Astronomy Magazine App Reviews

Crashes every time I try and read a magazine. Absolutely terrible now. Please fix it. Updated and still crashes on opening. It's garbage now and I'm paying for a subscription that's worthless. Fix it, or give me my money back

Nothing free about this app. Weird bait and switch for such a great print magazine.

If you thought, like I did, that this had ANY relationship to the magazine subscription you currently enjoy, well, like me, you were mistaken. This is just a second way to purchase another digital subscription of the same magazine you already enjoy reading on paper every month. Don't bother looking for any way to link up your paper subscription, or do anything associated with it. This is just a standalone app to let you purchase individual issues or a subscription, but this is a separate disconnected subscription from what you may have now. And to the reviewers saying "just email them and tell them you're a print subscriber and to turn on digital", they aren't going to do that for free. Astronomy is a small circulation magazine to begin with - they charge their own subscribers right NOW if we also want a digital version. Bottom line - if you don't get the magazine at all, the may be a valid way to do it, but that's it.

The reader application for Astronomy is very poor. It's made by Yudu, and is the same reader app used by several other magazines. It's basically a glorified PDF. The text viewing mode is terrible... It does NOT remember the text size you select (contrary to a demo video posted by Yudu's CEO). So it forces you to reset your text size each time you view a new article. To make things even worse, the "text view" is one long file for the entire magazine, not per article. So when you increase your text size with each article you view, it reflows the text moving your backwards several pages in the magazine, so now you must scroll forward manually to find the start of your article, since it does NOT maintain your position when increasing the font size. This is maddening, and has to be done each and every time you view an article. I encourage Astronomy to switch to Adobe Digital Publishing Suite as soon as possible and put out a properly formatted edition, like Scientific American has done.

Very fun to read.

Unable to download my issues, keeps giving error msg missing file. Then after updating it keeps crashing. Unable to access for several wks. So now l'm paying you for nothing! Astronomy don't be sad, S&T and Sky at Night apps are equally terrible and useless!! Pls note this review pertains only to the app. The content (when you're able to access!) is terrific.

I like Astronomy's content, but I thought paying twice for the magazine to get it to download it was a little excessive. Now I get the joy of having to try to get my money back from a product that doesn't seem to have any customer service.

That's intresting

Why can't they just give the real costs? Inside the app, they want $6 per issue (I am not going to play their silly $ x.99 game) and, somewhat strangely, $4 for a single issue subscription. The catch being that it goes on, month after month until you de-subscribe. Same deal on the yearly subscription at $43, or $3.58 per issue. I love the magazine and would prefer to read it on my iPad for bulk and preservation reasons, but the price should be lower.

I am both a print and digital subscriber. Both subscriptions were purchased through the AM website. Big mistake if you want to use the AM app! It will only work if you purchase your subscription through the app. Now I'm stuck with a worthless digital subscription that I cannot read on my iPod Touch!

I'm not sure what this app is for. It doesn't do anything except take up disc space. There should be some kind of disclosure on apps letting people know what it's good for. This is a waist of time and nothing but an advertisement to buy products. Very surprised Astronomy mag would allow this or produce it. 1 star only because zero wasn't an option.

You must have a wi-fi connection in order to read your "downloaded" issue of Astronomy magazine. Something about "authorization." So carry a cell phone hot spot when going to a star party. If on a plane read National Geographic it works everywhere.

Exactly the same as the newsstand edition. Still my favorite astronomy rag after 25+ years. The nice thing about digital is no worrying about storage and keeping them from getting ruined!

Ever sense I downloaded this I have been getting lots of magazine related spam

The app looks good, but I have a print subscription. Why should I buy it twice? Reviewed when it first came out. Even with update, still no access for print subscribers. Other magazines offer access, why don't you? Update: riddle me this: so, Astronomy has an app and you can subscribe through in-app purchase, but if you purchase Print+Digital directly from the publisher, the digital issue you get is through Zinio and their app. Curious.

Why doesn't everyone who's complaining, you know, actually do something? There is a button "app support" prominently displayed RIGHT NEXT TO THE "WRITE REVIEW" BUTTON. And if you really don't feel like writing that long review, than go to the website. Don't waste your time writing nasty reviews. I understand what everyone means, because I subscribe the magazine, too, but I'm sure most people have 2 minutes to spare to send the app makers an email that says "I subscribe to this magazine, here's my proof that I do, so let me be able to download magazines from my iPod." Not so difficult, is it?

Currently a print subscriber, but no way to use this app

This is a true science magazine, with informative articles and of course great pictures, as well as great ads for the amateur astronomer (yes I said great ads! And yes I’m a real user). It’s great to find out what’s going on in the sky now, learn about some of the latest science, and to wonder at the universe. I've been an iOS user since the original iPhone in 2007. I tried the newsstand magazines back when they first came out. I was not impressed. I've recently started checking them out again and am glad to see they've come a long ways. The Astronomy app works great. It's just like flipping through the real magazine, which I have subscribed too since I was a kid. It's nice to have it with me to read articles while waiting around somewhere. For those complaining about the workings of the newsstand, (i.e. download a magazine app, download and browse through the free issues, then subscribe if you like it) it did take some getting used to for me also. Also, since different companies make mag apps in the newsstand, the experience is different for each company. However, it does seem to be getting more consistent. As far as those complaining about the cost of the subscription, give me a break and grow up to the real world. These specialty magazines cost a lot to create and we have to pay accordingly. When you grow up you will realize that the “free” (or more likely, stolen) idea, is the wishing of children who don’t understand how the world works.

:(

The Astronomy app has become a bigger letdown than Comet Austin. Have it on an iPad Pro 2 and it crashes every time.

More than six months not being able to use it. Yesterday an upgrade says it fixes a issue of the app crashing which I did. Tried to open and guess what the app does not open still crashes!!!! Why would you pay for this.?

For over a month now every time I open the app it closes down right away. I have at least two months of the magazine that I have not been able to read because of this faulty app. 26/7/17 - Update review, deleted app, reset iPad and reinstalled app. The app at least now runs without crashing. Restored my subscription the app sees the issues. But when I try to download the issues show waiting to load and flashes that message but nothing happens. This app still does not meet any form of functional use. BTW, the competition's app works perfectly. Download all previous issue just make sure it was not my internet that was the problem. 26/7/17 - one last update, after 45 minutes I finally got a download error September issue missing XML ... I have no idea what the message means to me, but I tried to download again and the issue download in less then 30 second. So frustrating, YES, functional, YES. Will I change my rating, NO. If October's issue downloads cleanly then I will consider increasing the rating.

In its regular display mode all works as you would expect them to. However, the reading mode is quite frustrating. When switching between normal and reading mode the app frequently losses its place and you have to either guess if you need to scroll up or down, or, go to the table of contents to realign to the correct page. There is a similar fault in the reading mode. If you need to change font size, which is a must for me, the display will send you somewhere else ever entirely. And for some inexplicable reason they have failed to add a function for a user default font size.

I too have been unable to open this app since updating. This really ticks me off because this I look forward to reading Astronomy every month. I have a year subscription and can't enjoy it! I sent in an email but have only gotten "crickets" in response.

This app crashes every time I open it on iOS 7.0.2. Only way to fix is to uninstall the app, reinstall the app, restore purchases, then redownload every purchase. Needless to say, this is time-consuming. Then, the app works fine ... for a few days. Inevitably, the crash problem comes back, and I have to redo the ridiculous reinstall procedure just to get a few more days of reading before it goes into constant crashing. As such, this app is unusable. And if I'm going to pay full retail prices for a digital copy (I must be crazy!), then this business model is a failure. I might as well just buy it off the shelf at the store - at least the print copy doesn't crash! Please fix, or lose another customer. (FYI, also happens with Discover Magazine.)

It's basically an image view that changes pages when you drag it far enough. Perhaps a 7yr old made it. ;-) Better off viewing the website in a browser.

I am a current subscriber for the digital mag. But it is not support on the Iphone or Ipad. Very dissapointed. I can get it on the nook or the kindel, or a phone which has google play. Although I have none of these. On the astronomy website it shows a pictrue of reading the magazine from your iphone and or your ipad, which is not true.

I have a subscription to the magazine, but even if I log into my registered Astronomy account the content still doesn't show up. Hopefully this gets resolved with the next update, it's a great magazine.

Wasted time downloading this app. It's labeled as free, I should have known it wasn't. I figured it would be a lite/free version of the mag I subscribe too. After reading the reviews it was clear that it only asks u to purchase upon executing the app. Apple get with it!!! Ur policies are so strict for developers why let the ball drop on how it's labeled??

Crashes to home screen immediately on all my iOS devices, some on latest version of iOS and some not. The app is completely broken and has been for weeks.

Don't bother. You can't even open the program I want my Monet back

The app is free, kids, but you still have to buy the magazine to have the magazine. They should just delete the bad reviews where people don't understand how magazine apps work. In this case it's a magazine about science, so if you can't figure out the app, the content is probably wasted on you anyway. For everyone else: it's Astronomy magazine! How cool is that?

Ever since the iOS 8 compatibility update I try to open up the magazine but it just crashes right after it says astronomy!

I get this subscription through the nook app cheaper than this garbage. Terribly misleading and disappointing.

I just started a 3 year subscription to Astronomy Print & Digital last month, but this app will not except it. Wants me to repurchase the subscription to use it. The restore purchase button does nothing and I’m still waiting for customer service to get back to me. I’m at the point here where I’m just going to cancel the subscription altogether. I would also like to add for the gentleman who wrote the 5 star review “Lazy people these days” the App Support button is a dead link that takes you straight to a page that says, Oops, This Page Could Not Be Found! Very fitting for this app I would say.

After updating to the latest version, I can't open the app. It keeps crashing. I sent two emails to Kalmbach Publishing and I am still waiting to hear from them. Not a very happy customer. I just bought a subscription to Sky and Telescope so I'll be using that more. Can't trust This app!

Apparently, all that one can do with this app is to purchase digital copies of the magazine one at a time. I an a current subscriber. I had hoped that the app would have a sign in and view utility for current subscribers. It does not. To see a digital version current subscribers must purchase a third-party app (and pay an additional $12.00 over and above the subscription price). For current subscribers, this app is worthless! Now, I understand that Astronomy Magazine is a small-circulation publication that may require third-party assistance and may need to charge for that assistance. However, I am disappointed by the (admittedly very small) charge and by the fact that the magazine does not appear in my iPad and iPhone Newsstand, but elsewhere. (And this functionality only via yet another app.)

I used to subscribe Astronomy magazine and Sky and telescope in print. This app is extremely awesome😇. I noticed Sky and Telescope app has undesirable reviews...I'll probably wait til app is fixed 😒

07 Nov 2017 Ok there are several things wrong here. (1) the app always crashes in iOS 11.01, 11.02, and 11.03 and you cannot get to your subscribed issues. Seems like we should be credited for every issue we miss. (2) The Kalmbach Publishing Co. Developer link in i Store is broken. The link does not exist, which means that Kalmbach is not keeping this link updated so that you can notify them about app issues. When i see the issues have been resolved, i will update my assessment; but, until then, there are four less stars in the sky which should be all five.

I already have a subscription to the print edition. No way am I paying the $43 again to read it on my iPad. It should let you enter your code or whatever to prove that you are a subscriber, then let you read the digital edition at no extra cost.

Maybe I'm out of touch on the whole digital subscription thing but I've been a subscriber of this magazine for YEARS I thought I just needed to register somehow and see all my magazines that I collect already on phone or iPad. If I'm wrong for the two stars my apologies but I can't see paying that much for looking at magazines that I already have in my possession so I'll just continue looking at them the old fashion way by licking my finger and manually turning page by page.

They keep trying to extract money from me. I really ticked off. I paid $48 for the full ride but they can’t get their act straight. A shame

This app is just a way to sell product! I found no way for a current subscriber download the magazine. Disappointed