Is the Apollo News Reader defunct?

I liked the Apollo New Reader for iPad. It allowed you to read RSS feeds full screen, something that the Pulse news reader doesn't do in landscape mode. Another advantage was that it could usually play video from within the app. Note: One of our sharp commenters notes that you can play a video in Pulse by holding the play button down for more than 2 seconds. Cool. Alas, good things come to an end; the Apollo News Reader is no longer listed in the App Store, and the freshest stories are 6 days old. The iPhone version of the app is also M.I.A.

I recently reported that the app was not updating, but the developers said they expected to have it back up soon. The issue seemed to be some disagreements with some content providers over whether Apollo could use their material.

There hasn't been any response from the developers on this latest outage, so if I could hazard a guess I'd say that the app won't be back. There is nothing on the Hawthorne Labs website that would give me any insight into what's going on. Once billed as "the Newspaper of the Future," for now the Apollo app doesn't seem to have any future at all. I hope it comes back, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Source: http://www.hawthornelabs.com/index.php

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I liked the Apollo New Reader for iPad. It allowed you to read RSS feeds full screen, something that the Pulse news reader doesn't do in...

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Timmy

Good riddance! After reading similar great reviews I quickly purchased. To my complete disappointment I recieved a half finished product with no real support. After a week of configuring it and no working half the time., I took the loss and went to Pulse. Have not looked back since.

November 22 2010 at 11:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jeremy

Reeder blows them all away anyway...

November 22 2010 at 8:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dano

I was going to comment along the lines of joram - isn't there some obligation that an app maker has to their customers if they're charging an admission price? If it were a free app, no problem, play at your own risk, right? I can't say that I've read every EULA for every app I've purchased (or every piece of software either) because let's face it, if we disagree, we can't use the software, and the reason we purchased it was to use it, so even if we disagree, we'll agree to disagree.

So for those who had purchased Apollo, does it still work until it's removed from its iOS device, albeit with no more updates or additional content?

November 22 2010 at 6:45 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joram Oudenaarde

It would be rather strange if Apollo wouldn't be coming back at all... people spent money for their service, so to just pack up and leave would be very "not nice", if I may say so.

November 22 2010 at 6:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

toypaj

Pulse can play video, hold your finger on the play button of the video for ~2 seconds.

Tada!

November 22 2010 at 2:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to toypaj's comment

Damon

thanks dude ! i didnt know that:)

November 22 2010 at 3:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply