The first install of the Telegraph's new iPad app crashed repeatedly on opening, which wasn't the best of starts. A delete and reinstall later things were back on track. And the result?
Front page is slick, minimal and newspaper-like with one main story, three smaller stories, a pic, three links and a Matt cartoon. Yesterday's mugshot of Sarah Kennedy was replaced by Andy Murray today.
My first thought was how much the app looks like the New York Times app. Curiously the Telegraph has said it is working with NYT on its new iPhone app and a premium version of the iPad app, though it didn't say whether NYT had contributed to this version.
The app offers a selection of, but not all, front page and world news, comment, features, sport and business. Very strangely, there's no technology news that I could find - an odd decision for an app likely to be used by a fairly geeky audience. But I'll come on to that in a moment.
Click through to a section, and there's a left-hand menu to scroll all the stories in that section or you can flick through to the next story. Every story has a pic which is good, because that's a strength of the iPad screen and just about saves the app from looking too empty. Every ten stories or so a full-screen Audi ad appears; the brand sponsored the app, but those ads also look slick on that screen. Why they didn't go for a more ambitious video ad, I don't know.
It's a pleasant reading experience, but is carefully designed not to replicate the comprehensive coverage of the main site or the package of the newspaper.
The app has just about all the basic elements it needs to be a basic iPad app. It has all the hallmarks of an app that is waiting for a full-featured, paid-for sibling. There are no sharing features, no favouriting options and no customisation options - making the front page a mix of your favourite tech and business news, for example. Another small niggle is that the app takes over the status bar at the top of the screen, which is a bit cheeky. And perhaps the Telegraph thinks that tech-savvy iPad owners are more likely to pay for an enhanced version of the app if the tech news is one of the benefits that isn't included on the free version. Maybe.
But if I didn't suspect a paid-for version next, I'd feel this was a missed opportunity to try something more innovative.
Where: Apple App Store
Price: Free
Do say: It's like a newspaper, but on a screen!
Don't say: Is that it?
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