I have quite enjoyed reading WIRED magazine on my iPad and have written about the “app” on my e-Learning Stuff Blog where I review iPad apps.
I reviewed when it first came out and then four months later.
Over the last few months I have “missed” a few issues, but I was never one to read every issue of WIRED anyway, or as was the case the last issue I got was a paper version as I was on a plane to Inverness. During that time WIRED have updated their app a few times.
You can then when going back to look at the app to find that all my back issues were missing and it appeared that I would need to re-buy the issues I had already bought. Prior to this the app would indicate which issues I hadn’t bought, which issues I had bought and downloaded, and which issues I had bought but could download again. Now it seemed to indicate that all my back issues were gone and I would need to buy them again!
No I wouldn’t do that.
Was annoyed so didn’t pursue it further and certainly didn’t buy another issue either…
A few days ago I looked again at the app, wondering if it had been fixed, and from the first look, no they hadn’t. I then decided to do a quick Google search and see what others were saying and doing and it was then that I found out what had happened.
It would seem that updating the app and a change in the process of how apps deal with in-app purchases meant that though the app shows all my back issues as needing to be bought again… if I went and purchased them, it would say “You’ve already purchased this. Tap OK to download it again for free.”
So I can get my back issues back for free.
Now the challenge is to remember which ones I bought… have to go and check the e-mail. Not as simple as it should be!