The Tap! FAQ

Tap! is the magazine for everyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch!

We trawl through the App Store to find amazing apps and awesome games for your device, and then review them properly – see our Review Manifesto below – to help you spend your money wisely. We also thoroughly test a broad selection of hardware accessories, show you how to get the best from and do exciting things with your device, and take you behind the scenes with interviews, features and more. We love the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch as much as you do!

I am/represent a software/hardware developer – how can I tell you about my product?
Send press releases – or, better, a cheery little personal note – to pr@tapmag.co.uk. You’re also welcome to send samples to Units 1&2 Cotterell Court, Monmouth Place, Bath, BA1 2NP, UK, but note that we won’t necessarily feature them in the magazine.

We’d also be delighted to share app promo codes on the @tapmaguk Twitter account; send them to pr@tapmag.co.uk, and if we like what we see, we’ll give them away to our followers.

My app/game/kit got a great score; can I link to it and get the logo?
Congratulations! Yes, you’re welcome to link to your app or game review page on this site. And we’ll happily supply logos in a range of sizes and formats for online and print use; they're free to use except in certain commercial contexts. Get in touch!

I’d like to advertise or discuss other commercial opportunities; who should I talk to?
Get in touch with Julian Tozer (julian.tozer@futurenet.com, 020 7042 4273), who can put together innovative, hard-working packages to help you achieve your marketing objectives.

How can I get the magazine?
Tap! is a digital edition that you can read on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch through our app, which is available on the App Store.

And every two months, there'll be a great print edition compilation of the pick of the apps, games kit and features that you'll be able to pick up from many newsagents.

Who do I speak to if I have a problem with my subscription?
Email app@tapmag.co.uk with any support queries.

Do you cover Android, Windows Phone, webOS or BlackBerry?
Nope. All iOS, all the time.

Are you just a bunch of Apple fanboys?
Certainly not. We’re nothing to do with Apple, and our only job is to offer you independent help and advice. If Apple does something stupid, we’ll call it out, and if it makes a bad product, we’ll say so.
We’re Mac and PC friendly, too; we work hard to ensure that, whenever we’re talking about doing things on your desktop or laptop computer, it’s relevant to both Mac OS X and Windows.

Why ‘Tap!’ anyway?
Last century, the personal computer had a huge impact on how we work and play, and bundled up in all that was the graphical user interface and the mouse, a device that let you directly – albeit not as directly as a touch interface – manipulate objects on-screen. For thirty years, we’ve been clicking on things, but now the iPhone has brought a new interaction method to the mainstream: tapping. Using nothing more sophisticated than our fingers, we reach out and tap things on these new devices – and it’s just conceivable to think that we’re on the cusp of a revolution in how we all interact with our tech, switching from click to tap.

How can I get in touch?
Press releases pr@tapmag.co.uk
Letters letters@tapmag.co.uk
General hello@tapmag.co.uk
Tips tips@tapmag.co.uk
Advertising See ‘I’d like to advertise or discuss other commercial opportunities’ above
Twitter @tapmaguk
Letters 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW, UK
Parcels Units 1&2 Cotterell Court, Monmouth Place, Bath, BA1 2NP, UK

Visiting us? We’re just a few minutes from the bus and train stations in Bath, and a stone’s throw away from the Avon Street and SouthGate car parks.

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Who makes Tap‽
Tap! is published by Future Publishing Ltd, creators of MacFormat, T3, Total Film, TechRadar.com and many more. It’s lovingly crafted every month by…

Christopher Phin Editor editor@tapmag.co.uk
Graham Barlow Editor-in-Chief graham@tapmag.co.uk
Matthew Bolton Deputy Editor matt@tapmag.co.uk
Craig Grannell Games Editor craiggrannell@googlemail.com
Matt Gemmell Developer Evangelist tap@mattgemmell.com
Tom Harrod Production Assistant tom@tapmag.co.uk
…and a pool of expert writers and talented designers

Please only use the above contact details if you specifically want to get in touch with each individual. For more general enquiries, use the …@tapmaguk.co.uk email addresses listed in the ‘How can I get in touch?’ section above.

The Tap! Review Manifesto
Some magazines and websites don’t, frankly, do a very good job of reviewing apps, games, kit and more. Here’s the tell-tale sign to look out for: a straight description of what the app does – something you could glean yourself just by reading its page on the App Store – with a rushed, “oh, and it’s OK, but it could be better in some vague way” ‘analysis’ tacked on at the end. We don’t do that.

We carefully select the apps, games and kit we’re going to review, and then do it properly. We bring the decades of experience our core team and pool of specialist freelance writers has to bear, and spend proper quality time testing all this stuff in the real world. When you see a rating in Tap!, you can be sure it’s not the result of five minutes’ rushed tinkering. (And we don’t do half stars either; too often, that’s a cop-out.)

We’re not influenced in any way by our advertisers, and are completely independent from Apple or anyone else in the industry.