AndroidTapp. Android App Reviews, Android Apps, News, App Recommendations, Interviews

New Scientist is a Scientific News Application with Easy to Digest Content; Space, Tech, Health and the Environment

Posted Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 at 7:35 am by Paul Wilks 0 Comments

No User Ratings Yet

New Scientist (Beta) is a scientific news application, an Android foray for the New Scientist magazine. This smooth and functional news reader is suitable for all and you don’t have to be  a brain surgeon or a biochemist to appreciate it. Stories fall into a number of categories including space, tech, health and the environment- so there is plenty of regularly updated articles to read and shared.

Price: Free

Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Stories from top science and technology writers.
• Regularly updated stories.
• Simple to navigate and identify channels you might be interested in.
• Superb gallery feature.
• Clear and easy to read.
• Responsive, smooth and bright interface.
• Ability to pinch-to-zoom and increase font size etc.

Cons

• Not all stories are ‘in-app’ some are merely links to the story on the New Scientist website.
• Currently unable to save a story for off-line reading or reading later.
• No night time viewer.
• No widget.

Features:

New Scientist (Beta) is the official app for the New Scientist magazine. It regularly presents a variety of stories on all manner of topics. Don’t let the ‘science’ or the ‘beta’ put you off. The ‘science’ covers a broad range of topics including technology, gadgets, inventions, health, the environment, robots… and so on, so there is something for even the most unscientific among us. Further, how this app is called beta I have no idea. I have been using New Scientist Beta for months now and have never encountered a single issue with it, no force closures or freezing and it has always been smooth and simple to use. Screen transitions are better than most news apps and the app has a real polished and professional quality to it.

Initially with New Scientist Beta you are presented with three options: Latest News, Channels and Galleries.

• Latest News gives you the very newest stories as they are published in the application. Great place to start and it also demonstrates the range of topics the magazine includes.
• Channels lists a number of more specific interests you might have. These include: Space, Tech, Environment, Health, Life, Physics & Math and Science in Society. Entering into these lists give you a narrower list of stories that relate to that topic, great if there is an area of interest you have.
• Galleries presents a list of the magazine’s published galleries, stories that have a number of pictures with them. These are perhaps not as regularly published as the main stories but the images are fantastically rendered and worth checking out. For example there is a recent piece on the history of space flight which is a pictorial gallery of various high-resolution space pictures. Each of these has an information tab which can be clicked to explain what the picture is about.

Using the app is a breeze and the channels, topics and stories are well laid out and nicely presented. There isn’t a means to increase default font size although the app does support the ability to pinch-to-zoom, and increase the size quickly and easily this way.

Some stories are contained in-app, while some links instead take you to the the story on the New Scientist website. While this isn’t a major issue, there isn’t a way of telling before you click on the story. It might be better if you could know whether you were going to open your browser. Another small let-down is that the app doesn’t come with a widget. Most news apps these days come with an interactive home screen widget and it would be a great addition of a widget was added to New Scientist Beta in the future. This however is quite forgivable given that science news might be perceived as somewhat specialist, but it would still be a nice option to have. One further niggle for me was that you could not save stories for later (unless you use something like ReadItLater via the sharing options). This is something some news apps do very well- such as The Independent app which we reviewed recently.

Besides these very minor things, New Scientist Beta is a very capable and interesting application. It is updated regularly and is full of interesting stories and galleries. You really do not have to be a biochemist or a physicist to get the most out of it. The principal behind the original New Scientist magazine was to improve on the public understanding of science, so all articles hold back on impenetrable technical jargon and instead are written to be both interesting, relevant and easy to understand.

Usefulness:

For anyone interested in science, technology, health, minus the super-techno jargon; this app is very useful in keeping you up to date with current stories within those fields. The ability to narrow your search within the various Channels available is a great way to find stories that are interesting to you.

Ease of Use:

The app is very clear and responsive, making it easy to use and a positive Android experience. The tabs are laid our clearly and tapping on a story brings it up quickly. The ability to zoom in if you think the text is too small is good too, making the experience familiar to those who read a lot via the browser.

Frequently Used:

I think it’s worth checking out new stories regularly. Unlike a more general news app, the stories are less frequent but I think going to the app every couple of days should keep you on top of the latest articles.

Interface:

Bright, smooth and easy to navigate- there are few news apps with as simple an interface as New Scientist Beta. While being simple, the app comes across as well developed and polished, which leaves me scratching my head as to why its still technically in beta.

Updating...