America’s Finest News Source Hits the iPad – The Onion Tablet

The Onion Tablet

 

The Onion Tablet brings The Onion, or ‘America’s Finest News Source’, to the iPad. It was released on the iPad App Store on April 1st, a fitting date for the most scathingly satirical news title to hit the iPad. Here’s a little of its App Store intro:

This is the official iPad application of The Onion, America’s Finest News Source. It is the last bastion of unbiased, reliable, and definitive news in a world dominated by superficiality, mediocrity, and non-Onion news outlets.

I’ve been trying out The Onion Tablet over the weekend, closely comparing its news coverage with that of the CNN, New York Times, Times of London, and Washington Post apps. That last part is completely untrue of course, but I have been giving the new Onion app a look …

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Review – The Daily, First Ever iPad-only Newspaper

The Daily ipad-only newspaper

The Daily – the first ever iPad-only newspaper – was released just about a month ago, by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The company poured millions into the app leading up to its launch and has assembled an experienced and respected team of over 100 people to run it. Here’s part of the elevator pitch for The Daily, from its launch day press release:

The Daily is built from scratch for the iPad by some of the best in the business to bring you a package that’s smart, attractive, and entertaining.

The first digital news publication with original content created every day exclusively for the iPad®. Built from scratch by a team of top journalists and designers, The Daily covers the world: breaking news, sports, pop culture, entertainment, apps, games, technology, opinion, celebrity gossip and more.

The Daily has the depth and quality of a magazine but is delivered daily like a newspaper and updated in real-time like the web. Great stories, photos, video, audio and graphics come alive the more you touch, swipe, tap and explore. The customized sports section allows you to follow your favorite teams’ scores, pictures and headlines — even players’ tweets.

I’ve been reading The Daily since its release day, pretty much every day, and I think it’s time for a review of this promising and groundbreaking title …

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Quick Look: El País for iPad

El Pais for iPad

El País is a leading daily newspaper in Spain. It’s a serious, quality read with a tagline of  ‘The global newspaper in Spanish’, which its broad range of coverage nicely lives up to. It’s got an iPad app, called simply El País.

Here’s a slice of its introduction and key features on its App Store page (my rough translation):

  • All the latest up to the minute information: news, photos, videos
  • Access to all sections: International, Spain, Finance/Economy, Technology, Science, Sports, Society, Health, Education, People & TV, Opinion, Viñetas, Culture, Movies, Music, Most Viewed and Most Shared
  • The blogs of El Pais
  • The latest news in Eskup (their social network area)
  • Integration with Facebook, Twitter and email to share content
  • Live radio with Cadena Ser and Los 40 Principales while you browse the app

My Spanish used to be fluent and I always enjoyed reading El País when I traveled frequently to Spain. I’m also always interested in looking at the iPad editions of quality publications – so I’ve had El País installed on my iPad for a while now. And of course I’ve got some thoughts on the app …

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Quick Look: USA Today for iPad 2.0

USA Today for iPad

USA Today for iPad has had a major new update, to Version 2.0. The big additions are two brand new sections: Tech and Travel, added in response to user requests. Here’s more detail on all the changes in USA Today for iPad 2.0:

Tech features:
- USA TODAY’s tech coverage.
- App Insider: frequent iPad app reviews.
- TechWatch: a video player which features Talking Tech reviews with Ed Baig and Jefferson Graham and other gadget, gaming and industry news.
- Week in Space photo galleries.

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TweetMag – Beautiful Twitter News Magazine for the iPad

TweetMag iPad app

TweetMag is a very different – and gorgeous – sort of Twitter-related app for the iPad. It is not a Twitter client app though – you can’t compose a new tweet from it and it’s not intended as a client app at all. It’s more of a Twitter news magazine.

Here’s what it sets out to be:

TweetMag is a social magazine that reduces the noise that often plagues Twitter. It transforms Twitter into beautiful magazines of articles and media that people are tweeting about most. It’s like making a personal editorial team out of the people, lists and tags you follow.

It’s not just for your own feed either. TweetMag’s curated categories make it easy to explore and discover content outside your social network. Interested in tech gadgets? Check out a list, a user or company that tweets about it. Want to catch up on breaking stories? Load a TweetMag of your favorite news organization. The possibilities and content streams are only limited by your interests and imagination.

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Quick Look: The Economist on iPad

The Economist on iPad is the iPad edition of the weekly international news and business magazine, and the latest blue-chip print title to hit the iPad App Store. Here’s some of its App Store description: The best way to read The Economist on your iPad. FULL PRINT EDITION Download the full print edition of The [...]

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Good News: Newsweek for iPad Offering Subscriptions –Bad News: It’s Still Not Near Worth Paying For

Newsweek for iPad has made big news itself this weekend, with The New York Times covering the announcement that the app has been updated (to Version 2.0) and now offers subscription options. Here’s the basics of the new subscription model: a standard issue of Newsweek for iPad costs $2.99; a three month subscription is $9.99, [...]

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NewsRack vs Pulse News Reader: 2 RSS apps for iPad

You won’t believe me, but I swear that I bought Pulse, an app that displays RSS feeds in a horizontal/vertical graphic navigation, completely by accident. No, it’s never happened before. I was innocently browsing around the iPad RSS reader apps in the store when, before I knew it, my finger had already clicked and clicked [...]

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Review: USA Today for iPad

USA Today for iPad was one of the very first major newspaper apps to come out for the iPad, hitting the App Store in time for the the April 3rd release date.  It took me a while to get around to checking USA Today for iPad out, as it has never been a favorite of [...]

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Review: The Times of London for iPad

The Times of London for iPad is the latest app for a big-name newspaper to hit the iPad App Store.  It’s also another high-profile title that has chosen to go with a very hefty price for its iPad edition – &16.99 for each 28 days worth of issues, with the Sunday Times not included. Is [...]

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