NewsTap (Usenet Newsreader) App Reviews

But, as a longtime usenet newsgroup participant who was looking for a simple, yet configurable interface that allowed threaded newsgroup reading and replying on my iPad2, Im extremely happy with my purchase of NewsTap. Ive used desktop versions of every nntp client out there over the years and can truthfully say that this app is as good as the best in ease of reading and replying in text based newsgroups, and it really leverages the screen real estate on the iPad. Highly recommended!

I generally like the design of the app and find it intuitive; I especially like the way it displays replies in a particular thread as a tree sorted by author. To me the benchmark for all newsreaders is Unison on the Mac though, and NewsTap has a way to go before it rivals it. Filters need to provide an option to kill cross posts (and subsequently 90% of Usenet spam). At version 3.x lack of support for binaries seems like a huge oversight. The app was developed by the same individual who made iCab, and hes done some great work over the years; Im faithful that he will improve NewsTap as well. A quick glance at other clients for iOS leads me to believe this is still the best reader for iDevices.

Big fan for the past couple of years; developer is responsive if you have questions or suggestions. Like the new custom header feature too. Rules as the best newsreader for iOS, just as Unison does for Mac.

Newstap is your only choice when it comes to accessing Usenet from iOS. So the author has gotten away with creating a mediocre news client. Competition in this area would be great, as it would force the author to listen to the many good suggestions given to him regarding ways to make the app better. He seems to be unwilling to invest much effort into it other than periodic bug fixes and very small features. Some common gripes about Newstap that the author has so far ignored: Newstap is very slow, and really doesnt have to be. Compared with news clients on Mac OS and Windows, its dog slow, which is the opposite of what you want on a mobile device where time matters. A mobile Usenet client should be at least as fast as desktop clients - if not faster! Newstaps network code needs to be greatly improved. Newstap doesnt mark cross posted articles read in all other groups when you read them. So you end up marking them read again and again. Any decent news client should do this for you automatically! Newstap doesnt support shared newsrc files hosted on an FTP or WebDAV server, which means if you read news with any other news clients, you get to play the laborious "use a computer to sync the newsrc from here, sync it over there when you are done, update it over there with another client, sync it back over here again, blah blah blah" game, which goes against the idea of mobile computing and makes using this app much more painful than it should be! Newstap has an annoying bug where sometimes while you are authoring a reply message, the keyboard will obscure the bottom portion of the message, preventing you from seeing or editing anything behind the keyboard. This bug has been around for a long time - multiple versions. I could go on, but the point is Newstap is a workable Usenet client, but not a good one. It needs significant improvement to be worth the $4 the author is charging.

Cant "watch" or "ignore" a thread. It is Annoing to see the headers for something Im not going to read every time I sync. It takes a few extra taps to delete each one. Otherwise it works no problem.

This app is promising but has a long way to go before it offers the power and features of a full news package such as Newsleecher. Binary support is pretty weak.

Great usenet newsreader Nothing better on the iPad

I spend a lot of time on the nntp forum at dictatorshandbook.net and bought this app for keeping up. Knowing a newsreader for the ipad existed made it easier to buy the ipad. It could benefit from a few more features but in general its a clever use of screen real estate and an intuitive and useful interface. I love the fact i can use it offline and it will send messages i wrote while offline the next time I connect. In all its one of my most used bits of software on this ipad and well worth the money I spent.

I have used this for a while. Replying to news articles get worse and worse. I absolutely hate replying to articles using this program. Who replies to a message at the BOTTOM of a post?!?! Its impossible to reply at the top where it belongs. You try and insert at the top and you just hit cancel every time. Its a chore to reply to posts using this program. Its boggles my mind why you cant reply to an article just like you do in every single email program in the world. That cancel button again makes even trying to get the cursor up that impossible. Its why I cant stand using this program.

You cant upload files, you have to reply on the bottom of the message and the iCloud feature completely messes up the app. I tried it for about a week and it constantly took read messages and marked them unread, sometimes hundreds t a time.

Does not work correctly or use multiple connects. It should function like pan but doesnt.

There are things I find missing from newstap (such as not tracking crossposts as read), but the thing that keeps me from using it much is how annoying the synching of a newsrc file is. Despite request from many people on news.software.readers and comp.sys.mac.apps, developer refuses to add support for Dropbox (or anything else). Instead, you must go through several annoying hoops. The inability to easily sync the newsrc really does make this software useless unless you ONLY read on one device.

Nice try ... sometimes it loads, other times it does not and MOST TIME IT WILL NOT ... save the money ... not worth the time, the effort or the money!

The only decent NNTP client for mobile.

After purchasing the software, and the newsfeed connection, I wasnt able to get NEWSTAP to make the connection to the newsfeed, even after following the step by step instructions. The newsfeed company helped confirm the configuration I was using but it still didnt work. I emailed the developer of the over a week ago and have yet to hear from him or his organization. Im now looking for another interface for my newsnet feed!

Cant load groups or post to groups since installing iOS 9. Hope youll fix.

Been using it for years, but this update is broken. Not picking up messages, lost messages that hadnt been read, cant scroll through all messages in a group

When iOS 9 came out it killed the old version, which I liked very much. Shortly, there was a new version for iOS9... it wont retrive articles so its useless too.

Wont load more than one newsgroup, wont display photos, cant delete groups of unread messages, hangs if any other function selected during a download ... nice try, but no cigar. Eagerly awaiting a working version ...

Im a long-time, relatively happy NewsTap user, despite the occasional scrambled article list or crash. But recently I "upgraded" to the latest version, and what a shock! Everything is five to ten times slower, with "Delete old articles" being the most egregious. What happened? Is it now running on a Turing machine simulation? ;-( Id love to be able to "downgrade" to the older version...it wasnt fast, but it was so much faster than the new one. Update on Oct. 7: For no obvious reason, NewsTaps speed has improved remarkably. Now it seems that its a bit faster than the old version. I dont know what happened, but I like it!