CNN today announced its iApp for iPad. Simultaneous to this launch, the CNN App for iPhone and iPod touch in the U.S. will be available for free, and a major update to the International version will add live breaking news video. That $1.99 I spent for the original iPhone app will surely not be refunded by CNN 🙂
“High quality, world-class journalism is what CNN does best, whether live breaking news, hard-hitting interviews or in-depth investigations, and our iPad app presents that content to the world in a wholly new way,” said KC Estenson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. “This app harnesses the best of what the iPad offers by leveraging striking photos and videos; elegant, multi-touch navigation; and the ability to share content with your friends via social media.”
The CNN App for iPad includes what should be expected: text stories, blog posts, photo galleries, and live or on-demand video. Users have the ability to toggle between U.S. and International News Preferences, both of which serve live video of breaking news and select events as they happen. Additionally, when in the U.S. News Preference, users can listen to hourly audio news updates from CNN Radio.
The CNN App also places strong emphasis on user participation, adding an easily accessible user comment feature that runs alongside content on the screen. Additionally, users can share text stories, images and videos from the App via email, Facebook and Twitter.
“One of the things about the app that excites us most is the ability to serve the news needs of iPad users while also exposing them to original, enterprise content from CNN that will surprise and delight them,” said Louis Gump, vice president of CNN Mobile. “The CNN App was built from the ground up with our consumers in mind, and we are proud of the new CNN experience we've created for the device.”
What really makes this app standout is the three viewing options: Broadsheet, List View and Slide Show.
- Broadsheet, the default view, presents up to 350 of the latest news  in a grid-format featuring powerful imagery and headlines. Users can dive more deeply into a topic by selecting from any of the headlines or from a variety of topics. In addition, users can access the “Featured” section, which houses editorially-curated stories representing a cross-section of CNN's most enterprising reporting. Finally, Broadsheet's “Video” section includes a premium collection of on-demand video clips from CNN's television networks and CNN.com.
- List View features a running list of headlines by topic and by category.
- Slide Show allows users to scroll or swipe through a visual presentation of the day's top headlines.
Finally, to keep news fresh, the app will be updated in real-time as important stories break, and users will be notified of breaking news headlines via Push Notification.
The CNN App is available for free from the Apple App Store.
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