I pounded the table on behalf of the AP’s free Mobile News Network App for the iPhone and iPod Touch, suggesting that maybe the same reader in time could display e-books as well.
But Murphy’s Law intervened. AP had problems with local news feeds. Some were hours or or even days’ late.
Well, I’ve just tested my location in Northern Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and Houston. And they’re all fine now. Local coverage is far from complete but should get better as AP adds more papers.
More than just local news
The app is about much, more more than local news, covering topics from world news to tech, sports and wacky offbeat items. If you haven’t tried it already, I’d urge you to—and share your impressions, positive or negative.
The news app loads quickly and offers a nice, functional interface. Nirvana would be the app offering the full contents of the papers of your choice, as well as RSS feeds from your favorite blogs. Hello, New York Times? Hello, Washington Post? Time for you to climb aboard the AP bandwagon. I hope that trade and other specialty publications can do the same (while there’s tech news, I wouldn’t mind more). Now if only I can get AP to come around on fair use!
Related: The perils of auto-inserted news links from AP (no headline used, guys). Imagine the fun when Yahoo Shortcuts highlighted the phrase "underage girls" and led people to naughty photos on Flickr and the like. Happened during the Eliot Spitzer scandal.
Screenshot: Old image. It doesn’t show the current Miami headlines.
