Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
CNN jumps on the news app bandwagon
CNN released CNN Mobile [iTunes link], an impressive news app but there are some caveats.The app is loaded with features, including the latest international and US News, local weather and traffic, and the ability to share stories with email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter.
You can follow topics that are of interest to you, and they get placed in a special spot you can access with a tap of your finger.
You can also shoot video if you have an iPhone 3GS, and send it along to CNN. All in all, it's as full featured a news app as anyone could hope for, and includes live streaming of breaking events.
If you turn your phone to landscape mode, you get a kind of cover flow of stories, where you can drag your finger across the screen and explore stories in an interesting way.
It's not all good news with this app however. It costs US$1.99, which is a bit pricey when much of the competition is free. Even worse, there are ads. Ads when you start it up. Ads when you view a video. Ads when you scroll down a list of stories.
It would have been nice if CNN had done either a paid app, or a free app with ads, but here users get the double whammy.
Louis Gump, VP of Mobile for CNN says CNN believes the app has more features than any other news app and is worth the money. He added that after much debate they decided that a dual revenue model was both fair to the consumer, and allowed them to offer a much richer experience than an ad-only model.
That will be for the customers to decide. Forgetting the cost of the app, and the ad issue, there are some other things to talk about.
I find the app pretty hard on the eyes. The screens are very busy, and like the AP Mobile app, it suffers from too many graphics and too little news on each screen. Today, a breaking news logo popped up on a story, and it took almost the whole iPhone screen. I'd have liked to get some more information rather than a graphic that was generic.
Then there is the matter of 'live' news. If you tap the button marked live, you generally get news summaries that are not live at all. I have a pet peeve about news organizations who are dishonest in their marketing, and this certainly qualifies. I was expecting a live stream of CNN, but that was not at all what I got. In fact, under the live button are dozens of pre-taped stories. CNN says it will offer breaking news live, but I didn't see anything today that would qualify.
The local news is a nice touch, and CNN has partnered with newspapers and local CNN affiliates to provide content. It was nice to get weather and traffic info all in one app, and CNN is to be applauded for the initiative at getting so many features on board.
So what we have is a very ambitious app, that is not unlike the CNN on cable and satellite. Lots of news, not a great deal of depth, and some misleading promotion making things sound better than they are, i.e. the 'live' button.
All in all, this is a good solid app with room for improvement. People will have to decide if they want to spend money, and suffer through a lot of ads. One good feature. They won't have to watch Wolf Blitzer.
CNN mobile runs on the iPhone and iPod touch, and runs on any iPhone/touch OS, but is optimized for 3.1.
Let's hear from our readers. Tempted to buy? Or does the cost and the advertising put you off?
Here are some screen grabs so you can see the app running:
It would have been nice if CNN had done either a paid app, or a free app with ads, but here users get the double whammy.
Louis Gump, VP of Mobile for CNN says CNN believes the app has more features than any other news app and is worth the money. He added that after much debate they decided that a dual revenue model was both fair to the consumer, and allowed them to offer a much richer experience than an ad-only model.
That will be for the customers to decide. Forgetting the cost of the app, and the ad issue, there are some other things to talk about.
I find the app pretty hard on the eyes. The screens are very busy, and like the AP Mobile app, it suffers from too many graphics and too little news on each screen. Today, a breaking news logo popped up on a story, and it took almost the whole iPhone screen. I'd have liked to get some more information rather than a graphic that was generic.
Then there is the matter of 'live' news. If you tap the button marked live, you generally get news summaries that are not live at all. I have a pet peeve about news organizations who are dishonest in their marketing, and this certainly qualifies. I was expecting a live stream of CNN, but that was not at all what I got. In fact, under the live button are dozens of pre-taped stories. CNN says it will offer breaking news live, but I didn't see anything today that would qualify.
The local news is a nice touch, and CNN has partnered with newspapers and local CNN affiliates to provide content. It was nice to get weather and traffic info all in one app, and CNN is to be applauded for the initiative at getting so many features on board.
So what we have is a very ambitious app, that is not unlike the CNN on cable and satellite. Lots of news, not a great deal of depth, and some misleading promotion making things sound better than they are, i.e. the 'live' button.
All in all, this is a good solid app with room for improvement. People will have to decide if they want to spend money, and suffer through a lot of ads. One good feature. They won't have to watch Wolf Blitzer.
CNN mobile runs on the iPhone and iPod touch, and runs on any iPhone/touch OS, but is optimized for 3.1.
Let's hear from our readers. Tempted to buy? Or does the cost and the advertising put you off?
Here are some screen grabs so you can see the app running:
Gallery: CNN Mobile
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bobby said 11:37AM on 9-30-2009
cost and ads put me off!
Reply
Jorn said 12:40PM on 9-30-2009
Cost -or- ads, I'd consider? Both? Did they even consider they had any competition? I'd say they did not.
GroundFighter said 11:46AM on 9-30-2009
Ads in a paid app, I don't think so :)
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attathomeguy said 11:47AM on 9-30-2009
I bought this app and love it. Also I don't know what time of day you reviewed this app but during the middle of the day around 1230 PM PST I was able to watch a live stream over 3g no less of CNN headline news from within the app. My question is that if CNN can do live video over 3g why cant the sling app which i will not buy until it can do live video over 3g. If anyone wants me to post a small video of the live video stream let me know.
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LD said 11:49AM on 9-30-2009
I too was disappointed in the "Live" BS. It's all fluff stories that are anything but live.
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Mystic said 11:49AM on 9-30-2009
For people who have both, is CNN worth the cost over the free USA Today app?
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Sung said 11:55AM on 9-30-2009
So I grabbed it and ... ADs??? What in the world? That's why we pay for things, so they wouldn't need to have ad revenues for the content. Also, the formatting of the local section is pretty bad. Looks like someone got lazy when it go to that section.
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Martin said 11:57AM on 9-30-2009
I have the app and love it. The ads are quite unobtrusive. They do not add loading time to any of the videos (they load in about as much time as any video from MLB At Bat), and the ads while reading a story are two text lines in height and I usually don't even notice them since I swipe them offscreen while reading.
What I love most is how it delivers the content. Each story has two bullet points at the very top under the title. These bullets will either summarize the story, or sometimes I've seen them offer a point/counterpoint to the story if it is controversial. Most of the time, that's the *only info I care about*! If not, I just swipe up and see the rest of the story.
One area you didn't talk about very much is the traffic and weather (which lets you use either your current location or stored locations). I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it hard to find consolidated and easy to understand textual traffic details. This app shows you a concise list of all local highways, and rates their traffic levels and includes notes on accidents (not sure where the data is from, seems to be accurate so far in correctly reporting one accident near me on my way home from work yesterday).
All in all, I think it would have been nice to have the option to buy the app without ads, but I don't think they should get in the way of good content delivery.
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Martin said 12:04PM on 9-30-2009
Also, as others have noted, the LIVE video is live-to-tape, so don't expect that you're going to be watching CNN as you would on a TV.
Alex said 12:19PM on 9-30-2009
CNN and CNN.com/Live are two different live streams. If you go into the app right now, you'll see there's a "LIVE: CNN.com/Live - Join the conversation!" stream... that's live video, not pre-taped.
You guys are forgetting that CNN is a cable channel, meaning you have to pay to get it. For them to offer a stream of CNN (the channel) online for free wouldn't make much sense...
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jb510 said 12:26PM on 9-30-2009
LOL! have any of you bought a newspaper lately? or watched CNN on your paid for cable? Hint they both have lots of ads in spite of you outlaying money for them.
Personally I wouldn't buy the CNN app app because I grew tired of CNN 5 years ago and from what I've seen of CNN live steaming online it horridically amaterish reporting. There a-list reporters never seem to come anywhere near thier online offerings and I suspect the same will be true of this app
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jb510 said 12:29PM on 9-30-2009
Crap it's a bad day for typing on my iPhone, sorry for the typos above.... Wish I could edit that.
Stephen Lang said 5:30PM on 9-30-2009
This is a relevant point, but with the limited real estate on an iPod Touch/iPhone screen you need to be REALLY careful about putting ads in a paid app.
Just as relevant is competition, and what others are offering for free w/ ads. I'm not indignant about this, but I doubt I will ever buy this.
Jason said 12:41PM on 9-30-2009
I'm also disappointed that you can't watch the real CNN live with this app. I might even be willing to pay a couple bucks more for a version that is capable of this. There are other (free) apps out there that let you watch a cable news channel live on the iPhone, like France 24.
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Alan said 1:03PM on 9-30-2009
Shame that CNN is so broke that they have to charge for an app that also distributes advertising. Poor CNN.
There's no way I'd pay for something like this. Besides, with people like Lou Dobbs, CNN is quickly becoming like Faux News.
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wase4711 said 1:32PM on 9-30-2009
i dont mind paying for CNN as part of my home entertainment package, but, if I could opt out, and save money on my cable bill, I would.
PAY for news apps, that include advertisements, on a platform like the Iphone just plain suck..this app wont last long,
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adam tanner said 1:46PM on 9-30-2009
ads in an news app I'm PAYING FOR? nope. not interested.
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brian said 1:51PM on 9-30-2009
"You can also shoot video if you have an iPhone 3GS, and send it along to CNN."
Neat. Anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the fun 9-minute "future history" video "Epic 2015". http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic
Of course they got plenty wrong, but it's also neat to see how much they got right.
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Jeff said 2:02PM on 9-30-2009
I'm sticking with CNN's free] mobile web site.
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Victor said 2:44PM on 9-30-2009
This app is actually really handy. I love the videos and everything. They look pretty good for streaming out of the damn air over 3g. The ads aren't bad. And for the people who whine and complain about the $2 price tag and the fact that there are ads... last time I checked magazine had ads and they cost more than $2. Granted I would rather it be free... but what ya gonna do? Well, I know what I did... but... that's neither here nor there...
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