ARRL magazines 4+

If you choose to read the magazine from start to finish without shutting off your iPad or using other apps, then this is reader is good. It takes a while to start up and loading a magazine is slow, however.

The biggest problem is if you leave the app to use other apps or stop using your iPad for a while, the app forgets where that you were reading the magazine, You don't have to re-download it, but it has no history of where you were in the magazine so you have to open up again and you're at the first page.

This is a big pain and makes using the app very inconvenient. I would almost rather just wait for the print version of the magazine to show than use this app. Because of this app, I would never consider canceling my print subscription and going with just the digital version.

Given how infrequent updates to this app are, it looks we'll be stuck with it for a long time. I don't think going back to the previous version is possible, although it might be.

I've been waiting for a decent app from ARRL so that I don't need to receive paper versions of the magazines. Although the app performs well in downloaded issues (although your downloads are not in PDF - for that you must purchase the year-end edition of the ARRL periodical DVD's) the font used on the Mac is way too small to read. T make matters worse, there is not CMD or CMD- functionality to zoom. The app description in the app store claims the MacOS version is not supported, then in the same description (you have to scroll down) a claim is mentioned whereby only the M1 Apple silicon is supported. So, I hope to re-review this app when the zoom issue is added, and the Intel/M1 architectures are supported as I support the ARRL but there seem to be some resource issues in support. Among those issues is that I sent feedback in english and received a response in what I think is spanish. That leads me to believe the ARRL has a third party developer that is unable to respond to support requests.

As of Mar 25: I have loaded and tested the new ver 5.1 and can download issues very well. The new version seems to download faster and flip between pages better. The program works fine.

I had complained to the developer via the app feedback and got a reply and even tested a beta for them and today got an email telling me that the new version was available. The process took a while, but I really appreciate the contacts and good service that seems so rare today.

My Mar 12 review:
It's now been over a month and still no fix. If you can't fix it then at least pull it back and restore the previous version that worked. This is very poor practice for a professional organization and a professional developer.

My Feb 18 review:
I actually got a reply when I sent feedback through the menu in the app:

Apologies for the inconvenience you've encountered. We're currently working on resolving a known issue with the QST app some users are experiencing. Thanks very much for your patience.

It shouldn't take weeks to fix such an obvious problem.

My original review:
The new version immediately crashes when you hit download. I'm using iOS 9 on a 3rd gen iPad.