The Times

The Times Review

by on July 4, 2010

As part of Rupert Murdoch’s mission to monetise his online content, The Times newspaper (losing money hand over fist in the print edition) is the first quality British newspaper to make the leap into a tablet edition. It’s not cheap, you’ll have to pay £9.99 for a 30-day subscription to access the content, and even then you don’t get The Sunday Times into the bargain.

The application boasts the top-end journalism we’d expect from The Times delivered to your digital door as well as some exclusive photo and video content, to make use of the iPad’s increased functionality and wonderful screen resolution.

However, the application has so far left readers disappointed and we cannot disagree. For the sizeable cost, we’d expect more of the newspaper to be reproduced. There’s no crossword, which has irked many early adopters, as well as the lack of magazine content which plays a big part in Saturday purchases.

It’s also glitchy, causing the iPad to freeze, and a lot of the time, the app won’t recognise your internet connection.

The only saving grace for The Times app at the moment is the fact that The Guardian hasn’t released there’s yet. We’d give credit to The Times for pioneering the new medium, if we felt for a second that their intentions were noble rather than part of Murdoch’s quest to turn the internet into a pay-per-view enterprise.

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