by Richard Stokes
In a previous blog I wrote about the app, FlipBoard, as a great tool that aggregates lots of different informational resources. Well, I’ve found another one: AP Mobile. In contrast to Flipboard, AP Mobile is geared for up-to-date news rather than for specific personal interests as Flipboard offers. So, if news is what you crave then this is the one for you.
AP Mobile is the Associated Press’ mobile application and what I like about it is the format in which it is presented (which is newly redesigned), and the fact that it’s not just text stories but also has a photos and videos sections. Here is a screenshot of the app on my iPad showing the navigation menu down the left side. This menu makes it very easy to look for a desired category of news (local, world, sports etc.)
Some of the features that I think are useful are:
- Local news –once the app is installed you are prompted to enter a zip code so that local news feeds can be delivered to you.
- Book marking – When you tap through to a news story, in the top right corner of the screen you will see the tail of a red ribbon. Tapping on it will lengthen the ribbon indicating that you have saved that news story as a bookmark under the ‘My AP’ section. From here you are able to refer back to that news story at a later date.
- Personalization – On the menu, when you tap on ‘My AP’ it brings up the section where you can view your saved news stories, photos and videos (book marks) as mentioned above. If you tap on the ‘cog’ icon next to ‘My AP’ it will present another drop down menu that will allow you to select which news sources you feel are most important to you. The purpose of this is to allow you to personalize what news you want to see under the ‘My AP’ section. I have no interest in getting news from the ‘Showbiz’ section so I unchecked that option.
Overall, I have found that it works great and delivers fast and up to date information. As a busy individual it can often be difficult at times to cut through all the information I receive and stay in the loop on what is going on in the world. AP mobile does a great job of doing this and better yet – it’s free.
