ChinesePod

First thing I noticed upon the update is that my decks have all disappeared so I have to re-add all the vocabs I previously saved for my learning. This is certainly not in line with the goal of the app which is to encourage learning and makes it fun, not frustrating. The app has many potential but the obvious lack of planning ahead in its development and not understanding how students learn can prove to be detrimental down the road.

Good content, a bevy of features for learners of all levels, the app architecture and layout is very well designed, and the interface is fairly user friendly; however, I have to slash 2 stars because the app simply doesn't deliver everything smoothly. Its a shame, because this could easily be a 5 star app and judging from the features included, they have the software engineering talent to make that a reality. As others have mentioned, there are bugs which make using the app a frustrating experience. For example, I tried listening to an episode via streaming, but it constantly pauses or restarts. That makes it impossible to concentrate. As a result I cannot incorporate learning on the go into my schedule. I purchased a one year subscription so I am invested in seeing a turnaround. I hope someone from Chinesepod will read this and make some changes and maybe give me an extra two month as I really haven't felt like dealing with the app on account of the bugs I encountered and am wasting my membership.

The lessons don't have any excercise material. Also it crashes all the time. When you play a lesson and turn off the screen, the audio stops. After the latest update the audio also stops when you minimize the app. This worked before (great job making it worse with an update). Sorry to say but the app is really terrible. This is really sad since the Chinese pod website is so amazingly good.