iDB app 4+

simple but effective

It’s a great app to support the website, get the job done in that sense. It’s clean looking, easy to use and simple.
But I’m only giving it 4 stars for the following reasons.

- The cards animation is very childish and outdated (in my opinion). If you don’t want to change it because other people like it, at least give me the option to turn it off.

- I would like to have the option to change the layout maybe showing them in a vertical list like feeds. I know you chose the single card per screen because it works best with the ‘one add’ every 15 stories, and it works, I just don’t like that layout.

Good news source, awful app

This review is definitively a bad one, but don’t get me wrong. As a news source, iDownloadBlog is superb. However, their UI/UX designing skills are precisely the opposite.

This app has some kind of “Tinder for news”-style interface to it, and it’s terrible. It’s clunky to work with, and you can only see a single headline at a time without having to do another dramatic, cross-screen swipe. Once you find an article you wanna read, the card idiom makes you think you’re supposed to swipe up to actually open the article, but nope. It’s actually a tap. Then, once you’re done reading the article, you’d expect to swipe in the one place it truly makes sense: a from-left pan to go back to the last screen to change articles. This is the same swipe you do in most other master-detail apps on iOS, including iDB’s own website when you open it in Safari.

Overall, it seems the only good way to read iDB anymore is via their webpage, instead of their desktop site or their iOS app. The solid-but-not-great mobile web experience has far more readable articles than their desktop site (where the whole page is in italics), and *way* better than their iOS app, which leaves you frustrated with a sore thumb. iDB remains a solid news source about Apple and jailbreaking, but their UI/UX designer needs to be fired.

Developer Response , 12/08/2017

Hello. I am sorry the iDB app UI/UX is not to your liking. Admittedly, this is something we did very much on purpose. Some people love it, some hate it. I just want to clarify that when you are reading an article in the app, you can indeed swipe right from the left edge of the screen to go back to the main view.

As for the desktop version showing all in italic, I assume it is a local issue on your computer, as there is no use of italic on the site. If you have browser extensions, I'd look there first for a possible fix for this issue.

Although this wasn't a review we enjoy reading, we do enjoy the feedback. I want to thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review.

This app is on my home screen!

I enjoy Sebastien Page and the & everyone involved with the IDB Team. I am currently a > 1 1/2 year subscriber of this app and also their weekly podcast called: Let’s Talk IOS. These sources of information feed my fix for Apple related news so that I am not behind the curve when use breaks out.

Now about this app, I find this to be accessible for individuals using voiceover as there are no issues to speak about in this current version. So keep up the great job with your app and Apple coverage in which you will have a loyal fan.