Hmm.... wonder if other papers will be doing something similar? Seems like an easy money spinner to me : )

They don't even want to look at the market
releasing a crossword ad game for 10 bucks.

I'm still partial to 2 Across, myself (which includes some NYT puzzles even in the free Lite version).

Looks like this may closely mimic 2 Across's excellent interface, in which you can swipe left/right across the clue to change clues.

Oh really, you would be a right idiot if you payed 10 bucks for that, no way apple.

R 6 ACROSS, = RIPOFF

Regarding the (relatively) high price of this app: To get access to the daily NYT crossword puzzles on the less expensive crossword apps requires a separate subscription ($40/year) with the NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/crosswords/index.html

Getting access to the 2009 daily puzzles for $10 is actually a good deal.

I'm guessing there will be a NYT Crossword 2010 app. Hope the price stays at $10.

To clarify, I hope they don't raise the price above $10 in 2010. (Price drops are always welcome).

I use Crosswords by StandAlone. I paid $10 for it and pay for the NY Times subscription. People who think this app is too expensive are probably not the market they are looking at. I have absolutely no problem paying for a good interface to do my puzzles. I have bought a lot of word games from the app store and nothing comes close to the amount of time I spend on Crosswords.

Still the price is way to much lipstick on a pig, you cant get round that.

Not sure why this is so hard to understand.

2Across with NYT daily puzzles = $46.00
Crosswords with NYT daily puzzles = $50
Official NYT daily puzzle app = $10

If you don't care about having the new NYT crossword puzzle every day, then this app isn't for you. But for people who enjoy the daily puzzle, this app is far less expensive than the alternatives. You can't get round that.

Wow, this is a great deal compared to the price of the monthly subscription. Even if you figure that you could manually download 1000's of puzzles from the archive into 2Across in just one month,

Just to clarify: this $10 version includes *all* the NYTimes archived puzzles up to 2009? Or just all the puzzles from (and throughout) 2009?

And hey George, you are a sounding like a bit of a ranting lunatic man. This is an amazing amount of content for $10. We're talking 100's or even 1000's of hours of gameplay for a single flat fee. Pretty amazing. And even more amazing that the cheapest way to get this content is through the iPhone!

It seems that some people go into automatic pilot and loudly proclaim disdain for any app over 99¢. A book of NY Times crossword puzzles (500 of them) lists for $18. A book of 50 is almost $9. Which lipstick and what pig are you talking about, George?

Obiter: It includes every puzzle that has / will appear in 2009 (day-by-day) and an archive of over 4000 puzzles, though I am not sure if that's one a day for the past 11 years or...?

They didn't even bother making a custom UI and just used the default ones. Just goes to show the effort they made for this mindless cash in.

One of the devs here in TA can make that app in a few days.

Oh well, then again if you look at NYT's financials, they'll be in the shit soon.

I don't believe anyone should complain about the interface, it follows Apple's guidelines, and you're getting a great discount on the IP of the puzzles themselves. TA regulars still struggles with issues of IP, believing only game developers deserve money, not the originators and holders of IP.

@Ted
Nope. I don't have anything against the IP holders.

The thing is you are New York Times, you're an American Institution, how about putting a little love on your app. Maybe skin it to make it look like it was torn right out of the newspaper.

Little things that show that you care for your customers, even though the real reason is just you're doing this just for revenue.

If anyone gets this app can you post a review on the interface? I have not found a crosswords app yet that I like the interface and $9.99 is a bit much if I don't care for the interface. If it is a good interface than I may bite on it.

Would be nice to see a trial with a couple of puzzles in it.

Dudehuge go read up on the apple interface guidelines or UI in general, not everyone wants a cheesy skin of what the app does every time they switch app?

I take it you don't have a mac? any app that does this on mac is usually hated by the community except in special circumstances. On windows, yes, you get a different UI for every app and it is awful.

For $10 I would hope this is much better than their terrible news app (of which the latest update still crashes occasionally and is very slow).

Good lord. Complaints over the price of a $10 crossword app? That gives you access to all the NYT crosswords back until 1996? This comes out to like $.002 cents per puzzle. Puzzles of excellent quality.

I can't believe people are bitching and whining over this. Go do the math to see how much it would cost you to buy the paper every day, or buy them in collected editions at the bookstore, or do them online on your computer, or even do them on the Blackberry, and compare. I think this is one terrific bargain.

Hi everyone -- I actually bought this and played for about an hour this evening.

It is a highly responsive and feature rich app with lots of nice little touches and classy accouterments. It also has competitive online community features that work quite beautifully and are easy to setup and jump right into.

I was a die hard 2Across acolyte but the NYTimes XWord app converted me instantly. It is fantastic and a fantastic deal. I've actually just canceled my $45/year crossword subscription.

Hmm to many plants post here me thinks!

Not a comment, but a question...well, a few questions
They say that this app lets you play over 4000 classic NY Times puzzles.
Are these downloaded right into the app when you buy it? Do you have to have WiFi to access them? Do you have to have a subscription to play the classics, or just the new puzzles?
I don't want a subscription because I don't do puzzles all that often. However, if the price includes all of those 4K puzzles, I'll buy this in a minute-- they'll take me the rest of my life at the rate I do puzzles!

I bought this and I end up playing it all the time. You just can't beat the quality of the NYT puzzles.

Very nice. I just wish there were a way to turn off the timer! It's quite distracting.

Turning off the timer and the music are musts.

I should have read a bit further before shelling out the $10.

Why on earth does a crossword puzzle game that is designed for a music player need music? Why? Why?

Anyone else notice that the people complaining about the price can't spell?

Not the intended demographic, methinks....