Popular Mechanics
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "This magazine really has gone downhill and it's a shame. I first subscribed about 20 years ago, and there was decent information in there and some fun things to build. I subscribed again this past year, redeeming some airline miles for a year subscription, and it's not even worth that.\n\nThe first issue I received had very short, maybe 1/4 page articles that touched on some of the basics of what they were talking about, but not much more than the bullet points of the topic. Gone are the in-depth analysis of yesteryear's issues and the magazine gone to the mainstream, dumbed down 'analysis,' if you could call it that.\n\nThe main article of that first issue was something like 'how to drive without GPS.' It was about a 4-5 page article about not using the GPS in your car and actually using a map. Really, this is a place where readers of popular mechanics need help? If it is, then the magazine is probably lost forever.\n\nGone are the days of fixing engines, building gadgets, and learning actually how things work. I'm sad to see that in an era of almost unlimited learning through the internet, Popular Mechanics has decided instead to write very basic articles that are probably also covered in Good Housekeeping.....\n\nEdit: Case in point, latest issue talked about how to cut your own hair, 3 different types of barbecue sauces you can make, and a holiday gift guide that's more apt for GQ as they recommended buying a $125 name brand flannel shirt. If you can get the subscription for free, there are usually 1-2 decent articles that may spark your curiosity to look up the topics online to find actual analysis. If you can't get it for free, save your money and just visit their website and avoid all the Good Housekeeping and GQ topics."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I cancelled the auto-renewal on my subscription after three issues. The magazine is full of thinly guised and sometimes overt product placements. The magazine doesn\'t even resemble what it used to be. It used to be a good read full of interesting articles.\n\nThis week\'s article from the editor was titled, "My Anti-Wall Rant". The article was about how he had remodeled his house taking down many walls then having a party for neighbors and friends.\n\nIn the article, he gives a call-out (read advertisement) for the company who did the work and the paint used to repaint the interior when it was finished. It appears as if the Editor used his position to obtain a deal on remodeling his house. If true, is this ethical?\n\nThe magazine is very thin and articles are very basic and/or unrelated to Popular Mechanics, ("Sail with a Cool Couple", "Go Behind the Scenes on Hellboy").'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-2 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I can\'t believe how little is in the magazines and how dumb it is. For instance - I got a survival issue. It said "make your own power, shelter, and grow your own food". Sounded interesting. So, "make your own power" ... it said to buy a generator. For "shelter", it said to buy a modular house. For "grow your own food", it said to make a garden (and buy a $1000 wheat mill). The rest of the article, supposedly about survival, is a rambling story of how the author doesn\'t have any survival skills and how his father put sprinklers on top of the house he built to help save it from a wildfire. A project in the magazine consisted of a "candy dispenser" that drops candy downward and through some pegs to land at the bottom. I remember when this magazine was good and had actual projects, like making radios.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "i had forgotten how many advertisements are in magazines i could not even find my ole time favorite out of pop mechanics . I use to like the dept. inventions wanted,this was reason i got mag.could not find so u can notify publisher they can just throw my copy away would save them the postage and me the trouble of filling my trash I hate paying for advertisements if u could give a negative star I WOULD so save ure money don't buy."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-2 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Miss the Popular Mechanics before it was (hipster) "popular" to be a mechanic.\n\nThere\'s always something or another which is just interesting enough to keep the sub going, but it\'s not\nthe Popular Mechanics that made me who I am today.\n\nUnless you practice ritualistic grooming of your facial hair, before sipping some small batch whiskey and\nwearing $300 jeans to fix an old truck that you paid more for than a new one would cost, there\'s much less to read each month.\nTurns out that the ads are often more compelling than the content.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "I hadn't picked up a popular mechanics magazine in 10-15 years, but on a whim (and what I thought to be an excellent lightning deal) subscribed through Amazon. Unfortunately it appears the intellect has gone downhill, and popular is now more synonymous with mediocrity. The magazine is riddled with articles that read like a GQ or sky-mall magazine... Im not sure who this magazine is intended to appeal to, but certainly it is not my cup of tea."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2016', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "Too much technology. This magazine needs to get back to basics. I've got the complete set of Popular Mechanics from the early 1900's through at least 1940. It was a great magazine about mechanical methods & concepts. It's turned into a 6th grade level Popular Science."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'More ads than articles, and even the few articles are basically ads themselves.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I grew up reading Popular Science, Cycle, etc., but never really looked into Popular Mechanics. I recently retired and found my reading materials library was running short quite frequently, so when an offer came up to subscribe to Pop Mechanics I decided to give it a try. It has turned out to be one of the magazines I look forward to getting each month because it offers variety presented in a reasonable amount of detail. So many things that used to be done in depth have either been "dumbed-down" or have ceased publication. Pop Mechanics seems to hit a nice balance of enough information in their articles to answer your questions or present a fair assessment of a situation, without going overboard. I admit that some of the articles leave me wishing the publisher had done more on certain stories, but at the same time I have more than enough to go on and do my own research. And kudos to them for continuing to publish in a hard-copy format when so many (too many) others have pulled their heads back into their digital shells. Don\'t get me wrong, I\'m not a Luddite; I simply like having a physical medium to read at times. It\'s nice not to have to make sure my tablet is charged and connected to my network, plus the physical magazine is much lighter to hold on to when I\'m reading in bed, compared to holding onto my tablet or trying to balance my laptop on my bed covers. Pop Mechanics does a fine job of getting the mechanical principles of how things work across, and it would help a lot of younger people if they spent a little time investigating this part of their lives, because one day they are going to need to know how some physical principle or property applies or works and all they\'re going to know how to do is download apps onto their phones. Popular Mechanics relates to the real world, the one we all live in.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Popular Mechanics & Popular Science are the best things to read to expand your mind!'}]