Apple today released the third beta version of iOS 9, providing beta testers with a version of Apple Music and an early look the company’s News app. Unveiled at WWDC, News is a cloud-based service that aggregates the latest news stories based on your individual interests. The News app selling point is its ability to deliver beautiful looking and compelling content right to your iOS device with minimal input from you.
First launch
When you first launch News, the app opens with content from five publications including CNN, Slate, The New York Times, ESPN and The Atlantic, and Slate. You then can select three additional news sources or categories that you would like to include in your daily reading schedule. Before you can start using the app, News then asks you if you would like to have digests from the News app emailed to you on a regular basis.
Once inside the News app, you’ll notice a UI that is similar to the new Apple music app. At the bottom of the screen is a navigation toolbar that allows you to switch between five tabs — For You, Favorites, Explore, “Search and Saved.
For You
Similar to the Apple Music app, the News app features a “For You” feed that serves up content the app thinks you may find interesting. This curation service uses information gleaned from your favorites, your browsing history and other behavior to display articles that match your hobbies, sports teams, and other interests.
Favorites
Apple News also includes a Favorites section that allows you to add news sources specifically to a list of your “most liked” content. This list by default contains 5 publications, but you can easily delete them and add your own news sources. .
Explore, Search and Saved
Last but not least, the News app has Explore, Search and Saved tabs that are self-explanatory. The Explore section organizes news via channels and topics and lets you browse them so you can discover new and exciting publications The search feature allows you to search for items, categories, or publications of interest while the saved section lets you browse through content that you have marked to read later. This saved tab also includes your article browsing history.
Conclusion
Overall, Apple News is gorgeous to look at with large images, embedded video and nicely formatted text. Because of these attributes, Reading is easy on the eyes. Beyond reading, the Sharing and saving options are basic, but they perform their task well, allowing users to set aside articles and quickly retrieve them at a later date.
What do you think about Apple’s News app? Do you expect it to change the way you consume news? Let us know what you think in the comments.
