2019-02-03|Ottawa Citizen app's Player

To whom it may concern

• This is a bug report on Ottawa Citizen ePaper app on the iPhone (iOS). The Player is great because I can listen to the newspaper with proper auto-advancing to the next article. Thank you!

• However, the headline text (SOW THEM AND FORGET ABOUT THEM) overlaps with the header section (HOME LIFE • B8) of the Player when it is in landscape orientation.

  

• Sometimes, a progress bar with phantom time (0:21) mysteriously shows up, completely covering the headline text.

  

• Now, please show scrolling text below each title, or at least stay on the same page as the Page View when the Player's button "Done" is clicked. At present, there is a complete disconnect between the Player and the Text of the article. I always have to go back and forth many pages among the Player, Page View and Text View, just to check what was spoken.

• Also, please add "Rewind (-10, REW)" and "Fast Forward (+10, FF)" buttons to the Player for skipping backward/forward 10 seconds or so, also operable by double-tapping the left-hand side and right-hand side of the screen, respectively (cf. YouTube app, Netflix app).

• The updated Ottawa Citizen ePaper app reproducibly crashes if "Native iOS text-to-speech" in Settings > Reading is set to "OFF" and "Listen" is tapped in the Page View or the speaker icon is tapped in the Text View. The Player also reproducibly crashes when it encounters an article that lacks a blue article highlight (e.g., "CORRECTION" on 2019-06-24, starting from the first article on Page A1). Please fix it up ASAP.

• Thank you very much for your attention.

To whom it may concern

• Although the headline text overlapping problem has been fixed for good, sometimes the headline text in the Player ("A") does not correspond to that in the Page View.

  

• Also, the page number in the Player ("FINANCIAL POST • B7") is different from that in the Page View ("Ottawa Citizen | 23 of 32"). Please make them all consistently sequential (i.e., 1, 2, 3, ...), or at least combination A1 (1), A2 (2), ..., B1 (9), ...

• Thank you very much for your attention.

To whom it may concern

• I recently switched my smartphone to iPhone 12 (iOS). Now, the Ottawa Citizen ePaper app crashes every time I tap "Listen" from the Page View or from the Text View. The crash happens when "Native iOS text-to-speech" is set to ON. Please fix it up ASAP! I am attaching active paid ePaper subscription information.

  

• Thank you very much for your attention.

To whom it may concern

• Selecting the Ottawa Citizen ePaper app's "Copy" results in overlapping text at the top, preventing buttons "Cancel" and "Select All" from functioning. Please fix it up!

  

• Thank you very much for your attention.

To whom it may concern

• The re-designed Ottawa Citizen ePaper app's "Listen" feature repeats some articles but not all. Please fix it up!

  Could you please provide the issue date, page and title of the article which is affected by the issue, so that we can test on our end?

• For example, the behaviour occurs in Ottawa Citizen on 2022-11-29 (Tuesday) while listening continuously in sequence from the beginning to the end.
  0. On Page A1, I click icon for "Listen" at bottom-left corner.

  1. ePaper app starts from first article "Airport gets new federal funding", which is played 2 times.

  2. After playing it 2 times, ePaper app proceeds to second article "Cheer squad disbanded after texts", which is played 2 times.

  3. After playing it 2 times, ePaper app proceeds to third article "Ex-citizen transit boss hopes LRT report will be 'cathartic", which is also played 2 times.

  4. Then, ePaper app proceeds to fourth article "Proposed cuts upset home-office federal staff", which is played once, no problem.

  5. Then, ePaper app proceeds to fifth article "Controversial housing bill passes despite criticism", which is played once, no problem.

  6. Then, ePaper app proceeds to sixth article "City manager resigns post before LRT report released", which is played 2 times.

  7. After playing it 2 times, ePaper app proceeds to seventh article "Minor injuries in crash igniting fire consuming vehicle, which is played once, no problem.

  8. ...

• Here is another issue. Ottawa Citizen ePaper app experiences spectacular self-oscillation, as shown in YouTube movie here. My iPhone 12 is running the very latest iOS 16.1.1.

• Digital Support wrote:

  Sorry for the late reply. Could you please try deleting the 2022-11-29 edition then download it again? As for the other issue, please try closing the app, remove it from the background then reboot your device.

• First, very good news. I shut down the iPhone, restarted iOS, and relaunched Ottawa Citizen app. The amusing at first but extremely annoying oscillation between landscape orientation and portrait orientation no longer happens!!

• Second, however, is not so good, as the re-downloaded 2022-11-29 edition of Ottawa Citizen still exhibits the same behaviour of repeating articles in "Listen" even after restarting iOS and relaunching Ottawa Citizen app. So, this problem has not been resolved.

• Digital Support wrote:

  We tested the listening function in theNovember 29 edition of the Ottawa Citizen and were unable to reproduce the problem. No repeating articles happened when trying to listen. Could you please provide a screen recording of this problem so we can investigate further?

• Here is the information that you requested.

  

• Here is the screen recording.

• It seems that if an article shows up on Page A1, then "Listen" plays it 2 times.

• Digital Support wrote:

  Can you please try to offload the app on your device and let us know the result? Go to Settings > General Tap on iPad/iPhone Storage Next, tap on Ottawa Citizen app Tap on Offload App > Reinstall App

• I followed your instructions to "Offload" exactly as described, and also restarted the iPhone 12 (iOS). Please note that the repeating problem in "Listen" still persists in Today's ePaper: Ottawa Citizen ePaper 2022-11-06 (Tuesday).

• Also, iPhone Orientation Self-Oscillation is back.

• The only way to stop this pseudo-psychedelic behaviour is to turn ON "Portrait Orientation Lock".

  

• Digital Support wrote:

  We are able to replicate this in our end and will be passed on to our development team for further investigation. In the meantime, kindly please disablethe Native iOS text-to-speech button to avoid the repetition of the articles on Listen. Also, kindly please please provide an app feedback from your device so we can include this in our escalation to the relevant department. To do this, please open app > More > Send us Feedback

• I did exactly what you had asked, i.e., sending feedback via Ottawa Citizen ePaper app.

• Digital Support wrote:

  We have checked and we haven't received any feedback from the app from you. Kindly please try again.

• Digital Support wrote:

  Unfortunately, we still have not received the feedback from the app. Kindly please try again and make sure to include the technical logs: To do this, please open app > More > Send us Feedback

• You asked me 3 times, and I complied 3 times. Here is the proof for my latest submission!!!

• Digital Support wrote:

  Apology. While sending feedback, could you please change the recipient to care@pressreader.com?

• Digital Support wrote:

  Please make sure to include the technical log files before sending the feedback.

• Digital Support wrote:

  The feedback body from your app should look like this. (Please refer to the image below) Kindly please try again and make sure to include the technical logs:

• Digital Support wrote:

  We'd love to hear how we did today. Please click on one of these images to rate our customer support:

• I am extremely dissatisfied with the support, to say the least. I complied PressReader's request and provided all the information including screen recording which took me a very long time and efforts to prepare because PressReader could not reproduce the problem. Then, PressReader mysteriously demanded that all the correspondence had to be sent from the Ottawa Citizen ePaper app instead of via e-mail. So, I gladly sent it including the technical log files, but PressReader demanded identical information again and again and again. What the f*ck is wrong with you??? I am f*cking pissed off!!!

• Thank you very much for your attention.

To whom it may concern

• Digital Support wrote:

  It appears that you have been able to access your ePaper account recently. Please advise us if this is not the case.

• Thank you for asking me if I am still experiencing the same issues with the Ottawa Citizen ePaper app. The answer is "YES", I am still experiencing the same 2 issues with the Ottawa Citizen ePaper app as follows.
  1. Ottawa Citizen iPhone App's Player - YouTube
     • repeating articles in the listening function with Native iOS text-to-speech enabled

  2. iPhone Orientation Self-Oscillation - YouTube
     • iPhone Orientation Self-Oscillation (screen recording)

• Digital Support wrote:

  This is an email to remind you that your request (#379875) has been pending and awaits your feedback. Please note that this request will be marked as solved if we do not receive a reply from you within 2 days.

• THE PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED! READ THE F*CKING MESSAGE THAT I HAD SENT YOU ON 2023-03-02!!

• Thank you very much for your attention.

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"Sunatori, Go Simon" <GS.Sunatori@HyperInfo.CA>

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• 2024-12-17T20:44:49.000Z