It’s all very well being at the bleeding edge, but I have to say when the FT iPad HTML5 web app insisted I dick about with clearing cache settings and restarting my device to complete install, I did do a double-take.
By all means request this of me (a consummate mobile technology geek) but I wonder how many normobs (“normal mobile users”) will complete these instructions easily and accurately. They bought the iPad — in part — to free themselves of this kind of jiggery-pokery.
I’d go so far as to suggest that most FT subscribers would sooner pay an extra bit of cash to cover the Apple share for Pearson than have to expose themselves to words like ‘cache’. I’d also venture to suggest that most iPad users have never actually restarted their devices mid-use as these instructions require.
What is your view?
2 thoughts…
1. Would most consumers know what ‘restart the device’ means? Why not say ‘turn it off and on again’? (and as a bonus question… *why* is this step needed?)
2. It might be polite for the FT to explain whether or not cache emptying would cause any collateral damage… like, for example, flushing any other cached content from other HTML5 sites you had already downloaded for offline reading later.
Us Android users don’t have to mess about like that when installing stuff. Seems like FT haven’t done a very good job at that!