iNewz – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: iNewz
Version #: 1.0.1
Date Released: 2008-09-22
Developer:
Price: 1.99
User Rating:
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This is an app that had great potential, but has two fatal flaws that prevents me from recommending it.
iNewz is one of those apps that doesn’t offer anything you can’t get on the net through free apps like the NYTimes, or through RSS feeds for free. But, it organizes and delivers content so nicely, that it is likely worth the $1.99 price. As someone who does most of his reading electronically these days, this type of app is definitely worth that type of investment.
iNewz pulls articles from a variety of news sources and presents them in an RSS reader-style. It is highly configurable, and allows you to choose which of the sources will provide content for any given area. For example, I can choose to get headlines from all of them, get Business news from the BBC and the Washington Post only, and only get US news from the New York Times.
Once the initial configuration is done, getting to using the app and getting access to a tremendous amount of content is simple. If you want to read the full article you can tap the headline and the built-in browser will open the article on the normal website.
In addition, iNewz makes it simple to send links from articles to your Twitter feed or to Delicious.
iNewz is incredibly fast, simple, and smooth to use, and does a great job presenting customized news.
As I mentioned at the start, however, there are two fatal flaws. The first, is that while you can share articles via Delicious and Twitter, there is currently no way to email links or articles. That is a big oversight. While that would not necessarily keep me from using the app, the second flaw does- NO OFFLINE ACCESS to articles. In a world where a variety of RSS readers allow offline access, and Instapaper makes fantastic use of offline access, that is a huge flaw.
Quick Take
Value: Low due to two major oversights
Would I Buy Again: Not now but in a future upgrade, I would take another look
Learning Curve: Low
Who is it for: People who want easy, quick access to news on their iPhone/iPod touch
What I like: Quick, easy to use, configurable as to which news services you use
What I Don’t: No offline access. No email option.
Final Statement: With a few tweaks and additions iNewz can be great. Right now it is not.
FEATURES:- Pulls latest news from a range of top news sources:* Associated Press* BBC News International* Los Angeles Times* New York Times* Reuters* San Francisco Chronicle* Washington Post- Categories include:* Headlines* U.S.* World* Business* Technology* Sports* Science* Travel* Unusual- Sources can be individually disabled for each category if desired.- Share any article to Twitter and Del.icio.us
O U R T A K E . . .
