than your average news app. For those of you that wish to make newspaper reading on your Android as real and authentic as possible – Press Reader is a great option. The major downside is that you’ll have to pay a lot of money for a subscription that will cost you almost as much as a regular paper copy one.
Screen & Controls
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First off, this app is best used on devices with large screens. Reading PDF scans of newspapers on a small screen is painful, regardless of how good the app is. For the best possible experience, I would suggest downloading the Honeycomb version and using the app on your Android tablet. So the bigger the screen, the better the experience.
In terms of design, PressReader itself is pretty minimal and looks like a regular file manager. The entire color scheme ranges from black to grey. Instead of focusing on the UI, the developers put all of their effort in making the newspaper navigation as user-friendly as possible. Intuitive finger gestures make paging through the newspaper scans similar to leafing through an actual paper copy. So although the entire app might make a dodgy first impression, the quality of the newspaper display and navigation compensate for the overall look.
Speed & Stability
Section rating:
Everything runs smoothly and quickly, but it does take a while to download newspaper articles due to the high quality of the scans. Plan on waiting anywhere between 1-5 minutes to download an entire newspaper, depending on the publication length and the amount of color photos. Otherwise, PressReader performed well and never crashed during my test.
Price/Performance Ratio
Section rating:
Although PressReader itself is free, it’s actually a trial version that limits you to 7 free downloads. If you wish to download more newspapers, you’ll have to sign up for a pricey subscription plan. You can either pay €0.79 per download as part of a Pay As You Go plan or go for the unlimited plan which will cost you €20.95 a month. That’s actually just as expensive as subscribing to an actual PAPER newspaper. It’s your choice, but I know this is going to be a huge turn off for most users.
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Market Comments
John, Apr 6, 2012
Great App This app does everything that I want a newspaper reader app to do. I feel like it's not fair to rate an app 1 star simply because you can't uninstall it. This app is great. I can read newspapers from all over the world, read trade journals and the app is a breeze to use. If you are wondering if this app is worth the money, I feel like it is. If you want to complain about the app being preinstalled, then bring it up with your carrier. Or buy a Nexus device. This app works flawlessly on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Verizon.
Nick Name, Mar 29, 2012
One of THOSE apps... Came preinstalled w/Asus Transformer and cannot be uninstalled. I greatly dislike apps like this (I'm trying not to say "I hate this f#@king b°||sh*₮"). It can't even be hidden from the full list of apps (unless you know something that I don't). We pay enough money for tablets and phones and space is limited, unlike desktop and laptop computers - which also usually enable users to remove bloatware (though you might have to hunt for a way to do so). I don't want to root my device and void my warranty. Is there any other way to rid myself of this pestware?
Doug, Mar 28, 2012
Do Not Install This App! Once you install this app, there is no way to uninstall. Tech support is a joke. I'm sure they're aware of the problem but will not fix it. Even when you don't use it, you continually get notices to update. I would recommend not updating because who knows what 's being installed.
Eric, Mar 24, 2012
MALWARE! Installed on my tablet and won't uninstall. Proves the maker knows it is crap or they'd make it optional.
Simon, Mar 23, 2012
Why? Why is this piece of money-grabbing crap on my HTC Flyer? If I want to read a publication I'll use a web browser. Wish I could uninstall but locked to the device by HTC.
Matthew, Mar 14, 2012
Too expensive This came pre-installed on my tf01. If it wasnt the case that there was a better honeycomb version but you cant uninstall the old version it wouldnt be so bad so it loses stars there. It works really well and having the proper version of the paper is excellent but its too expensive. I dont want to pay more for a digital version than print it should be cheaper. There could also be choices for magazines and less mainstream papers available. Good but not good enough
Tim, Mar 11, 2012
Best app ever for reading 'real' newspapers Prefer the look of real newspapers to web sites? Then download this app. Excellent customer support as well. I emailed them this morning (Sunday) and had a response within 10 minutes.....from an actual person and not a bot. Samsung G2 and Samusung Tablet 10.1
Deeked, Mar 4, 2012
Really? People still get their news from these biassed papers? Guess its ok if you are liberal
Crypticgrrl, Feb 16, 2012
Death, taxes and bloatware.... It warms my heart to see yet another app shoved forcefully into the unsuspecting orifices' of smart phone/tablet owners everywhere. /end sarcasm
Carl, Feb 14, 2012
Good newspaper reader Allows me to read my newspaper on my tablet. Not as slick as the iOS version on my iPad. Scrolling not very smooth (probably due to the tablet). My biggest gripe: the antialiasing used in the zoomed-in view often makes the words fuzzy and harder to read. Should add ability to turn off antialiasing.
Gavril-Peter, Feb 8, 2012
Rubbish Despite the last update with HC, still crashes on my Asus tablet. 4 times I tried to register for newspapers , 4 times crushed.I'd prefer to uninstall it but it not possible, because it comes bounded with other Asus applications. Rubbish application.
Jasmine, Feb 6, 2012
Tried to uninstall, but can't I'm sure this would be great, if I had time to read another newspaper, but the fact that it is preinstalled on my tablet, updates constantly, and won't uninstall makes me not want to use it ever. Very unimpressed.
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