NewsTap (Usenet Newsreader) App Reviews

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Usenet on iPhone? Yes, please.. Exactly what I've been waiting for. If you want to follow text groups on your iDevice buy this app now.

Needs lots of work. If you actually want to USE usenet, then avoid this app. It's slow, clunky, is NOT user-friendly, and is almost useless for binaries.

Doesn’t work. Connection keeps closing without retrieving any articles.

Works great!. Good nntp reader. It allows reading/posting all offline. The only thing I wish it had is the ability to email posts directly to my email account. The developer mentioned that he would put that on his to-do list.

Useless. Disconnects without loading articles.

Excellent. Excellent offline reader. Online doesn't make sense for 3g or EDGE connection. Ratings for v 1.0 & 1.1 should be removed or at least ignored.

Disconnects. After downloading all the newsgroups, program disconnects while downloading the descriptions. I’ve tried several times and waisted many, many minutes in the process. It does this EVERY time! Very frustrating! At this point, it’s unusable.

Pretty good. This is a very nice app. The interface is straightforward and it supports SSL. A few things would make it even better though: - Ability to bookmark entire threads, rather than just individual posts. -A quick sync button for one tap send/receive. -Automated sync every X number of minutes. -Push notifications. But overall still very good for text based usenet browsing.

Works great!. A must have if you own a iPhone and subcribe to newsgroups.

NewsTap *used to be* much faster.... I'm 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? ;-( I'd love to be able to "downgrade" to the older version...it wasn't fast, but it was so much faster than the new one. Update on Oct. 7: For no obvious reason, NewsTap's speed has improved remarkably. Now it seems that it's a bit faster than the old version. I don't know what happened, but I like it!

Works on the M1 !!. So reliable, very happy it works on the M1.

Does not load images. Does not work correctly or use multiple connects. It should function like pan but doesn't.

Is it any good. I have no idea, I have never been able to do anything with this app. I will have to take other's word that it actually does something. If you are stupid, like me, give a pass on this app and find another app which doesn't require a PhD to operate.

Was reluctant to purchase .... 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, I'm extremely happy with my purchase of NewsTap. I've 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!

New review. It took SO long but finally we have a nice app, complete and finished! Thanks for this update. Late but excellent!

Very nice and intuitive. A very nice newsreader. I was without conventional internet service for over a year, and this program kept me sane :-) In fact, even though I finally have internet in my house, I still find myself using NewsTap for reading Usenet.

Like the new version. After adjusting to the new version for a few days I am liking it.

Replying stinks. 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?!?! It's impossible to reply at the top where it belongs. You try and insert at the top and you just hit cancel every time. It's a chore to reply to posts using this program. It's boggles my mind why you can't 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. It's why I can't stand using this program.

oijewrjn. All the features they list work well, except one, viz., "Filters (also known as "Killfile") can automatically mark articles as read or mark them with a certain color.” This is not quite right: every article filtered to be marked as read must also be color labeled. I would rather not have articles that I want to ignore stand out in the list of articles. I wish it weren’t necessary to have articles marked as read automatically color marked; but I also wish there were an option to have certain articles automatically deleted.

Difinitely Broken. Won't load more than one newsgroup, won't display photos, can't delete groups of unread messages, hangs if any other function selected during a download ... nice try, but no cigar. Eagerly awaiting a working version ...

Outstanding App. This news reader is almost perfect. The only thing missing is support for SSL so that it can be used for online universities and business usenets.

Not Working at all for me. I setup my my server account (GigaNews) and tapped connect. I get the mesage "connecting to server" followed by "Receiving new groups..." and then an Error box "Connection Failed". I've tried numerious times over the last three days without success. Mail to the developer resulted so far in no answer.

Yup, new version broken. When iOS 9 came out it killed the old version, which I liked very much. Shortly, there was a new version for iOS9... it won't retrive articles so it's useless too.

Falling apart? (update). After some consternation I found that one of the multiple servers I use was dead. Thats what was causing newstap to give the connection errors. I've re-rated the app. What I learned is that with multiple servers it will not identify the one that is not responding. Requiring one to check Each server individually.

App cant request permissions to save photos. So you cannot save photos. At least it crashes each time i try to save a photo. Which makes this not useful at all. For me

Not as good as hoped. Missing some critical things ... no threading ... no way to mark an entire newsgroup read .. application is very basic at this point, and needs an upgrade to make it an acceptable news reader.

Doesn't work and non existent support!. After purchasing the software, and the newsfeed connection, I wasn't 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 didn't work. I emailed the developer of the over a week ago and have yet to hear from him or his organization. I'm now looking for another interface for my newsnet feed!

Great program. Wonderful program. Surprised at how easy it is to use. Would recommend it to true usenet addicts, like myself.

A good start. 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.

Loaded articles once, then they disappeared. After that articles won’t load again, tried following steps in the support section and no luck. Wish I could get my money back.

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

Great start!. Never really expected a newsreader so I was really happy that it's here. Going from one post to the next works well but has a tendency to crash. Binary support is a welcome feature although there must be some high limit on what it grabs as it doesn't seem to grab large files. It would be less data intensive if it allowed you to download headers and mark for retreival. As it stands, it downloads everything in a selected group for offline reading which works, but was expecting something like the great grabit, or pan. For a first release, it works, and works well. definatley looking for a way to mark a whole group read as first review states. Looking forward to future updates!

great newsreader - love this ipad version. This is an update to my old review - this app remains 5 stars - it works just fine & allows me to still enjoy the newsgroups I've followed/participated in for decades(!), now. It's unfortunate that people are complaining about account issues and what must be general ignorance of Usenet and blaming the app, itself. It works fine, it works fine for multiple groups, it posts and updates just fine ... 5 stars. I've been using newstap on the iphone for several years, now, and it worked fine, for me. But this ipad version is great - the extra screen real estate is used very nicely. Now, I don't care about binaries, I just care about reading my favorite few groups. rmgd lives!

The best iOS newsreader. 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.

Works for me. Been using this app for a while now as my usenet reader. Never had any of the problems mentioned in other reviews. Works as advertised for me.

A Good Start. 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 he's done some great work over the years; I'm 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.

Works just fine. I have no idea what others are complaining about. Possibly setup wrong. Anyways, I use this every day now, after being away from Usenet for many years. It’s fast, the layout is fine on the iPad screen and it is easy to navigate. A bargain at $4.

Took a step backwards. You can't 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.

Used to be a good app. I used to use and recommend this app; but can no longer do so. Starting a couple of updates ago, I started getting the authentication issues and even after contacting the developer could not resolve the issue ( he could not duplicate it). I'm sure that I'm ever ring the user name and password correctly, as I can manually enter them on my laptop and access my newsgroups.

Great in every way!!!. Great usenet newsreader Nothing better on the iPad

Great App. The best app for newsgroup readers. Easy to use, fast and highly configurable.

Great newsreader for text groups!. Ipad version: With the ability to resize all the panes with just one control, this is just a killer newsreader. In fact, it may become my go-to casual newsreader, regardless of platform it's that elegant and full featured, and fun to use on the iPad. It's nice to have the iPhone version always in my pocket, as well (it's equally elegant and full featured). Bravo to the developer! iPhone version: Nice addition to be able to download headers/srticles in the background. Can't wait till iPad can support that functionality as well.

Almost Agent on iTouch. Thanks for the free version. A lite version of an app should be a developer requirement in my opinion. This reader comes close to doing all I use of Agent by Forte on PC. That is saying a lot as Agent outclasses all. The setup and help are clear. The user interface is great. Threading by date or subject are here. I am new so if I see any significant problems I will report.

Fantastic app. Works great for those few remaining nntp groups that I follow. Frankly, the interface is so nice, I prefer to use my iPad to read the newsgroups rather than my desktop machine. The ipad version makes great use of the extra screen space making it much more comfy to use than the iphone version. Nice work!

cannot Watch threads. A lot of potential, but not quite there yet. Really like the layout and it does a number of things well (thread hierarchy tree is really cool), but missing a key feature that, for me, makes it unusable. There is no ability to flag threads in a group that you want to Watch. So you have to manually scan the entire group each time you start Newstap to see if anything you are interested in has changed. I monitor a very active group with hundreds of new threads per week, and unfortunately, can't use Newstap without this feature. Had to go back to other alternatives. On the plus side, Alexander was very responsive to my queries on this subject and will hopefully consider adding a Watch function in the future.

Good NewsReader. Great app, only issues are...can only use one server and won't post binaries.

Great news reader. This does a great job with syncing to one news server if your purpose is to read Usenet groups. I have heard of some problems with binaries, but I do not use it for that purpose. I sync it and read things at a later time. This app had two problems with the software keyboard with an iPhone/iPod update (3.1?) which caused posting and filter editing problems. These have recently been fixed. I wish I could add more servers. I wish I could use regex filtering. But all in all, this has been working well for me.

Broken. Been using it for years, but this update is broken. Not picking up messages, lost messages that hadn't been read, can't scroll through all messages in a group

Not for pics. Barely works. Forget about it if want to get jpg's. The author should flat out say doesn't work for pics. Yenc pics are distorted beyond recognition and the filters don't work. It's the only game out there. Buyer beware!

Fantastic!. Exactly what I was looking for. The free lite version (written for the iPhone) does not do this app justice! The iPad user interface allows much more flexibility.

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Good value. This little app does exactly what it says that it will do, easily and efficiently. It is quick, works very effectively with a small iPod or iPhone screen, it is easy to configure and simple to operate. I wish more apps were as well designed as this one.

Add yenc please!!. G

Better than most. Very good news client. Has a few peculiarities but better than most. Haven't found any bugs yet.

Excellent NNTP news app.. This is an excellent app. Makes reading newsgroups while travelling a breeze. The offline design on the app is reminiscent of offline Mail on old fashioned BBS systems, but much slicker. If you want to keep up with your favourite newsgroups while on the go, get this app, especially if you have unreliable or intermittent Internet service.

Add yenc please!!. G

Latest version is VERY slow and buggy on iPad2. Old version worked fine. New version(Sep 2015) is confusing, hard to configure, keeps crashing, and is very slow. Not happy. IPad2...

Timothy lightfoot shut up. Shut up ya crybaby this app works and should be rated higher.

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Easy to use. This app works well for my needs on both my iPhone and iPad. The developer is very quick with support.

Easy to configure and use. I was happy to find and app that let me follow technical newsgroups on my iPhone as I don't have a newsreader at work anymore. Quick and easy to configure and use, I like it very much for this use. It is lacking binary support as others have noted but I don't need it personally. Thank to the developer for this very useful app !

Connects and downloads only rarely and incompletley. One of the worst apps I've ever bought. Update: much improved after the most recent update. Thanks

Limited pics. Very few binary files fit in one message

surprisingly easy. for such a small screen and device this makes newsgroups surprisingly easy. I love keeping track of all my resources when away. Two suggestions I would make; first is the backup feature, why no linux/windows love? second, I'd like to suggest a "mark as read" for all groups.. I frequently have to clear each one, and reload groups if I haven't used the app for a bit.

A perfect mobile NNTP client. This app’s offline-first, explicit sync connection model is perfect for the way NNTP works. It even has newsrc sync. I love it. My one big big feature request that would make me happy beyond words is the option for a monospace font. I use NNTP for technical mailing lists with lots of code snippets or ASCII diagrams and those just don’t render properly with the single proportional font the app allows. Thank you so much for keeping NNTP alive on iOS!

NewsTap = NewsCrap. Junk, pure and simple. Support so elementary as to be laughable.

Binary issues.... Most shortcomings noted by other reviewers, but most annoying for me is lack of binary support. I access newsgroups to get e-books; ePub and mobi files are filtered by Newstap. Fail!

Finally an NNTP client on the iPhone - and it's great!. I've been wanting this since Day 1 of the iPhone 3G and even thought about buying a Mac so I could develop one. But I kept hoping someone would write one eventually and it was a very nice surprise to find that app a few weeks ago. I first downloaded the Lite version 1.2 to test it with the two private servers I access every day but to no avail. After a few email exchanges with the author, he was able to accomodate me and add a fallback for those servers that are not 100% compliant. So now with 1.3, I can finally say I have NNTP access wherever I go and it is great. The app is surprisingly fast, handles small binaries posts (like a 250k JPG) perfectly and this tree window is out of this world. Nice touches like filters and group's descriptions and custom sort are way cool. Also, threaded view works great but that brings me to my only serious wish: a different sort order. I would much prefer sorting the threads by date and not alphabetically. The newer the thread's original post, the higher up it appears. Another nice to haves: - a way to navigate to the next unread post directly - multi-line signature All in all, a terrific app at that price. Thanks!

Mmmmnotgreat. Not all functions work on IPad - reader is slow - but ok for low data posts _ does not clear read cache so you have to keep deleting group - with a few tweeks this should be great Cheers

Great app, but still needs some work. I have now been able to read usenet on my phone, which is great. I have some small complaints, it does not always want to download the news articles. Once the articles are downloaded, it works great at reading them. I have not tried it for images or binaries, so I can not say how well it does there. For the next release, or whenever, it would be nice to be able to sort the messages or display the threads in collapsible/expandable messages, like most other newsreaders. Overall I still give this 3 stars. Thanks.

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NewsTap good!. Nice app, handles about 99% of my needs. Very good browser integration, excellent retention/deletion control, and excellent forward/backward control interface in a thread. Would be nice to have: O ROT13 on display, even if not feasible in editor; O ability to specify multiple servers/IDs/passwords O ability to add/modify headers for, e.g., self-moderated groups O regexes in filters O article display honor newlines in text. I write code for a living, and think this is GOOD STUFF. I'd like to see it just a little bit better. Mikea

Good at what it does. 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 it's 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 it's one of my most used bits of software on this ipad and well worth the money I spent.

Newsreading is decent, but syncing is painful. 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.

Superbe. Appli superbe. Fais exactemetn ce qu on lui demande. Interface excellente. Bravo !

Best one. The only decent NNTP client for mobile.

Fairly good. The program delivers a primitive newsgroup reader. This program can be made better if they provide full functionality for pictures and mp4 multimedia downloads. A thumbnail image viewer is vital and it would be nice to have an auto slideshow of newsgroup pictures. Flipping through articles to view images is somewhat annoying. The program misbehave between picture flipping and saving to the camera roll. An auto viewer would resolve this issue! Still it does exactly what it currently stated in its ad.

Forget it.... Great idea but doesn't display images from the newsgroups. Waste of time.

Too slow.... Loading 500 or more articles from the same server using my Mac takes but a few seconds, but with this app it takes minutes. Skipping to the next article also requires that you scroll back up to the forward/backward arrow keys. So the app is functional but not great.

Broken by iOS 9. Can't load groups or post to groups since installing iOS 9. Hope you'll fix.

SAVE THE MONEY!. 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!

Could be so much better. 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 does'nt have to be. Compared with news clients on Mac OS and Windows, it's 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! Newstap's network code needs to be greatly improved. Newstap doesn't 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 doesn't 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.