A few months ago I got an email from the folks at Pressreader asking me if I would review their service. Knowing me, you know I never turn down an opportunity to try a free service, so I gave it a try, and I can tell you that what Pressreader offers truly is unique.
Pressreader offers a database of 2100+ publications which can be viewed on mobile devices in newspaper form as if you bought it off of a news stand, or in an optimized reading format.
I tested them on my iphone, and an ipad, but their apps are also available on blackberry, Android, and Windows (unfortunately no mac app right now).
Anyways, on to the review. Pressreader is a well built, easy to use service. The app works smoothly and allows you to easily download publications for offline viewing with ease. Pressreader offers some pretty big publications too. The ones I saw included The Washington Post, The international Herald Tribune, USA Today, and The New York Post. They offer that day’s issue meaning you’re always reading the latest news, and you can actually read it in newspaper form as if you were reading an actual paper.
The nice part about this is that if you habitually go straight to certain sections you can do the same with the app. Their optimized reader is well built and reflects a word document. You can find top stories from all of the publications and easily go to related articles. They even have commenting built in so that you can be social while reading. They also offer some nice article sharing with options including print, email, and instapaper among others.
The only thing that upset me was the pricing structure. They charge $30 per month for unlimited publications. For $8 a month I can get netflix. Licensing is expensive and I’m sure the prices will go down as they pay that off, but $30 per month is a lot of money.
If you don’t plan on reading at least one publication per day on there I would recommend going with the alternative pricing structure they offer. You can purchase any of the publications they offer ala carte for the decent price of $1. This give you access to everything in that issue, and it still works very well.
For the casual reader both options can be slightly expensive for their needs, but for a major news junkie like me, a service like this is invaluable and I would highly recommend it. According to the guys at Pressreader, the price will likely go down at some point.
So basically, download the app and give it a try. They offer a few free downloads at first, and when you’re travelling the ala carte option can save you money and time over finding your newspaper of choice wherever you are. Give it a try by downloading the free app.
Design/ UI (4/5)
Value (3/5)
Usefullness(5/5)
Total (12/15) A Good App
Price: Free-$30