MS NOW: Live & Breaking News

I just updated the app last night to MS NOW”, and so I’m not completely familiar with the changes from the old, MSNBC app. But one change that I have noted is an especially unfortunate one. It used to be easy to share videos with others, simply by clicking on the share button that appeared on just about all the videos. And now it’s missing. I hope this is just an oversight and will be corrected soon. Other glitches: it used to be fairly simple to switch from portrait to landscape view. Now the app seems to be set up to primarily watch in portrait view, which is much less convenient when watching on the tablet. They also don’t seem to have their “update” times figured it out. When I looked at it this morning, many videos were shown to have been last updated one hour ago, even though many of them were posted last night or earlier. Other than these complaints, which I don’t consider minor, the app has generally been a pretty good one. Gives the ability to watch segments of of broadcasts for many of the top people at MSNOW/MSNBC. (Note: I assume anyone reading this review already knows that this network has a decided liberal bias. I personally am a moderate and prefer news from reporters without a bias. But I like to get a wide range of perspectives in my news intake. And I respect the work of several of the MSNOW/MS NBC reporters, tho not all.)

I watch MSNBC every day, sometimes I have it on all day, and the app lets me watch it while I’m away from home. App works very well EXCEPT that it freezes frequently and usually I can’t get it to unfreeze. Sometimes, after several minutes, it will begin to play again on its own but usually it stays stuck. I then have to go back to the MSNBC Home page, select Live TV and hope it will play correctly. In the meantime I’ll have missed part of the program. And sometimes, when a live program has frozen, it won’t let me go back to the MSNBC Home page at all and I actually have to turn my device off, then back on, select the MSNBC app... and start all over. This is very annoying and such a pain that I often just quit watching - which is certainly not what I want to do! But when a live program has frozen twice, or more, during a single viewing, it is just too aggravating and frustrating to go through the process of trying to get it to unfreeze and restart. Grrrrrrr!

I have really enjoyed this app on my iPad and iPhone for the past eight years since I got introduced to the Rachel Maddow show. The app works perfectly fine most of the time. As of late it’s been hard to start and Paul’s a show but hopefully technical support can get those bags word out. on another note the main thing I’m very sad about is that Rachael Maddow has went to one day a week, her show is only on Monday nights. Rachael Maddow was rated number one for many years in a row and I cannot understand is it today why they pulled her back to one day a week, I feel that this is a big mistake and that MSNBC is going to regret in the coming months as they notice ratings dropping dramatically in the 9 PM airtime slot due to Rachael‘s departure Tuesday through Friday, I sincerely wish that MSNBC and Rachel could re-negotiate her contract and at least have Rachel on maybe two or three nights a week and then Alex Wagner‘s new show the remaining nights, and I think your ratings will do much better with a more even mix of the two programs, Have own air the Rachel Meadows show on Monday and Tuesday evenings in the 9 PM timeslot as usual and then have on Alex Wagner‘s new show …….. Alex Wagner tonight on Wednesday Thursday and Friday!! I hope the producersavid N read these comments and Watch how the ratings go this fall and reconsider bringing Rachael back at least two nights a week because she is absolutely the best in TV journalism and I think that the ratings will show that this fall…. Just my take on MSNBC’S programming for the fall lineup…..David N.