AP Launches Mobile/iPhone Local News Feeds

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1. MyMesh
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:13 am

   Nice, can’t wait to try it out..

2. techcrunchreader
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:18 am

   I just tried it. Simple and easy to use with a nice design. Well done AP.

   Especially liked the “videos” section, which was adapted for the iPhone (iPod touch) OS.

   Bookmarked.

3. Press Release Point
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:19 am

   Soon we can expect other local news service providers like Topix.net to follow. I wish this is tied to location based service so users can know what is happening around.

4. Jeff C
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:26 am

   The big question will be if anyone can deliver ‘hyper local’ news to mobile devices. Or heck, to any device. I can’t get decent, timely hyper local news right now from any source, including my county newspaper’s website. If community and county papers can get their web acts together, and hook up with efforts like this AP group, that might be a mobile/hyper/local winner.

   Hometown newspapers have no idea the boat they’re missing. TV, radio and print cannot compete with the instantaneous aspect of news via the web, at least on big stories. But the hyper local stuff - if it’s interesting and useful - is still up for grabs.

5. Andy
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:33 am

   Um RSS feeds for Mobile phones have been around forever. Video ones even. Nice to see the uneducated Apple users again claiming that they invented some technology thats been around for years.

   Snore zzzzzzzzz

6. Siddharth
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am

   It will be good idea to provide relevant information and specially news to the user on the go. WAP and GPRS are now well known and used, so there will be huge audience who can use them. May be a good buzz will popular this new service.

7. Andy
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am

   Oh and to JeffC

   Have you used RSS readers before? My N95 has one built in but I prefer Mobispine which keeps it up to date constantly with your data connection. If you have 3G just leave it on all day. Of course if you have an IPhone you don’t have 3G

8. Andy
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am

   Hey Siddharth RSS readers/newsfeeds have been around forever for Windows mobile/Symbian OS

9. Fin
   

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:54 am

   This stuff best on some features.

10. techcrunchreader
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 9:57 am

    @Andy, we all know that.

    The title says “AP launches iPhone-targeted news service”

    And don’t brag about your N95, this device is thick as a brick.

11. nobosh.com
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    impressive

12. Jeff Brewster
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Looks decent enough on my T-Mobile Dash, but I can’t see myself using this over the mobile version of Google Reader.

13. John H
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:02 am

    It’s interesting that “World”, and “Government” news are disabled by default on the home page, but “Wacky news” is enabled… That’s what they figure their audience wants?

14. JBomb
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    What the #$@# is a “3D Newspaper”?

15. Jeremy
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am

    @Jeff C
    THe AP is a cooperative owned by 1500+ community/regional newspapers across the country. I’m not sure how they could be anymore “hooked up” with the AP than that.

16. Jim McNelis
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:12 am

    looking pretty good. the video is nice. i use fox news on my iphone and i found this AP interface to be more friendly and the pages seem to load quicker.

17. Andy
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:15 am

    To techcrunchreader : Well you are wrong on two fronts the title is “mobile/iphone” which means not just the Iphone. And I don’t care if my phone is “Thick as a brick” its actually not.

    And sometimes you have to have a thicker phone to you know type with “buttons” so you don’t have to stare at your phone like a monkey. And also the 5 megapixel camera/GPS etc etc mean the N95 needs to be a little thicker.

    Oh and mostly I don’t care about a “Thick phone” because Im not a girl or metrosexual.

18. Jeff C
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    My point is about content as much or more as it is about a service/product delivering that content. Just because RSS or the AP can deliver content (local news) to an iPhone (or to my Nokia N95), doesn’t mean the content is worth pig’s poop, or that it will be local enough to be … local.

    Local news can mean many things. It’s usually too late, too boring, and too reliant on a scattered and downsized news staff to be useful or compelling to read. I’m in search of hyper local content - truly localized information like timely crime reports for example - delivered to my mobile device. Right now, via my local government website police page or the local community paper website, I can find out about a bank robbery in town, two days after it takes place. How useful.

    Community newspapers are at a snail’s pace in figuring out the news gathering system they have in place can be retooled (with the addition of UGC from citizens) to provide real-time, hyper local news, deliverable to the platform/device of your choice.

19. Lisa
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am

    The AP’s Mobile News Network will change the game for newspapers and other local publishers — it’s that good! Local is the killer app on mobile and these folks have nailed it.

20. Craig
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    I LIKE AP NEWS PHONES AND COMPUTERS GOOD.

21. Brad Flora
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    Jeff, I wrote you an e-mail about a project I’m developing in this space, but I wanted to publicly point you to Everyblock.com, which is automating a lot of the info you mentioned for Chicago, NY and SF. Have you checked them out?

    http://www.everyblock.com

22. Jeff C
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    Brad:

    Thanks … yes, I’m on to Everyblock. I’ve actually contacted Adrian Holovaty to see if they’re coming to my neck of the woods (Northern VA/Wash DC metro region). Everyblock is on the leading edge … time will tell if it can gain traction in the handful of markets it’s in, and then replicate in more markets.

    I think traditional media is really missing the boat on this. Take radio or a newspaper, which aims to please a local demographic … if a big newstalk radio station figured out how to build a hyper local website that tapped existing news sources, added citizen journalism … and what the heck, an Idea Portal that built a local ‘make our town better’ community of Solvers (think MyStarbucksIdea.com for a town/city) … then Shazaam!

    Any traditional media groups interested, ping me.

23. jamez
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    @jeff c

    Didn’t a hyper local site try and fail in the DC area already? I think it was called backfence.

24. Jasson Wilkons
    

    May 5th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    For business news on the iphone i have been using “tipmynews” which is now available and formated for the APPLE IPHONE. These are real time business press releases from PRN News Wire

    TIPR is a free press release news service and can be found at:
    http://www.tipmynews.com/iphone

    Here is some info on the technology
    Two Peas Consulting, LLC is releasing our second application for the Apple iPhone and it’s called TIPR, TIP iPhone Press Releases. TIPR is a real-time news feed with a twist. TIPR offers a content partnership between PR Newswire (United Media), the World’s premier press release service and Two Peas Consulting, LLC., (TPC).

    We believe TIPR is one of the most powerful ways to read news/PR on the planet because TIPR has a built in contextual search using TPC’s patent pending TIP technology, Total Information Pages.

    By default using TIP, every word within a news story offered in TIPR links to a Google search. Additionally, a TIPR reader can enter ANY Internet domain into a “My Search Source” field and the text within the news story will now search that Internet domain.

    For example, if the TIPR reader was browsing news about a medical company they own stock in and entered WebMD.com within the “My Search Source”, every word within the news article will now search WebMD.com. The user is very quickly able to change the context of their search by entering another Internet domain (e.g. forbes.com or finance.yahoo.com) and quickly drill into these sites for instances of a word within the article, including stock symbols. Anything within the article is searchable.

    Another example; if the TIPR reader was reading articles about Madonna, they are able to quickly search ANY word in the story within an Internet domain that deals in Hollywood news. (e.g. accesshollywood.com or usmagazine.com)

25. jamez
    

    May 7th, 2008 at 8:11 am

    Hmm….last night during the primaries the top story was about a drug bust in California. What’s teh point of a wap news site if it don’t got breaking news?

26. t
    

    May 7th, 2008 at 8:11 am

    Andy, you’re pathetic. Go be a disgruntled nerd somewhere else.