CNN On Tap - This morning I switched on the TV in my office. As usual, I auto tune the channel to CNN every morning at 07h30 so that when I sit down at my desk, I can have World Report already on. As I started to go through the morning emails, I heard that the CNN iPhone application in the app store is now available Globally and best of all – for Free!
I immediately forgot what I was reading on Techmeme and grabbed my iPhone 3GS and downloaded the CNN application. In the past, CNN’s iPhone application cost $2.99 and was only available in the US Store. Therefore, I couldn’t download it…. well I could if I really tried or used a coupon to buy from the US App Store, but it seemed too much effort for some app that would have trouble updating because of it being only available in the US Store.
I always found it rather silly that the CNN application was only available in the US store seeing as CNN News is available (and covers news) worldwide. Anyway, my first impressions of the app is that it is a very stable and well thought out application. It is really user friendly too. I decided to include some screen shots of the application below.
The Home screen starts the user off in the Headlines Section. You can then scroll the bar at the top to the different categories.
I enjoy Tech, so off I went to see the news articles under that category. Today there is an article on Google, but I would rather read the article about Facebook, seeing as they hit half a billion users yesterday.
Tapping on the article in the Headline section opens up the Facebook article without any lag or stuttering. The action is smooth and gives the user a lovely feeling of a snappy app. If you enjoy the article, and would like to follow it, just tap the arrow in the top right corner.
You will now be presented with the option to Share, Follow the topic or Save for later. Tapping on “Share story” allows you to share via Email, Twitter or Facebook.
I decided to Follow the topic instead.
After selecting to Follow the Topic, you will notice that the “My CNN” section below updates and now shows 8 related articles.
Head over to the “My CNN” section. This section has 3 sub sections. Local is where you have set up the app to follow news from a specific Location (I blanked my town out). You can do this by tapping the “Location” button in the top right. It also then displays the local weather which I thought was a really lovely touch. Well done CNN!
Tapping on the “Followed” section will display the articles relating to Facebook. This was updated when I selected to Follow the Facebook article. Under the “Saved” section, you will find any articles you have saved to read later.
The Video section presents CNN video content.
The nicest part of this application is probably the CNN iReport section. (Hey, iReport on my iPhone or iPad?) Anyway, if you enjoy iReport then this section will be of particular interest to you.
You can also submit an iReport.
All in all I have to say that the CNN iPhone application is a very user friendly application. Of all the news applications I have tried, this application is by far, in my opinion, the best. Well done CNN!
