The Washington Post for iPad News App Review (iOS, Free)

Description

*** Now in Newsstand! ***

The new Washington Post for iPad app includes all the features you’ve been asking for:

* Catch up on the latest news and explore rich multimedia in our digital edition.
* Get the print edition automatically delivered to your iPad each morning.
* Browse more than 40 comic strips.
* See hot topics using The Forum, our real-time Twitter tool.
* Find the latest posts from our blogs.
* Read on the go — whether or not you have an Internet connection.

Please enjoy complimentary content items each month. For more in-depth use, please purchase our monthly subscription for $14.99 – the first month is free!

*** Once installed, you will find this application in the Newsstand folder on the iPad home screen. The icon will appear like the image of your daily newspaper. ***

Customer Reviews

• Like DC: it's good if you're well connected

  by cfinchch

  Nice interface if you're online with a good connection, but can be frustrating when you go offline. Content can go missing, and if you have a poor connection it tries to reload, making for even harder access. I don't want to have to do "read it later" for everything I want to read in my morning metro commute, or deal with downloading the print edition. I think I had better functionality a few versions ago...

• Learn to use it

  by osjohns

  I've grown very fond of this app people that are complaining are not using the total capability capability. Not enough stories? Download the print edition and it's all there. I used it for 12 days while out of town and it was just as easy as walking out to the mailbox to pick up the print edition. Have lately been using crossword app and it's a lot of fun to use. access it by holding your finger down on the puzzle and a app will pop up and allow you to play the crossword on the iPad with or without tips

• Not bad

  by caseysdaddy

  Works for me, no major issues. The only thing that bothers me is that I no longer get the local news (i.e., Metro section). I have to load the print edition to read those stories. Other than that, the app is much improved from what it used to be.

• Jeff Bezos, HELP!

  by Savta1995

  I've downloaded every update hoping that would be the one that truly fixes this APP. Why can't The Post get this fixed so that the crossword puzzle does't require three taps on a space to put in a letter? We rely on this APP when we travel. You no longer give travel credits so you need to make sure that the digital edition works properly or there is no reason to remain a print subscriber. Other websites work as they Re supposed to, why doesn't The Post's?

• Still crashing

  by AmusedGardener

  Just uploaded new version, still crashing, just like every other new version of the app.

• Memory Hog

  by CaptScottso

  To offer some history I was a subscriber to the app edition but canceled because the advertising was animated and annoying as heck. I couldn't deal with moving ads on the bottom of every article I read so I canceled my subscription. Last night I was managing my iPad's memory and noticed the Washington Post app consumes 5.9GB - I was shocked. The NY Times app only consumes 105MB. What on earth is the WP storing on my iPad? I tried to use the delete app data using the button in the app's settings but it wouldn't work. It worked all night and nothing got deleted according to the iPad's Settings / Usage. I was forced to delete the app to reclaim the memory. I wasn't using the app as a subscriber but it was nice to scan the headlines to get a more right view of the world as compared to the Times.

• Substandard

  by iamnNirvana

  Pay $14.99 for a subscription and still have to put up with ads! Content light. Ads heavy.

• Should be better by now

  by Bob Stewart

  While this is definitely more convenient than going to get the paper, the app is still glitchy. Used to be that tapping on an article in print edition mode pulled up the entire article. That now brings up a blank page. Only can pinch to zoom now. Pinch too much to zoom out and you're retuned to the first page.

• Application can't be used!

  by Donnahamel

  I never had any problem with this app until they put a 20 article limit per month. I haven't accessed WaPo at all during January. Here it is on Jan25 and it tells me I've already used up my 20 articles this month and to please pay them 15.00 per month. The 20 articles does not seem to reset. There's no number for app support that I can call. I'm actually hoping someone will see my review who can fix this.

• This should be better by now

  by DanFromNVa

  Why doesn't the app have the full daily edition yet? Why is it an additional download, which is basically an unwieldy PDF of the print edition? The technology exists to make this so much better. Why aren't you using it, WaPo? If you want the entire print edition with hyperlinks for article continuation, check out PressReader, and manually request the $9.95/month single-subscription option that they don't advertise or offer through the app. It's the newspaper experience you want on your iPad.

• I subscribe, but I still get advertisements!

  by MontereyTwilly

  I get a Google ad across the bottom of my iPad screen. I checked with WP, they said that is not changeable.

• Unreliable

  by Dmchurch

  This app is very unreliable. The print download feature fails on a regular basis. I don't mind paying a monthly subscription but I expect the app to actually work!

• no idea how to purchase

  by Lizzie Lynch

  Now that the app is working better, I want to subscribe. I cannot figure out how to purchase a subscription. Please help!

• Let Bezos try it.

  by Jorgitok

  It is not a source of news, it is not the full paper. What is it? App! Very slow, feels very old in design and functions. If Bezos takes a look what he is getting will fire all involved.

• Not the greatest interface; storage hog

  by JohnInDC

  As an app, it’s okay, not great. The “information density” seems kind of low, sort of a USA Today approach. Big pictures and big text (I’ve made it as small as it can go) aren’t as useful as just, you know, news. I live in DC so I’m inclined to prefer the Post, but I like the Times better. It’d be okay, and I’d use it from time to time, if the app’s storage usage didn’t inexplicably grow and grow. I recently went to add a TV show to my iPad and had no room; WashPost was consuming 2.3GB (!), which stayed at 1.5GB even after I 'cleared all app data' from within the program. That’s a ridiculous amount of space for something that should only be simple text and images. (Compare NYT - 93MB.) This happened once before, the only solution being to delete and reinstall the app - I’m tired of messing with it so I’m removing it once and for all.

• Bloatware

  by BergJ

  Every couple of weeks I have to uninstall the app and download again in order to get it down to a manageable size. If you so much as accidentally touch the "print edition" button, it is all over and you've lost over a gig of storage space. The "clear app data" button, doesn't do anything other than offer an endless thinking spiral and keeps you from doing anything else while it thinks, and thinks, and thinks- only to fail in the task of actually clearing out the memory. Please, just license the New York Times app, this is a failure.

• Too jumpy

  by SLP PA

  I would read the Post more often, but it is disconcerting when the pages keep jumping off an article while you are trying to turn the pages!

• Very Frustrating

  by jonroe4

  Very unreliable, crashes all the time, won't download the current paper half the time, pages half load and on and on. The only thing more frustrating than trying to read the Post on my iPad is my morning commute!

• Subscription model

  by CLH-USA

  This is a rating of the subscription model, without which the app is obviously useless. My life has reached the sorry state of affairs where I have to work for a living. I cannot sit on the couch in the morning and read the paper. Neither does my employer enjoy if I show up and pull up the daily on my iPad. I am therefore a customer only for the Saturday and Sunday editions of any paper. With the Washington Post subscription model, I either pay for, and then throw away unseen 70 percent of the paper, or I don't get the WP. Guess what I picked.

• Needs more work

  by paulggalindo

  Presentation of content needs improvement, and more consistency. Why is it that some articles vertically scroll, while others paginate from side to side? Wish this could be more like the NYT app, which lets you choose one experience over another.

• Great Idea, But Not There Yet

  by Don Allen.

  The "new" version is lame, just lame. Who wants to wait over a minute to see if the darn newspaper is going to open, or just freeze up one's iPad? This Post 40 year subscriber will come back, but not until someone fixes the app so one can simply and quickly read the bloody newspaper instead of fiddling with the iPad.

• Let Bezos try it.

  by Jorgitok

  It is not a source of news, it is not the full paper. What is it? App! Very slow, feels very old in design and functions. If Bezos takes a look what he is getting will fire all involved.

• Badly needs work

  by GM Hopkins

  It is a memory space hog and the moving advertisements are very annoying and distracting. Needs work, Jeff Bezos!!

• Does not work...

  by Jeffrey Melrose

  Only Top Stories section is visible. When I try to choose any other section I only get a blank screen.

• Update Bomb

  by Montana2323

  Just "updated" two days ago. The Post disappeared from Newsstand and is no longer on my iPad. Great update guys. One star because that's as low as it can go. Like .0000001 stars.

• Drags My iPad Air to its Knees!

  by The Aerowrench

  I wanted to like this app, but it brings my iPad to a stand still every time I use it, lock my iPad, and then unlock my iPad. The whole machine becomes unresponsive for an extended period of time. As for the look and feel, I think the Washington Post could use some pointers from the Wall Street Journal app. For starters, the look of the app is promising when viewing the main section screens, but as soon as an article is selected it becomes immediately clear that there was very little put into digitizing the look of the paper. The banner advertisement at the bottom of each article detracts from the content and looks like an ad from 1995. Though there are photographs at the front of the articles, a lack thereof within the content makes for a very dull read at times. One of the more clever(?) features of the WSJ is the menu on the side of the articles that allow the reader to select an article whilst viewing another. Another main complaint is that I should feel like I'm reading a paper when looking at the iOS version of the Washington Post. Right now, I feel like I'm reading an app. Please take some time to put a little 21st century love into your app Washington Post. I enjoy much of your content and especially love some of your blog subject matter like the Capital Weather Gang. But if this is the pinnacle of the digitized Washington Post, then my money is best spent elsewhere.

• Unreliable

  by Mike@Sea

  Highly unreliable App. Similarly, the WP website crashes when viewing commentary on articles. Disappointing.

• A mixed, mixed bag!

  by AstroPaul

  Wonderful app, responsive, elegant, good layout, but five BIG issues. 1. Missing sections! For example, there's no technology section in the app, though there is in the paper. 2. Very few stories in each section. That's just plain silly, especially given we're now expected to pay through a subscription. 3. Too many ads, taking up too much room, and even full page ones between various sections! 4. No customIzation of section order or which sections to include. That's really important in this day and age--and so easy to provide! 5. Buried inside the Newsstand app. They really need to take their cue from their own iPhone app, which is *much* better on most of these things. (It does have a graphical display glitch, however-- scrolling text under and above the section names, which looks horrible. I truly thought something had gone wrong with the app or my iPad screen!) If you are subscribing, I'd recommend using the iPhone app on your iPad. Or, you can go to their web site via Safari--two forms of it-- one is mobile and the other the regular desktop--which look and work better than the New York Times's ones do. I was ready to put in for a year sub discounted to $100; then discovered it doesn't include the apps! To get them costs $180 a year! ($150 discounted.). Come on Jeff Bezos, you can do better than that! And, it worries me that a lower priced sub or greater discounts will be coming. A sub price guarantee with reduction in charges would help with that. On the good news front, they've fixed most of the problems I spotted in my precious review--see below... ---------------------- PREVIOUS REVIEW Grew up with the W. Post. It's always been my preferred paper, even though I was in a household with NY Times, Wall Street Journal, etc. It was with great anticipation that I downloaded this, especially given some of the glowing reviews, especially those that said it was so much better than other newspaper apps. Well, they were wrong! The Huffington Post and the New York Times *iPhone* apps are the tops. Those are well designed, replete with good stories, easy to navigate, responsive, etc. This WP app has several problems 1) Every time you switch pages, you have to W-A-I-T !! Come on guys, this is the iPad! The hallmark is speed. Unlike most other apps, you'll see the spinning indicator as the page loads. 2) Navigation is horrendous! You can swipe left to get to another category, but once there you cannot swipe right to go back to the previous one! In fact, there is NO back button either! You have to select Sections and pick one. 3) A chunk of real estate is taken up at the bottom with a news jump banner and advertisement. 4) The settings button does NOT take you to settings! 5) It's brought to you by ExxonMobil! How in the world the FTC ever approved the merger of the world's #1 and #4 oil companies is beyond me. It's distracting and irritating to see their corporate propaganda and slogan across the bottom of EVERY page. On a plus note-- it is the Post and I do like the layout of the opinion page, however. While it could be more elegant, the 3 x 4 arrangement is good for quick access to those writers. Of course, it's be nice if there were options to change that layout--less text, different font size--but the font sizing option is only available once you are in a story. Oh, well! Better luck next time. The Post will really need to revamp this before it starts requiring payment. And put it out there for several months so people can find it and test it. At this point, it is not worth it!

• Frustrating

  by wadew76

  Most articles work as expected. Others however prompt me with an error that my subscription has expired. I've logged out and back in but those particular articles still fail. The message then bounces me to the Google Play store to download the WP app. I'm on an iPad. Huh? I'm auto-billed each and every month. Finding I have to download the print version to get access to all articles. What a pain.

• The first thing Jeff Bezos should fix

  by LizLaurel

  Worst excuse for a news app. Takes forever to load. Lately, when I open it, an old edition displays and there is no way to force a refresh. It's back to reading the WaPo on safari for me.

• Disappointing for the Wash Post

  by Takeahiketony

  Constantly finding that articles or even entire sections either don't load or don't show up depending on the day. This is so disappointing considering how much I like the content of the Post, but the app runs as if it were associated with a crappy local paper, not a prominent news organization. This is the future of paid news delivery and I would hope eventually the folks at the Post would wake up and make a better effort in their app.

• Customer Experience Ignored

  by Soccer Matt17

  I thought Mr. Bezos believes in customer experience above all? Does he need a seven page memo to describe the perverse relationship between this app's cost (increasing) and performance (circling toilet bowl)? It takes well over 60 seconds for the iPad version to even open / update each time, clearly far longer than before the pay wall, and eons longer than industry standards. The ads have become larger and more obtrusive (so much for the pay wall). Articles still crash regularly. And the excuse that it is because of all their "new" multimedia content won't hunt either. Why pay a subscription just to be annoyed every day by lousy app design and obvious non-interest in customer experience?

• App freezes, unreliable

  by PivotHeaven

  The app is still buggy. Even though I have the setting to download / update daily, it does not do so. I have to manually update and wait for it to complete. The full page advertisements are disruptive and repeat between each major section. I suspect these ads are involved with the update problems. For $15 a month, you expect better. Perhaps Mr. Bezos could help the Post fix this?

• Terrible!!!!

  by neuroscientist007

  Come on, get this mess cleaned up!!!

• I came to AppStore just to say how bad this app is

  by Amadomon

  It is, as everyone else has said, utterly useless. Never loads, always crashes, though not without giving you the Spinning Wheel Of Death for a good half-minute or so. Wish I could give it zero stars. Come on, WaPo! How the mighty have fallen. For a brief moment I thought that Bezos would inject a little tech-savvy to the fusty, dying old rag, but if the company's indifference to their app is any indication, I'm not hopeful.

• Slow and Buggy

  by James Simkins

  Like content but app is horrible. As functionality has been added performance has gone downhill. Slow, takes up too much space, and app hangs when trying to clear app data.

• Buggy, crashes

  by Mmalosa

  Please fix this app. It crashes every time I open it, takes forever to download new editions, and refuses to delete archived editions. I don't appreciate having to wade through the same old articles every day either. All in all a pain to read.

• Limited access

  by Groin Shot

  Thrice I have had my access curtailed to a very limited portion of the paper. I don't know if this is a problem with the app or the staff at Washington Post, but either way it is very frustrating. Their help support is slow and unreliable. It's a shame because the content is great.

• Still crashing

  by Fnht451

  Won't even open. Do you do any QA before releasing? Update 12/10: broken since before Thanksgiving. Still crashes upon opening. Don't bother with it. And since this is the only reason I pay for a subscription, I will probably cancel. What a joke.

• Oppressively large

  by Dwdrums36

  No simple newspaper app should be this large. It's absolutely massive and runs incredibly slowly...as a subscriber, I'm pretty annoyed.

• Terrible app

  by KarenIrene

  This app is next to useless. Sections don't load properly, content, comments inaccessible. And now, suddenly, can't access the web version on my ipad.

• Ads make sentences disappear

  by stacychuck

  Recognize the need for ads, but they block out sentences at the bottom of articles when text size is increased on my iPad mini. Needs a fix on the next update. Please!

• Crash

  by Bob19481993

  Rarely get to read anything--keep getting bounced out.

• Very Poor App

  by Ogle jay

  I have the same issues with the application. I will be canceling my subscription to a paper I enjoy reading because of it.

• The worst app ever. And worse since Post was sold

  by Why the guardian

  This app is so bad that when I tried to previously review (below ), it wouldn't send. Minimum twice a week, I go to check the news and it's either not able to update past day before; or won't go past first few pages (issue today and tonight). This app makes healthcare.gov seem like it works better and I'm a democrat!! I dare Bezos to use this app a few times a day. How can he develop drones if he tolerates a paper that breaks with an app all the time....horrible and I was Posts biggest fan my whole life. I want so much to love the Post. When I lived in Boston I would drive EVERY day to Harvard Square to buy Washington Post. Past few years friends have joked about how skinny and poor quality Post had become. App is the same. Not Kay Graham's paper. Okay for relatives running paper to have some excuses but not for chronic typos and app errors. That's quality and that is a performance issue - not an industry trend. Frequently see an app article featured like tonight's on not fixing a NASA piece of equipment. Tap on headline and get an NSA story instead. Bezos getting a C team with A writers.

• mjafr

  by mjafr

  Ditto what everyone else is saying. For me, only the first 3 pages of 'Popular' load. Have to go to 'Print Edition' to read anything else.

• An app that is just getting worse

  by JOHN BORDEAUX

  Since the "contact us" link gets me to a 'bad gateway' message, I guess I'll say it here: I'm close to canceling all WaPo subscriptions due to the usability of this app. As of the latest, it is unable to update in a sane manner - it's not updating in the background, it takes 5-10 minutes, etc. The main change, beyond breaking updates, is the insertion of an ad page in between sections. A page that oddly seems to resist a quick swipe. Before the app was broken by the latest version, I was going to complain about the persistence of stale content. It seems like 25% of the articles are days if not weeks old. The good news: I get through the morning paper much more quickly than before. The bad news: That's not why I pay for a morning paper.

• Just doesn't work

  by Billzebub51

  This app quit updating except for the first section. I deleted it and reinstalled. Now it won't even open and doesn't show up in the news stand.

• Back to Internet Version

  by Winsomeeu

  Terrible. I don't mind subscribing to the Post, but I have to read the internet version to avoid the intrusive and pervasive (almost every 2 pages) full page ads in this app.

• New app

  by Depeter01

  App won't download

• Sections don't load properly

  by Kimo773

  Since the most recent upgrade, the app only loads the initial "top stories" section; follow-on sections are blank. Uninstall/reinstall clears the problem, but only for a day.

• Offline reading no longer works

  by Zenleo

  I used to be able to read the entire Post offline. Since the most recent update, that is no longer the case. Please fix.

• Useless

  by Tech geek 2012

  This app has never worked properly in any of it's versions. Downloading the print edition might work 50% of the time if you're lucky.

• Disappointing

  by BakeJ 3

  The Washington Post app is simply not ready for prime time. They continue to update it and it never gets better. It loads more slowly than any other newspaper app I have used. It updates slowly. And it continues to crash. I frequently close the app before the article I requested opens simply because I am annoyed at how long it takes to open. The news content on the app -- compared to the paper version of the Post and certainly compared to other world-class news apps like the WSJ and New York Times -- is very disappointing. This app is not worth $15.

• Print edition

  by Ncahill

  Online poll eliminates 'Get Fuzzy' from the paper but says will always appear online. Not here any more, good thing print readers will never check!

• What happened???

  by JR1234567890abcdef

  I came to rely on this app when I traveled. Since Thanksgiving, it won't update. I deleted it and reinstalled it and now it won't even load!!! FIX IT!!!

• Junk

  by backtothewall

  Crashes, aborts, just useless.

• It's getting worse

  by Socalede

  I like to do the crossword puzzle. In the past 10 days it's developed various bugs. Sometimes when I'm typing fast the squares will turn yellow, and freeze. I type on the gear symbol and hit the x to return and that's fixed for a while. In the last few days a square will freeze . Will not take a letter, space or delete. Only cure is to tap on another square and then tap back to the problem word and change directions : if you were going down go across and vice versa. I've deleted an reinstalled the app, and hope that works.

• Facebook sharing doesn't work.

  by Ernie Taormina

  Guys, fix the Facebook sharing issue.

• A useless app

  by Canyontv

  Since the last update, the Post's app has been terrible. Most pages won't load. Articles I want to read simply don't show up. A huge disappointment for what should be a simple app. Save your money.

• Ads take the place of content - unbelievable!

  by Auntiefreese

  Can't believe i'm paying to see ads instead of the top stories, sports, and other sections. This app doesn't even deserve a "1". Don't think I'll be subscribing for much longer. Just not worth the money.

• App just crashes on loading

  by Not ready for release

  I purchased an annual subscription a few weeks ago. However now the app crashes at various stages of loading. I have an iPad 1 so that may be part of the problem but I notice many other users are experiencing the problem. Come on Washington Post please fix and provide a stable app.

• Slow and unstable

  by Coolpix123

  Application went downhill. Unstable, won't update.

• lousy app!

  by aresautos

  App will not update consistently. Sections go missing from the list, Full-page ads and flashing/moving ads--as others have noted--are a nuisance and an insult to anyone, let alone paying subscribers. Jeff Bezos, please don't be a hands-off owner. You should be personally embarrassed by this app!

• Hate

  by foodnerd

  It is taking forever to update and now some of my sections are missing.

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