ABC 33/40 – Working For You

My schedule doesn’t always allow me to watch the local news, but I can always depend on the App to keep me up to date with both local and national news !! Excellent resource !!!!

I have always trusted 33/40 and will continue!

Something needs to be done too crack down on commercials That is all we watch if you’re gonna do something about it do it

With the latest app update, things aren’t working as well as one would like. Intermittently, if I click a notification from ABC3340 without first opening the app manually, not only does the notification not come up, but the app doesn’t fully open. Now, within the last day or so, and without benefit of another update, a new problem has emerged. If I open the app to the news feed, the article titles are partially hidden by images; and the only way I can read the titles is by using a rarely-needed VoiceOver feature called Screen Recognition. But, with this feature turned on, there are times when the article will not come up when activated. This was briefly a problem several years ago, before we even had Screen Recognition, so the news feed was essentially unusable. Now, not only is the news feed unusable, but so are the various categories of articles that can be accessed via the menu. In short, the only times that the app is usable is when a notification just happens to come up, and I am taken directly to the article in question. Please get rid of those images, which VoiceOver reads as _teasers”. Also, please fix the bug which sometimes causes the app not to open when a notification is clicked. Update: As of this evening, the app wouldn’t even open; so, I copied all of its notifications, pasted them into a note, then deleted and reinstalled the app; but, it still will not open. Please fix!

Apparently the “live broadcast” is not dependable. After the storms of last night, and me only having antenna for local channels, I went looking to see if there was a live broadcast of the local 33/40 TV. I really could care less about watching live TV on my iPad, but sure would be nice to be able to carry James Spann into my basement with iPad and watch his weather coverage downstairs if needed. Found on their website that this app streams live coverage. Downloaded and crap, its CRAP. First, click on the “watch button” and its new clips from two days ago and only like 2 mins long. ONCE the playlist actually had “live coverage” as the first listing on the play list. I tried watching it, but after commercials, I got a splash screen that said “be back soon”......they lied. After 10 mins of this, I closed out the app, and opened it back up. NOW, THE “LIVE COVERAGE DOES NOT EVEN SHOW UP AT ALL UNDER THE WATCH TAB. ITS JUST DAYS OLD CLIPS. They either stream live or they DON’T. So far, its not worth my time OR effort.

First the good: I love the notifications throughout the day to keep me informed that events are happening. I also love the "dark mode" look of the app. It makes it very easy on the eyes. Now the bad: Opening notifications does not take you to the story you want to read leaving the user to scroll endlessly with a high probability of never even finding the desired story. Stories seem to jump around while scrolling through and just rearrange themselves with no particular pattern. Clicking many stories takes the user to some other story at random. The bottom line: I love 33/40 and I love the notifications. For this alone I will keep it on my phone but the app developer needs to clean this thing up and make it usable because in its current state it's a borderline disaster. Many would say don't complain because it's free but I am some one who gladly pays for quality apps and would pay a reasonable fee for this one in a polished state.

This is an updated review based on the fact that nothing seems to have improved from a notifications standpoint. And because they haven’t fixed the issue, even though their release notes indicate they fixed it, I’m downgrading my rating to 1 star. The issue: When certain notifications pop up, I click on them and it just takes me to the “Explore” menu. The article from the notification is no where to be found. Either the app is dysfunctional or ABC is releasing articles and retracting them. If the issue is fixed, I will happily upgrade my review. ****** ABC, when you send me a push notification for a news article, I expect to click on the notification and be taken to that article. This doesn’t happen.

This app is pretty good, but I noticed 2 things that could help. During severe weather, I need to be able to use my phone, but also keep watching/listening to the weather broadcast. Could a feature be built in like other apps have be built into the app where you can navigate away and still have a screen for viewing or at least listen to the broadcast? And also maybe somehow could you eliminate the ads that have to be played during an emergency weather situation. Thanks in advance! Glad I have this app option.

I like the ease of use and fair unbiased reporting that I have come to trust over many years. The only thing I would like to see change is how you view pictures that show on the main article. For example when you click on a story the picture at the top is cropped and many times you can’t see the details of the picture. There’s no way to click on the picture to enlarge or open separately. If that was fixed this app would be perfect.

I trusted the weather ap to warn me when the weather turned sour. It did show we were under a tornado watch, but when the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for our area, the weather ap never mentioned any of them. The 33/40 News ap did give one of the tornado warnings - I checked then to see whether the weather ap showed the storm and found the weather ap did not even list any of the warnings! The News ap is a nuicance as it interrupts several times a day with "news" alerts for things several counties away - and usually nothing of "stop and be interrupted" importance. I am deleting both aps!

I have tried many times to use this app. It's slow, the news is old, articles are full of advertising that I have to maneuver through to try to finish the article. I'm assuming that the local stories are self edited because of the poor spelling and atrocious grammar. I'm not saying that all of the articles have this problem but there are plenty. I would be embarrassed to recommend this app to anyone. That being said, I'm deleting the app! Sorry 33/40, Get it together! I'll contemplate trying you again at a later date.

I got this app mostly for the live weather broadcast when we have bad storms. I wish I could customize the notifications I receive. It seems like I am getting a notification every 30 minutes and it’s excessive. Probably 90% of the notifications I couldn’t care less about. The interface is also clunky and sometimes difficult to navigate

I've been waiting for ABC3340 to provide an app. I had all the other major local news. But when I find a great story I can't share on Facebook or twitter ! So I end up finding the story I want on another news app & share their store instead. Could have 5 stars...,,

I really like that the app provides a live feed, breaking news alerts, and news articles. It would be great if you added the dates and times the articles were published!

The only reason I downloaded the app to begin with was to be able to read the Weather blog, but now it opens the blog in Safari. And even though I have completely turned off the notification, I still get notified about every bleeping things that happens around Birmingham and the world. Furthermore, WVTM's radar app is visually easier and nicer to look at.

Most of the time when I get a news notification from this app and try to open the app to read it, the article isn't anywhere to be found!! So frustrating! The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because of all the local news apps I have, this one gets the alerts to me first.

This is the worst app. I have ever used, because every time I try to play one of the videos , no matter which one it is, the prompt comes up and says this video is not available at this time. It should work fine as I am on iOS 9.3.4. It has been this way for over a year, and is still the same. I have even had this same problem with other phones.

I have to delete and re-download the app to refresh the stories. My push notifications stopped, the entire app just freezes.

Just upgraded to the newest version of 33/40. Too confusing and will not turn sideways. I like to prop my iPad sideways, to read and play, but can't get it to turn. Wish I had the old version back.

I get notifications on my phone but when I click on them the app opens and the report is nowhere to be found-even when doing a search. Needs an update.

I will receive a news stoey alwrt on my home sxreen that interests me, and I’ll click t to take me to the story.... yet t never does. It will only bring me to the home page within the app. I’ll browse the stories there but NEVER see the story that interested me! What gives? There isn’t even a search tool to try and find the story either. Gets on my nerves!

What's the deal with the orientation of the news on the screen? Ever since you asked me to download an "improved" version of the App, on my iPad, I have to constantly keep turning it from vertical to horizontal to vertical to horizontal and on and on! This is unacceptable! I can watch the news on other stations that keep it horizontal like yours used to be. Please fix this! K.Courtney

When you get news flashes and click on them to read, you get something else totally different.

Very annoying to get a notification, click on notification to read about the story and the story notified of is not even there.

This is the worst news app I have ever had the displeasure of having on my devices. The notifications that come to my devices, when swiped, will not take you to the story. Most of the time the story you are notified of is nowhere in the app nor in any section thereof. Worst news app ever, good thing it's free, that's about all it's worth!

I really liked this app until you up dated it. Now all I get is a white screen that tells me it will ask me about something and that was 2 weeks ago.... I’m still waiting for it to ask and for the app to give me news again.

The app has been very slow to respond for a few weeks now. When I try to access the weather portion of the app it freezes entirely and I have to close the app altogether. Try again but no avail. This app used to work well but something is obviously interfering with the performance.

In this new version, the traffic part of the app does not track your location on the map or show you where you are on on the map. I found that feature helpful and the lack of it frustrating.

I'm tired of getting a new alert for the same story over and over again. Please fix this, one alert per news story would be ideal.

Was interested in following local events but the notifications are increasingly annoying from not affecting me with traffic alerts to announcing headlines that do not have a story anywhere within the app. Unfortunately it has led me to just uninstall. Hopefully will improve in the future.

Like the new update (7/1/15) but the radar is not working!

I do not like it. It is much harder to use. The previous one was much easier. I do not have tv in my house so I relied on watching news cast on my phone and I have not been able to watch a newscast since it was updated

This app is doing what it did in previous versions. When you get a notification & click on it expecting to read or see THAT topic....you get the home screen. And what the notification told you is NOWHERE to be found!!!!

Whenever I click the weather tab on the side menu, the app shuts down and closes. The app was recommended by james spann to use for weather, so a little disappointed that the most relevant feature crashes the app.

On Friday, January 13, 2017, I installed the latest update to your app. Since then, I haven't been able to read an article. When I click on an article to read, it opens, I can see the picture, but there is no text. Please look into the situation.

I'm very disappointed in the new app. Before you could click on weather then radar and see a map of the state to determine how close rain/storms were to your location. Now the radar part is useless to me now. Very disappointed!!!!

There doesn't seem to be a way to moderate which notifications you receive. Ironically, in the app settings, it actually says, "Don't worry, we won't send to many." Ha!

Took forever for this to update. Hate the new site. Can't we just get news headlines like old site. Why do you have to make everything so difficult for older people. Will not be a fan of 33/40 news anymore.

James Spann is the best weatherman in Alabama, maybe anywhere. However, this app is just poor. Very cluttered, alerts are spotty at best, just... Poor. Spann needs his own app and 33/40 needs to step it up and do better than this.

I like the ABC 3340 app but numerous push notifications throughout the day is not necessary. Please reduce the number of notifications issued.

Can I just have my James Spann weather app back PLEASE!! I like to just open 1 app all in 1 screen to get my weather not go through page after to see the weather, I could google it faster!!

Layout is confusing. The ad in the middle of everything is atrocious and if you even brush against it, a window opens in safari. Bad move abc/3340. I'll be looking for another news app.

Weather tab causes the app to crash. The main reason I downloaded was to get local weather.

As soon as you click on weather the app crashes and closes.

I would like my WEATHER ONLY app back please. The originally one that I could just hit it one time without going thru screens to get to the radar, simplified, option to track storms and it used my GPS to local me. This one STINKS!

The weather is the only reason I want this app and it is not nearly the quality it was on droids abc3340 app I want more access to James spann the rest I could care less about!

I have never been able to hear, see or read even one story on this app! Nothing happens when you tap the tabs. My WAIT app works fine, this one is worthless.

Normally I don't review apps but since this one has gone down the toilet I feel that I should share with everyone. Off to find another local news app now...

Was an easy to view great news. This is the worst I have seen. 4 pages of which nothing works. Keep searching. Don't waste your time with this.

This problem needs to be corrected ASAP since I view all my news apps in landscape mode.