There are just too many problems with The Next Web iPhone app. When I first opened it, I wasn’t sure what kind of app it was. That’s a problem if the user has no idea who you are or what you do. When I looked at their description in iTunes, it states that “TNW is the international source for technology news, business and culture.” It then goes on to say, “You can select just the channels, editions and regional blogs you’re interested in.” The dashboard is your home page, where all of your channels and topics exist.
Unfortunately, there are too many minuses about this app to recommend it. First of all, I would like to know where this information is coming from? Who is writing the blogs? And let me clarify something, you’re not opening blogs, you’re selecting articles to read. The site is not live, so in other words, the same articles keep popping up on the screen. It would be nice to have a new article posted to replace the one I just read. It would be nice if the read articles were highlighted in some way, removed from the list, or marked off as read.
The biggest drawback to this app is that it’s excruciatingly slow. If I weren’t reviewing this app and had gotten it on my own, I would have deleted it in an instant. The app is poorly designed. I say this because I went to the web version of “The Next Web,” and it was refreshingly well-organized. The app should follow suit, and abandon this version. It’s boring, and not very welcoming.
The only positive I see from this app is that you can customize your list of categories for what is shown, whether it’s one category or all 25, some of which are the hottest topics in today’s news.
