The Times Literary Supplement App Reviews

A great paper ruined online by constant, repeating technical problems.

The new version of this app has degraded crucial features. It is no longer possible to send more than a picture of the first page of an article by email. What a shame.

They updated the app to use in app purchases and now I cant access my current subscription that I already paid for last year. In order to read the latest versions they want me to pay again even though my subscription is still active. Pathetic app where the tech team constantly screws things up.

I have cancelled my subscription. What follows is the record of a good app gone bad. Original review: I have not encountered the authorization problem others report. The app is working fine for me. While I am sure that something could be added to it, I am quite happy with it as it is. It combines simplicity with function in a fashion that can only be described as elegant. The layout results in a degree of readability I have seen in no other iPad app. I just wish it were independent of Apples Newsstand, so I could keep it right on top of my iPad home page. Update May 16, 2015: I have reduced my rating for this app. In both this and the previous version, the reader could select specific articles from the current and previous issues, to be saved and read later. But the previous version provided a table of contents for bookmarked articles. All the reader had to do was scroll down the list and tap on the article he wanted to read. The new version presents a carousel which requires the reader to swipe through every page of each of the saved articles until he gets to the article he wants to read. This is tedious. It might make some sense if each item on the carousel represented a new article, but the carousel displays every page of each article. Suddenly, a list of 20 saved articles has turned into a carousel of 200 pages, with no hint of the location of the article the reader wants to read, assuming he remembers saving it. Further, articles saved under the old version are in the carousel but do not refresh - that is, you see the title and a blank page. So a previously well functioning bookmark feature has been downgraded significantly. Further update May 20: Reduced my rating again. Since the Scrapbook function has been made less useful, I decided to resort to sending articles to Instapaper. Oddly, the Instapaper option does not appear in all issues of the magazine. But it doesnt matter because it turns out that this functionality, which existed in the previous version, no longer works. In addition, I had downgraded to the previous TLS app so that I could get rid of the carousel, but downloading the current issue seems to have put me back on the current version of the app. Further update June 19, 2015: I have emailed Support with my complaints and received not even an acknowledgement. There goes another star.

Wish I had listened to earlier reviewers. Purchased the "digital subscription" through the TLS web site in mid-July. They emailed a code with which I should have been able to access current and all past issues through the app. But I can only get issues from mid-May through the week BEFORE I bought the subscription - app wants to charge $3.99 for all other issues. So far, no response from TLS customer service. Youve been warned!

Simply the worst app ever coded. A global multinational can do no better than this. Incredible.

I can no longer access my subscription. I get an "authorisation failed" message. This has been going on for 2 weeks.

The TLS deserves better than this. It logs me out repeatedly, requires that I know my subscriber number, and that I remember that only 6 of the 7 digits are acceptable, and even then I cant get access.

Why do I keep having to log in with my subscription information? Its a pain that the app doesnt remember it.

The app is handsome in many respects--the quality of the photographs is excellent. But it and its sister website are hard to use. And if you increase the type size, you get something considerably less handsome. The app can be hard to sign into.

Pretty awful app. Keeps logging me off. Pages dont turn smoothly, but spastically. And the front cover cannot be viewed in full, but as thumbnail. Who the heck designed this?