Tag: Newspaper »

Fans of Bloomberg Business will soon be able to get all their news on the Apple Watch. The app lets you get the top headlines on your main screen and bookmark stories to read later. Using the motion detection in the Apple Watch, the headlines are updated everytime you move your wrist to glance at it. You can also have a personal watchlist that keeps track of a portfolio of stocks, funds, indexes, and currencies. You can monitor movement on securites, see total gains and losses, and get a list of “leaders” and “laggers”.

Keep an eye out for the Bloomberg Business app when the Apple Watch launches on April 24.

Print media is having a fairly rough time of it these days. Newspapers are suffering, magazines are shutting down left and right, all because of digital content. It’s a shame, then, to think about how apps like SPUN: City News could end up being the final nail in the coffin. Although it’s good news (no pun intended) for the app I guess.

SPUN acts as the area’s local newspaper tucked neatly on a mobile device. It uses location services to determine the user’s city, then fills their screen with recent news items. Of course there’s a bit more to it than that. Articles are divided up into several categories including Top Stories, Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, and Lifestyle. Much like a physical newspaper, really. Each page is actually one side of a cube, and users can swipe left and right between them as needed. They can also swipe down to scroll through older stories to see what they’ve missed. Users can mark their favorites and leave comments as well.

Having a bunch of current local stories on hand is great in itself, but SPUN offers a bit more than that. In addition to all the information, each story is flagged with a location. Any favorites a user marks can also be set to sound off an alert if they come within a certain distance, so if someone spots an interesting item about a new restaurant they can check the handy map that pops up above the story for directions and even get a heads-up once they get close.

It’s strange though, for all of SPUN’s intuitiveness it seems to be missing a couple of obvious features. The most immediately noticeable is the inability to simply tap the top of the screen to immediately scroll back up to the top of the list. Virtually every other interactive bit of iOS media does this, so why not here? And while I’m on the subject, where’s that “pull down to refresh” feature I’ve gotten so used to? The absence of these two interface options aren’t deal breakers, but they’re certainly a glaring omission. And, of course, there are currently only four categories to flip between. No sports, no movie listings, no political section, etc.

SPUN: City News is a fairly ambitious app, and it does what it’s meant to rather well, but it’s not quite up to snuff when compared to its printed counterparts. With a few more categories and some basic interface options it could be quite the contender, though.

One of the best newspaper reading apps, PressReader, likes to keep on top of new technology and updates to the iPad, regularly adding new and useful features and tweaks.

With the recent release of the new iPad, this has happened again with a great selection of new features.

The big one is Retina Display support, ensuring that everything on the new iPad screen will look pretty amazing, even when zoomed in.

Also included is the ability to instantly translate publications in up to 12 languages, as soon as the title is opened. It's also now possible to save articles to Evernote or Instapaper for later consultation as well as email or share them via Twitter or Facebook.

It's also an ideal time to check out the new SmartFlow functionality within the app which works well alongside the Retina Display support to make this a great way of reading the traditional newspaper in a 21st century way.

Check out the PressReader video below demonstrating what's been changed. The update is available now.

News Corp.'s digital newpaper The Daily began life as a newspaper for tablets, hoping to get users to spend money on a daily digital publication. They're continuing to try and make it work, but it appears that a new strategy is forming as time goes on.

The Daily has been increasingly partnering with various brands to publish apps that focus on a sole subject or piece of content that can also act as sponsorship opportunities. The recent Angry Birds Space guide is part of this push, but are not the first separate apps The Daily has done. They've also created special apps for the start of the NFL season, a guide to college football bowl games, and a holiday gadget guide.

The purposes of these apps are not just to generate revenue by working with corporate sponsors, but to also serve as ways to generate subscriptions for the main Daily publication, as these free apps help get the name of The Daily and its content out there to potential readers.

As well, the launch of the Angry Birds Space guide for iPhone may be a harbinger of the publication coming to the smaller screens at some point, which could help The Daily reach the lofty subscription goals that were laid out for it, as only a few months ago they were well below a level that would make the publication profitable.

A Nation divided. North vs. South. Brother vs. brother. The Civil War stands as one of the most tumultuous times in American history. It helped shape the future of a nation, and has been the source of many fascinating retrospectives, across all kinds of media.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the America Civil War, the History Channel has released The Civil War Today for the iPad, bringing us a very modern, interactive window to the past. The app is structured as a slick-looking, tablet newspaper, with visual representations of many historical documents, photos, maps, newspaper clippings, etc.

With this format in mind, The Civil War Today is set to have daily updates for the next four years, from April 12, 2011 through April 26, 2015, as a pseudo, real-time recounting of the events that occurred 150 years to the day. You will be able to follow the events of the past like they were happening today, and with all the graphical and technical embellishments that the iPad has to offer.

The app offers a variety of content such as quotes of the day, letters & personal diaries from 15 people who experienced the war, photo galleries, battle maps, newspaper broadsheets, articles & video on featured topics, etc. There’s also a daily North/South casualty counter that highlights the ebb and impact of the war, as well as daily quizzes. The Civil War Today supports Game Center, where you can earn achievements for interacting with all these elements of the app, as well as twitter integration that simulates sending a message via morse code.

There's no doubt that The Civil War Today is an ambitious project, and it feels very much at home on the iPad. It is a decidedly modern take on historical events that aims to provide a bevy of interesting content and educational value that not just history buffs will find entertaining.

PressReader attempts to give users an excellent way to ingest their Newspaper subscriptions from around the world. Its first iteration was bold, if not a bit wonky in delivery and style. Customers dug the idea, but were a bit split when it came to the execution of the app itself.

PressReader 2.2 has been released. This update features a fresh new look and a slew of changes poised to make users old and new extremely excited. Champion among them, in this news reader's opinion, is the much smoother navigation. Reading news quickly, effortlessly and effectively is what makes the iOS and tablet era a thrilling one. In fact, one probably wouldn't be too hard pressed to argue that stuttering scrolling is a major detriment to news and reading apps that could otherwise be incredible.

According to the release that accompanied the update to PressReader, users can expect smoother operation, faster navigation, simplified downloading and delivery of newspapers.

Additionally:

Faster zooming in graphics mode

Ability to wirelessly print full pages and individual articles to AirPrint-enabled printers

Improved message format when sharing an article via Facebook

New Library Shelf view that mimics a traditional newsstand

Improved navigation using section and page slider

Ability to automatically remove publications after 60 days (users can still choose to automatically remove issues after 3, 7, 14, and 30 days, or choose not to automatically remove old publications).

Simplified automatic delivery of newspapers

Ability to exclude downloaded publications when backing up via iTunes

Numerous performance and stability improvements to enhance the browsing experience

As an aside, while the app may be free, the newspaper subscriptions are not. PressReader was designed to complement the PressDisplay service previously available. PressDisplay is the service you subscribe to in order to actively read and download newspapers in PressReader for your iOS device.

See the app in motion below.

Those who love newspapers but hate getting ink on their fingers will be delighted to hear that the New York Post has launched a new app which will make all the paper's contents available on the iPad. Furthermore, the app was built with customization and social media in mind, allowing users to decide what stories they want to see on their own virtual front page, and easily sharing stories, video and photos with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Even more newsworthy is the fact that the New York Post app is the first of its kind to offer in-app subscriptions. Those who purchase the app for $1.99 will receive 30 days of access to the Post, with the option to extend their subscription at any time for $6.99 a month or $74.99 a year. Those who choose to read the New York Times or other periodicals online must either buy each issue separately or subscribe to either the online or physical print service. This is the first app-specific subscription on record.

Given the precarious state of newspapers, we're crossing our fingers for the Post in the hopes that this works and might also serve as a model for other papers around the world. If people are willing to read a "paper" on their iPad and the Post sees sufficient subscriptions then the newspaper may not be dead, merely different. Still, this app seeks to combine the best of both worlds with traditional newspaper reporting but with an emphasis on new media and embracing the very technology which once threatened to destroy the printed word.

[via iLounge]

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