I’ve been meaning to do a post about the Mobile News Network iPhone optimized site for weeks now, as it was an instant favorite for me when it launched, and it has continued to be my favorite news site on the iPhone ever since.
The site is run by the Associated Press (AP). Recently I’ve seen a few reports speculating that the AP (Associated Press) are planning an iPhone native app for the App Store and would like to work their way into being a default home screen app on the iPhone. Right now, I’d be in favor of that, as I think they’ve already done a superb job with their optimized site.
So what’s so great about the AP News site? Here’s a few of the things that have made it my most visited news site:
- The home page is soooooo easy to navigate: It’s divided neatly and clearly into sections like Local News, U.S. News, World, Photos, Sports, Business, Videos, Elections, Wacky News, Technolog
y etc. These sections cover just about everything I might possibly want to know – and, like a good Sunday newspaper, they remind me of whole topic areas I may pay attention to less often, but feel like visiting once in a while. - Customizing the home page is easy: The settings pages are nearly identical to the iPhone’s own Settings applet, and allow you to easily toggle On and Off various news sections (Local News, U.S. News etc, as listed in the previous bullet) so you can absolutely tailor what you want to see.
- Local News – once you set your location (by zip code), you get a separate top-level tab to go to local news specific to your area. This was probably the biggest unique selling point for the AP News site when it first came out, and is an excellent feature. You can even set multiple locations, as with the Weather app, and add subtract them to suit your tastes.
- The photographs are superb.
- Big, easy buttons for sharing a news item by text or email
- It’s Fast – all the main, section, and individual story pages load very quickly over WiFi or Edge connections – seems like AP has done some very good work on optimizing them in this respect as well.
- Browsing by topic area or type of news is easy, and they have strong coverage in their Sports and Technology sections, two that I spend a lot of time with.
This is easily my favorite straight-up news site (as opposed to RSS feed readers) and one I visit every day.
If you haven’t yet tried out the AP News iPhone site, give it a look at http://apnews.com. If you have, as always, I’d love to hear what you all think of it as well ….
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS:
