Who wins the battle for the news on iPhone?

May 9th 2009 by AliciaB

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: