Microsoft sent me a report that our Windows 8.1 tablet app is having a crash-on-launch bug with today's featured articles; I've applied a quick fix and am submitting it to the Windows Store for update.
This app was originally a prototype which I figured we'd rewrite if
there was continued demand, but Windows 8/8.1 tablet apps just haven't taken the world by storm so far and we've not put work into it in a while... but it does have a non-zero maintenance cost picking up these little bugs.
We may want to make sure we have an actual measure
of its traffic usage before making a decision, but we don't think it's
very high right now...
A few possibilities:
1) Officially support the app for Windows 8.1 tablets, add support for Windows Phone 8.1, and continue to work on updating and improving the app alongside Android and iOS.
2) Transition it to an unofficial app "in-place", and I'll poke at phone support, media playback, and UI experiments on my own time.
3) Pick an official end-of-life date and kill it off entirely. If and when I or someone else want to make an unofficial version they can pick up the source and create a new app entry for people to download.
Based on low demand and limited resources, I think we can safely throw out 1), so the choice is between 2) or 3).
-- brion