iPhone Article Zone

NewsAlert

If you want news custom-tailored to your liking, you should look at NewsAlert. This news app delivers news based solely on your specified keywords, presumably saving you the trouble of wading through RSS feeds. For the most part, it’s a solid experience, and the app pulls from a wide array of sources to make it worth your while.

The first thing you’ll want to do is pick some keywords. The app suggests keeping tabs on your favorite bands or your hometown as well as traditional keywords (i.e., “education”). These keywords then appear as list items in the main view. Whenever NewsAlert finds a new article relating to one of your keywords, you receive a push notification. The app tracks all of the articles that come in, and then you can view them based on the tag. You get 10 keywords to use, with more available via in-app purchase.

The viewer itself is nothing special—like most in-app web browsers, it’s slower than Safari and some of the screen space is wasted by the app itself. Pinch-to-zoom is also a bit jerky. I wish that opening articles in Safari could be selected as the default action (it’s still there, but it takes a few button taps.)

For the most part, getting news articles based on keywords is a good experience. It’s not perfect, however; too often, I get duplicate articles when major events happen. I don’t need to read the results from the latest Maryland basketball game ten times…in fact, I wish I could filter sports results out of my “Maryland” keyword altogether, but that’s not an option. Still, the app does turn up some interesting articles. I wouldn’t rely on it as my sole source of news, but as an addition to my daily routine, it works. It also works particularly well if you’re tracking an artist rather than a general keyword, because then you’re more likely to get interesting interviews or news about albums or tours.

It’s ultimately your call whether or not a simple dollar is worth getting keyword-specific news. The app is well-built, so no complaints there. For me, this is more of a novelty app than a real news source—I’ll stick with my old-fashioned RSS, because I like reading from specific sites. But if you’re the type who needs news on a specific topic from a variety of sources, NewsAlert won’t disappoint. It all depends on your individual needs.

Broadersheet

There are 3264 applications currently active in the ‘News’ category of the App Store, according to our sister site 148Biz. Given the popularity of the iPhone among both consumer and business clientele, this should come as no surprise. We haven’t even mentioned Apple’s Push Notification Service that can bring the news to you, rather than you going to it. So when I came across a developer working on Broadersheet, a news service application that aims to become “intelligent” to your needs, I became very curious. Was my curiosity justified? Has Broadersheet delved into a new level of delivering news? Let’s find out.

The Aim
Broadersheet seeks to bring you all the news you’ll need to read, from the sources you trust. It uses a rather complex service (that shall be read only by those suffering insomnia) called semantic tagging that learns what you love and what you hate.

When you open the application for the first time, you’re greeted with an extensive list of news services that you choose whether you love, hate or are impartial to. The same goes for news topics. Once these are configured, the news is there and ready to read like you would any other application. It’s a “really really simple syndication” – meaning Broadersheet has taken RSS feeds one step further, to weening down the articles to what it knows you should like. And only that.

After this initial customization phase, it’s all down to the articles you read. After you read an article – it’s as simple as choosing to love it, hate it or remain impartial (just like the initial setup). The developer said that it can learn what you love within as little as 12 articles. To take full advantage of semantic tagging, it’s best that you do this with every article that you read. Swipe right to love, left to trash.

Visually, the interface is clean and clutter-free. Given the limited size of the iPhone’s screen, size is everything and Broadersheet has worked well to make full use of the screen. News can be sorted by date added, source or topic. One notable feature is that whenever you load an article it will load the original page will come up, and with one tap you can remove all pictures, ads and irrelevant messages. Broadersheet call it “optimized article content” – we call it cool. You’re left with just the article. News as it should be:

To ensure maximum consumer utility, custom topics can be added. The application can be tailored to your needs, rather than the needs of the mass public. “148Apps” will attract articles for 148Apps, “White House” from a wide variety of sources.

That’s really all there is to it. The most important question – does it work? – has a different answer for every person. This isn’t an application that you can install and it’ll immediately give you everything you like, nothing you dislike, and recommendations for news. It takes time to understand it has to learn your loves and hates in order give you what you want. It won’t always get it right, but it won’t always get it wrong either. Whether we like it or not, Broadersheet has stepped on what is quite possibly the future of news deliverance. It’s time to get ahead of the game and give it a shot.

The White House

If the 2008 Presidential election was anything to go by, it seems that social trends play a pivotal role in modern politics. Barack Obama has over three million Twitter followers, 54,000 photos on flickr and his team has reworked the entire White House website. In contrast, Republican-frontrunner John McCain has under two million followers, 130 photos, and his website is certainly nothing to boast about.

So it was no surprise that The White House have placed themselves at the heart of the nation by releasing their official application for iPhone and iPod Touch. Are new means of communication the way to advance? From the ever-growing list of Congressman on Twitter as well as the new US Army application, it seems so. So let’s take a look at what the official application of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has to offer.

Keep in touch, up-to-date
Much like the official website, classic Obama-minimalism suits the iPhone well. Navigation is easy and there’s no excess or frills. A grand banner across the top of the application reminds you that this is the real deal – yet it doesn’t detract from the content (arguably it enhances it). There are five sections to choose from, each offering their own different piece of political prowess: Blog, Video, Photos, Newsroom (external sources) and Live. It seems a little odd to have two different sections on video, and I’m left wondering whether this was for ease-of-use or trying to fill that final fifth space.

… but not for more than two weeks
A major shortfall of the WH application is its lack of content. You can have the latest news, but not after about a fortnight. Articles disappear into an inaccessible limbo (much like Congress, although I’ll leave the irony at that) – and with no search, you’ll have to head over to the official website for older content. This was a major oversight from what is an otherwise-appealing application.

Video
What this application lacks in content it makes up in quality – particularly video. Taking advantage of the iPhone’s relatively small resolution in comparison to desktop computers, video quality is nothing short of pristine. No hiccups in streaming whatsoever over the several Wi-Fi hotspots we tested (the lack of 3G streaming was unavoidable due to AT&T regulations). Links to videos do not run through YouTube, but the official White House website. That means you have hour long videos from the second you tap “Play”.

The plethora of screenshots included in this review (below) show off the true beauty of the application. Visually, the royal blue approach is both pleasing and powerful. Subtle details are often what makes or breaks an application: and this application pays great attention to detail. A rundown of each section of the application can only do it so much justice:

Blog – the official White House posts. On a typical day you can expect to see two/three posts added, each with their own option to send to your e-mail or view in Safari. It’s text with only the occasional image, so it’s light on the data. An example of the intrinsic detail I mentioned earlier can be seen in every blog page: tapping on the screen removes the top bar, giving you maximum viewing space for reading.

Photos – Added spontaneously but frequently, new photos plus a quick paragraph let you delve into the White House a little bit closer.

Newsroom – The latest news released from The White House and a few select sources, notably the Wall Street Journal.

Live – Stream live video from The White House, as you would online. This alone makes the application worth keeping, as whether you’re home or away, and as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection, you can keep up to date with what the White House has to offer. The Obama administration has turned a new leaf on technology, utilizing its power to talk to every person – US citizen or not. The Live section is key to this.

A major issue that we have experienced with this application is its build quality. Even after re-installation, we were able to trigger a number of crashes by doing something as simple as tapping a link. We hope that the team is working on the next version to resolve this issues in what is otherwise an excellent application. Whether you’re a politics enthusiast or are just interested in something a little different, the White House application is one of the best place to start.

Push News

“Push News” is about as literal a name as you can get: this is a news app that sends you push notifications whenever an update from your favorite source comes in. For now, there are ten sources to chose from, and you can add as many as you like (I’m subscribed to NPR and CNBC, for example). Unfortunately, the app isn’t perfect, and I’d rather just use Google Reader.

Subscribing to news feeds is done in the “options” pane; there’s a simple on/off switch for each source along with a note detailing how many notifications you can expect to receive. CNN Breaking News provides only 1-2 messages a day; others, like Google News, send up to to ten notifications per hour. It’s all up to you.

When a notification comes in, the app opens up, and you can see a full queue of all the news items you’ve missed. Well, not quite all. My current queue seems to contain up to day’s worth of headlines, which really isn’t much. Anyway, each entry has both the post’s headline and a small blurb of text, just as you’d see in your typical RSS feed. Tapping on an entry allows you to view it on the source’s mobile site, all while staying in the Push News app…at least, it should.

This is where I began to experience problems. Most NPR stories view fine, for example, but others present only text blurbs when you open them; it took me a little while to realize that these were audio-only stories that required clicking through to the full version. I couldn’t get CNBC to load at all, which kind of defeats the purpose of the app. Other sources were also strangely buggy. Sometimes I don’t get notifications at all; other times, I get repeats. Sometimes previously-checked sources mysteriously switch to “OFF.” And too many of the sources either don’t have mobile versions, or the app doesn’t use them, resulting in needlessly long load times. There’s no “open in Safari” option within the app itself, either.

And then there are features that I really wish the developers had included. You can’t delete already-read stories from your queue. You can’t load older posts (there’s no “read more” or “load more” button), and scrolling through the list without any interface feedback (no scrollbar on the side, for example) makes it hard to tell where you are; there’s also no “tap header bar to scroll to top” feature, which I rely heavily on.

For the most part, Push News works, and I know that plenty of avid news readers will appreciate the instant gratification of quick news delivery. But there are just so many little quirks that annoy me, and I personally don’t need to be reminded to check the news—RSS feed readers work fine for me. A few tweaks could make Push News a contender for a part in my daily routine, but for now, it’s just a half-decent execution of a relatively good idea.

CNN Mobile

One of CNN’s many slogans is “Be The First To Know” (alright – that is their Arabic newsletter’s slogan). Couple this with an iPhone that recently received a push revolution, and that’s quite a recipe for an application that gives you up-to-date news. The twin pillars of the this application are push notifications and video viewing. Let’s start with the former.

Push is a fairly new phenomenon to the iPhone. Outlined in an earlier article of mine, it “pushes” information to you as it happens (extract below). Arguably above all other sections of the App Store, the News category was the biggest winner of Apple’s Push Notification Service (APNS). News as it happens, as it breaks – it’s on your phone and you’re kept up to date. CNN have incorporated this feature into their latest application and it improves the application greatly. The most push messages that we’ve received in a day so far is two (Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize and NASA crash-landing on the moon, if you want to know), so you’re battery will thank you too.

What are Push Notifications?
In the olden days, for instance, whenever 148 was the maximum amount of applications that you could install, if you wanted information you had to go to it. Be it the latest news or the latest tweets, the only way that you’d find out about it is if you went to the information source – a Twitter application for tweets; or a news website for breaking news. Push notifications reverses this role and the information is brought to you. You’re updated in real time about what is happening, who is tweeting you, and why the Zune is not as good as the iPod (okay, maybe not the last one). Push is practically limitless, and developers are keen to get ahead of the game.

The latter is video viewing, and this is a major step forward to what all relevant iPhone applications should do. The iPhone has been blessed with 3G and cursed with carriers. 3G is fast enough to stream video at an acceptable frame rate from the internet onto the phone with no Wi-Fi connection. This means that whether you’re on the bus, train or even walking – if there’s a 3G connection you can have video in your pocket. Great! Right? Well.. carriers aren’t too fond of that, and for understandable reasons. Data infrastructure is expensive. But even in so called “unlimited” data packages, many carriers are against 3G video viewing due to the extensive amount of data that it uses (there have even been a few applications that have been unable to incorporate video viewing via 3G because of carrier disapproval). We’re glad to report that the CNN app allows 3G video viewing straight out of the box, including live video. It takes a while to buffer and stutters occasionally, but that’s to be expected when you’re streaming both audio and video simultaneously.

Live video is one of many features that set the CNN application above its competition

Just as it looks like it can’t get any better, you turn your iPhone into landscape mode and you’re browsing news in cover flow. Latest pictures with a summary underneath are presented identically like the iPod application, and tapping on one will load a summary article and the option to read the full article. Among other features, there is a “My CNN” tab allowing you to follow local news and weather (US only) and an iReport tab allowing you to report news. Lastly, you can save (mail, tweet, text message also) articles for offline viewing.

There are one or two flaws. Even though the application is in Version 1.0, it crashes more often than we’d have expected and there is some notable lag whenever loading new articles or switching to cover flow mode. Even on our 3G iPhone, scrolling caused some sluggishness. It’s also lacking a Business news section, which greatly detracts from what is a very impressive application.

Despite these minor flaws, CNN Mobile has greatly impressed us. Every iPhone should have it installed.

CNN Mobile

One of CNN’s many slogans is “Be The First To Know” (alright – that is their Arabic newsletter’s slogan). Couple this with an iPhone that recently received a push revolution, and that’s quite a recipe for an application that gives you up-to-date news. The twin pillars of the this application are push notifications and video viewing. Let’s start with the former.

Push is a fairly new phenomenon to the iPhone. Outlined in an earlier article of mine, it “pushes” information to you as it happens (extract below). Arguably above all other sections of the App Store, the News category was the biggest winner of Apple’s Push Notification Service (APNS). News as it happens, as it breaks – it’s on your phone and you’re kept up to date. CNN have incorporated this feature into their latest application and it improves the application greatly. The most push messages that we’ve received in a day so far is two (Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize and NASA crash-landing on the moon, if you want to know), so you’re battery will thank you too.

What are Push Notifications?
In the olden days, for instance, whenever 148 was the maximum amount of applications that you could install, if you wanted information you had to go to it. Be it the latest news or the latest tweets, the only way that you’d find out about it is if you went to the information source – a Twitter application for tweets; or a news website for breaking news. Push notifications reverses this role and the information is brought to you. You’re updated in real time about what is happening, who is tweeting you, and why the Zune is not as good as the iPod (okay, maybe not the last one). Push is practically limitless, and developers are keen to get ahead of the game.

The latter is video viewing, and this is a major step forward to what all relevant iPhone applications should do. The iPhone has been blessed with 3G and cursed with carriers. 3G is fast enough to stream video at an acceptable frame rate from the internet onto the phone with no Wi-Fi connection. This means that whether you’re on the bus, train or even walking – if there’s a 3G connection you can have video in your pocket. Great! Right? Well.. carriers aren’t too fond of that, and for understandable reasons. Data infrastructure is expensive. But even in so called “unlimited” data packages, many carriers are against 3G video viewing due to the extensive amount of data that it uses (there have even been a few applications that have been unable to incorporate video viewing via 3G because of carrier disapproval). We’re glad to report that the CNN app allows 3G video viewing straight out of the box, including live video. It takes a while to buffer and stutters occasionally, but that’s to be expected when you’re streaming both audio and video simultaneously.

Live video is one of many features that set the CNN application above its competition

Just as it looks like it can’t get any better, you turn your iPhone into landscape mode and you’re browsing news in cover flow. Latest pictures with a summary underneath are presented identically like the iPod application, and tapping on one will load a summary article and the option to read the full article. Among other features, there is a “My CNN” tab allowing you to follow local news and weather (US only) and an iReport tab allowing you to report news. Lastly, you can save (mail, tweet, text message also) articles for offline viewing.

There are one or two flaws. Even though the application is in Version 1.0, it crashes more often than we’d have expected and there is some notable lag whenever loading new articles or switching to cover flow mode. Even on our 3G iPhone, scrolling caused some sluggishness. It’s also lacking a Business news section, which greatly detracts from what is a very impressive application.

Despite these minor flaws, CNN Mobile has greatly impressed us. Every iPhone should have it installed.