Customer Reviews

PC Magazine

I like a good computer magazine; but I, like other reviewers, was sceptical about how well it would work on the Kindle. For me, the answer is not that well. The lack of images IS an issue, as is the USA slant, particularly on hardware. The I-Phone content is excessive for a PC mag and the hole where the Excel tips should be is inexcusable.

Two pluses: the section skip meant that it was quick to jump past articles that didn't interest me (very handy as it happens); and the free trial meant I didn't have to take other people's word for it but could reach my own conclusion.

In the spirit of that last comment, give it a try if you want, you have nothing to lose but I found nothing much to gain either and cancelled my subscription...

Surprisingly the Kindle has a very limited choice of IT magazines - PC Pro where are you? - I am an IT professional, I'm a voracious reader of IT publications, in my opinion PC Magazine is one of the poorest in print - On the Kindle it's even worse, with no pictures to add some sparkle, it's just dull poorly researched text, on the latest issue (Sep 10) there was just a single article of the remotest interest to me, just rehashed boring reviews of iPhone apps and anti-virus software! One did catch my eye - 10 Excellent tips for Excel 2010 - so I opened it to read, I could not believe my eyes at first, the whole article was 1 paragraph long with zero tips, I assume a kindle version publishing error, this just illustrates though the poor quality of this publication, which I am going to cancel my subscription for now.

Very few articles, little real editorial content, no illustrations. A poor effort, I'm afraid. If it was complete, it might be worthwhile, but even then it's the US edition and of limited value to UK customers. A pity, as it's the only PC mag available at the moment.

Aside from the very annoying voice of the american woman who reads it out loud for you on the kindle, the prices are set in USD $ and not GBP � , There is very little choice on the kindle for UK magazines this really needs to change as I was hoping to get BBC Focus And BBC wildlife magazines.

I agree with the other reviewers - the US-centric nature of the magazine grates, and overall, the content is lacking. The reviews don't format very well and really, an article about photo editing software that just lists (and not completely - notable absences include GIMP) the available software? A decent blog article could do better than this.

As an IT pro trying to do my bit for the environment I was willing to give the electronic version a go - I don't mind the lack of images as I can always see them on the internet but the whole thing is a complete waste as it is the American version. I can see the point of getting USA science magazines but, in IT, companies do different products for USA vs UK market so nearly everything discussed is useless info. Fortunately the free trial enabled me to discover this before parting with cash but I am still disappointed with Amazon for not pointing out it was the USA version on the UK Amazon website. DVD titles clearly state which region they are from - is it so hard to do the same for magazines? It never occurred to me to read other people's reviews prior to purchase as I know this magazine well, hmmm.

Very unimpressive. Here is the UK version? I don't need endlessly boring articles about American phones, apps, software and hardware.

Poor choice of magazines as yet, and the only pc magazine is the american edition with prices in US$.
Come on publishers, there is a big demand for UK edition magazines on Kindle

I was quite disappointed that this is a US edition, sold to me on Amazon's UK site. Hence not much use as there is no guarantee that what they are talking about is relevant to the UK, and obviously the prices are in dollars.

Trying to like the Kindle app but can't find any magazines of interest, compared with iTunes which has tons of UK editions.

Despite some of the unenthusiastic reviews of this product I was pleasantly surprised when I actually came to read it. I thought there were some very well written articles and reviews of the latest developments. I was particularly impressed by the article concerning the technical details of using solid state memory for video customer entertainment in new Boeing Dreamliner aircraft -- it was much better than having to endure yet another account of the latest video game performance.

In my opinion, the technical level of this magazine is above that of some of the run-of-the-mill products and although it is of USA flavour I find that of interest since where their market leads we follow. For a �.90 subscription per month it really is very good when you consider that most of the UK monthly computer magazines run out at about five pounds or more. You can't even buy a decent newspaper for �.90 And as far as I can tell this is the only PC magazine downloadable to Kindle.

I expect many of the review topics are covered elsewhere on the Internet for free (often, maybe not so well written?) but combined with the other articles and being in one handy place (e.g. in my pocket -- have you ever tried getting a copy of PC Pro or other similar sized magazines in your pocket?) I find it of great convenience. When you're busy and have lots of other things to read it's very handy to have a concise digest arrive monthly.

Ordinarily I think I would award this product 4 stars but since it's so ridiculously cheap it's well worth *****. Recommended.