is the learndevnow.com $99 offer any good?

LearnDevNow deletes reviews of their services online so that other users don't know about reality of their services. My post on FB was deleted: https://www.facebook.com/LearnNowOnline[^]

1 more thing about the LearnDevNow review : they claim that user can access videos via android devices, and that is not true. You can not watch videos on android devices it does not work. It shows the interface, but videos do not show up. In other words you have to be all the time in front of your Microsoft machine /PC (desktop or laptop), and be connected to the internet in order to access all the material: videos, Sample Code, Courseware (are not pdfs, instead they provide no user friendly files that need an special viewer and each Ch01.pdc file is a chapter) and Hands-on Lab Exercises (exe installers). It is not like Lynda.com where you can download a zip file and access the files easily. with LearnDevNow you have to use an installer for each training and install the exercise files. Also, LearnDevNow does not include exams inside the training like APPDev used to have. That was very useful in order to test things learned on each module/chapter. We already wasted more than 6k in Appdev material that now is useless and outdated! We are very disappointed with the new greedy business model / LearnDevNow approach for their users.

Hm… I'm looking at it: "Immediate access to 3,100 practical training videos". Aha. Training…

I personally do not understand the value of training in programming. I think an educated person can train herself/himself much better than any courses. Education is needed, not training, but you cannot "buy" education, especially at $99. This is what my experience tells me. I can see some deep difference between "trained personnel" and "real engineers" (scientists). The real ones are always self-trained, more or less. As to "trained personnel"… from all my experience I saw more harm then the use of them.

I don't want to insist on my point of view; maybe others have different experience; would be interesting to hear the opinions.

—SA

I've been using LearnDevNow for about a year and IMO it's AWESOME, as good as almost any online training you can get. IMO the only other training I've seen that's in the same ballpark for quality, is Pluralsight, but, PluralSight does not yet have the broad spectrum of technologies covered, but seems to be more-focused on cutting-edge new technologies, whereas LearnDevNow is not quite as cutting-edge but covers more technologies. One more thing, is that IMO LearnDevNow has a more-methodical approach to laying the foundations of a subject, making sure they cover the basics, before moving to the next step, whereas with Pluralsight (depending on the instructor's approach) I sometimes find myself asking "where did that come from" or "why did he just do that" --- not often, but sometimes, and LearnDevNow occasionally does that too, but not as much as Pluralsight. But this is a minor thing even with Pluralsight. In any case, EITHER LearnDevNow or Pluralsight are an amazing bargain for their prices. Check them both out.

The content is quite useful...if you can access it.

I have been watching these videos on the bus to and from work for the last few months. They were a great way to utilise my commute time and I found them more memorable than reading a book. However for the last couple of weeks, the service has become unusable. Maybe the service has become more popular and the capacity of the infrastructure is now inadequate - regardless of the cause, it is currently an appalling service.

Deceiving training: LearnDevNow claims to provide Courseware but the reality is that you need internet access to use all of this material!! The course-ware can not even be read on an android nor ipad device. It is now a file that can only be opened by SafeguardPDFViewer.exe and can only be used in a windows machine! do you expect all people to be connected to the internet 24/7 to read the material? On top of that the course-ware is not in a single file, user has to download every single chapter separately !! You have training on user experience, and you don't even apply it to your own site nor products!

Also, most of the videos can not even be watched on Chrome, Safari, Opera nor Firefox. You expect all people to have internet explorer. This is the most non user friendly material I've ever seen. with APPDev I was able to read the pdfs in the bus, or places without internet connection, make my own notes etc.. now with LearnDevNow it is not possible to do that you need internet access 24/7 to access videos, Courseware, and labs!