Who wins the battle for the news on iPhone?
My name is Alicia and I am news junkie. Thankfully, I have an iPhone that feeds my addiction.
In the olden days, we bought newspapers. I have fond memories of Sunday mornings fighting over the crosswords and comics.
The olden days are gone. This is the iPhone age. Our schedules make TV or Radio news consumption increasingly impractical. We don ‘t buy newspapers like we used to. Besides, these days we don ‘t only consume, we interact with the news. We comment on articles, forward stories by email to friends or post them to twitter / facebook or other social sites, bookmark them for later reading or for integration into our own blogs. This new age has required and created a new approach to news.
The iPhone delivers news in many ways. Here are three of my fave methods:
1# RSS Readers
I use NetNewsWire. On launch, it downloads feeds and syncs with the NewsGator server to match what ‘s already been read on its desktop sibling. If you need to, you can read continuation of posts in the app browser or in Safari. I boomark in Clippings for later leisurely reading. If I ‘d like to post to twitter I open items in Safari and use Twitterlink.
It ‘s simple, it ‘s sleek, it works. In many ways, reading news items in an RSS reader is easier than on the sites themselves because you have a clean lists of items to browse through all in one place. However, if you want to post comments you have to visit the real sites.
More RSS readers for iPhone are:
Free RSS Reader (free)
Sync RSS (free)
Bolt Reader (€ 1,59)
Newsstand (€3.99)
Newsdesk (free)
Manifesto (€1,59)
2 # News Apps.
Ones like New York Times or Huffington Post offer sleeker content than their real site counterparts and thus give you just the info you need for on-the-go. Sections are clearly defined and easy to navigate. However, some apps feature an iPhone unfriendly design, with a font size that is too small for the screen. Others perform poorly, so unstable they crash or update irregularly. Also, bookmarking or sharing is often limited to saving in the app or forwarding by email.
Often you can ‘t view or post comments. And then, there are the ads, which may be understandable but a bit of a peeve. Moreover they often feature content for regional and not global users. As more and more companies and sites invest in standalones we will hopefully see apps with user friendly design and more ways to interact with the content. A select few among many apps:
USA Today (free)
Notice News Agregator (free)
News UK Lite (free)
Tabnews (free)
Mashable (free)
BBC Reader (free)
3 # Mobile sites
A mobile site version is perfect for on-the-go browsing since the streamlined content ensures speed and performance. I actually prefer browsing certain sites on mobile than in real site version. Posting to twiter is easier here albeit the link you are posting is a mobile one. My tip: I ‘ve made a bookmark group in Safari desktop of solely mobile sites so I have them all in one place. In future, I think it ‘s a safe bet to say that most sites will be mobile friendly or offer smart phone formats. Here is a brief sampling so you can see how different approaches work:
Other means deserve honourable mentions:
Google alerts by email
News shows by audio and video podcast
What ‘s your favorite way of getting news on iPhone? Feel free to post in the comments.
I use NewsGator too on my PC but I really don't like the NetNewsWire app. Too many taps just to see one piece of news. Instead, I use the web based NewsGator app. It's faster and you don't have to tap 50 times to read an article. Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Good list Alicia.
I think Twitter is a very good source of news on the iPhone – most really huge news stories these days get lots of instant citizen journalist reports on the service, plus it's easy to follow hot / trending stories, as well as specific keywords / topics that interest you.
Also think Newsflash, which combines a lot of good news sources in a very well-designed app, is a strong contender as well. I posted on this one recently as well: http://tinyurl.com/corx79
I've tried a bunch as well. I had AP News and the venerable NYT, but didn't care for either. NYT was too slow, AP crashed a lot. On Safari, I like Fox News but often an article will be simply blank, and repeated bug reports have been met with “we're working on it”. My favorites, after lots of time invested are:
App: Yahoo
Web: MSNBC.com
Thanks, I'll check it out, tho' I fear I'm already wedded to NetNewsWire. I've liked it from the start…
Cheers,
Alicia
I'm still hesitant to use twitter as a 100% news source but perhaps it's cos I haven't given it a fair chance. I have a fave group in tweetdeck but it doesn't store all tweets in the group that have already gone on in the stream. I always miss “important” tweets. And I'm hesitant to subscribe by RSS cos some outlets post ALOT. Twitter for news for me right now is limited to real time reading when tweeps tweet. That's why I didn't mention it in the article.
Will check out Newsflash – and tell you what I think. Thanks!
I would never suggest Twitter as a sole source of news – but as a great resource for 'stuff you'd probably never see anywhere else' it's very good I think …
I've tried a couple of rss readers, Google Reader is still my favorite. I love the sync between my iPhone and all my machines.
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Great suggestions, if you're a raving leftist. I love how that's just the default.
Feeling left out? (no pun intended)
Altho' it's not my job to provide political balance (I report on MY experiences) I've looked for suggestions from the “other side” which is not easy because not many blogs or sites have mobile versions or apps as in these examples.
Drudge Report: http://drudgereport.com/
Andrew Sullivan: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/
Hotair: http://hotair.com/
But here's one: Foxnews mobile: http://iphone.foxnews.com
If you have suggestions, post them.