News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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| Product | USA Today 1.0.1 |
| Rating |
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| Company | USA Today |
| Price as rated | Free |
Ever since American full-colour newspaper USA Today first rolled off the presses nearly 30 years ago, critics have derided the paper as shallow and a superficial publication whose coverage lacked depth, and whose graphics-laden pages merely pandered to a TV-sodden audience conditioned to have the shortest of short-attention spans. Maybe so, but the format fits the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly.
I don’t mean that as a knock on USA Today or the iPhone. News in graphically appealing, easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate and digestible bites, with just the facts, then USA Today’s content meshes well with a handheld platform like the iPhone.
The New York Times shows the other form works, too. Anything that appears in the print or online edition of the Times, you can read on your handheld, even without a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. But what’s the knock on the NYTimes app? It’s slow. Very slow. Downloading all of that meaty content onto your little iPhone takes time. And the ads on the Times app tend to be obtrusive.
USA Today for the iPhone is fast. Very fast. The app is graphically pleasing, and makes reading the day’s top stories easy and pleasurable. You can also view the day’s top pictures in landscape format. The weather feature—USA Today would be nothing without its weather page—is excellent. Although the app’s default weather setting is New York City, you can adjust the preferences to make it your current location. And the app has a frivolous but fun snapshot poll feature that displays instant results.
But USA Today makes other trade-offs. Yes, you get that day’s news from USA Today. It doesn’t archive stories very well and—in some places—doesn’t update very well. The app lets you choose a default section from among several subject areas to appear under a main header—“politics” and “national,” for example, under “News”; “people,” “television,” and “books,” under “Life.” I noticed that some of the stories under several featured sections were two or three days old. But the headline news—the paper’s bread-and-butter—is always up to date.
My other criticisms of the USA Today app amount to minor quibble or two. Turns out, the app doesn’t include all of the daily paper’s content. The former editorial writer in me laments the absence of USA Today’s short house editorials and rebuttal commentary. The navigation bar at the top of the screen, which takes you to Life, Tech and Travel sections, is sticky and often non-responsive. And, alas, there is no way to adjust the display type size.
As media outlets go, USA Today will never really compete with a New York Times. But as far as apps are concerned, USA Today is a winner.
USA Today is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.1 software update.
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
Matthew JC. Powell | Mar 7, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
jim dalrymple and Dan Moren | Mar 28, 2008
We don't normally run rumour stories in AMW, but this one's getting a bit too loud to be dismissed as rumbling. The Apple reseller "grapevine" has been abuzz this morning, with numerous sources now telling AMW that the iPhone will be released at the end of June or the beginning of July. While there has been no official public announcement from Apple yet, it is believed that the company has briefed its resellers on more detailed plans. Among the other tidbits: no network will have exclusivity and any Apple reseller — not just telecommunication resellers or Apple-owned stores -- will be able to sell it.
Matthew JC. Powell | Apr 9, 2008
Vodafone has made an iPhone announcement, telling Australia that it will be selling the iPhone in Australia, New Zealand and eight other countries. The release says nothing about 3G, exclusivity, timing or anything else, really — will Voda be the only carrier? And if so, what will it be carrying? And when?
Anthony Caruana | May 6, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
