Local News, Weather and more – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: Local News, Weather and more
Version #: 1.0 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
Date Released: 2009-08-07
Developer: LSN, inc.
Price: 0.00
User Rating:
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News is such a big part of our lives these days.
In this ever changing world, we are constantly bombarded with “what’s happening”. From 24/7 news stations, blogs, and the web, we can’t avoid news overload. So any tool that helps us get the news that’s pertinent to us right away is invaluable.
I live in a small town in NJ, often over looked by “large” news organizations. Finding out what’s happening in my town is tricky to say the least. That’s why I was excited to try out Local News.
When I fired up Local News, it prompted me for my location (and gave me the option to use my “current location”). I started thinking I was actually going to find out things happening near me! Fantastic!
But then it just connected me to the news station of a major city. Since the major city (Manhattan) is about 30 miles away, I tried that. It didn’t bring up “local” news, but the news it brought up was from the major city in THAT state, NY.
I chose the ‘options’ button and decided I would just force it to take a small city in NJ and see what happens. That’s when I noticed that there are NO local “news channels” in NJ at all!
So the downfall to the ‘local news’ app is 2 fold. The first problem is that the local news isn’t really “local”. The second problem is that because it chooses to display only one news source, the news displayed in Local News is no different from the news you’d see if you went directly to that station’s website. Well, it’s good that the app is free!
Quick Take
Value: LOW
Would I Buy Again: Nope
Learning Curve: None
Who Is It For: News hounds looking for what’s happening (sort of) Local to them
What I Like: It looks ok
What I Don’t: The news it finds isn’t really Local to my local town. And because I only get 1 source, I get the same information I’d get if I just went to the "source’s" website. I’m not really gaining anything by using this program
Final Statement: The concept of the program is great, but It just doesn’t come close to hitting the mark. Local News would be great if things were really ‘local’. This program should really be called "News from one web site based on the closest big city near you." But that may be too long.
- News that is time stamped for up-to-date content
- Weather (including radar, animated radar and severe weather warnings)
- Sports (including scores and news for professional and college sports)
- Flight tracker
- Horoscope
- Lottery
- Local movie times
In many areas we also have:
- News video
- Photo slideshows
- School closings
If there is a video or slideshow with the story, then we let you know. Weather images provide constant access to your current weather, and sports scores are current with game play info where available.
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