Daniel Eran Dilger
Apple News, an ambitious news-reading app that's new to iOS 9, is already showing off exclusive original content to early adopters of the latest software for iPhones and iPad, demonstrating Apple's serious intent to woo both readers and publishers with a captivating medium for the written word.
Apple News is a new app in iOS 9 that presents continuously updated news and features from "top news organizations and indie publications," allowing readers to follow specific news sources or subjects and categories ranging from business, tech, sports, fashion and politics.
Readers can explore featured content or search for news on specific events or topics; the new app then refines relevant suggestions based on the user's interests. Apple News readers can, for example, easily add AppleInsider content to their news feeds to stay up-to-date on all things Apple.
For content creators, Apple has developed a publishing system for Apple News to facilitate stylish, dynamic page layouts incorporating custom typography, galleries of images, embedded video and interactive animation. Readers can bookmark or save content for later, or share articles with others via email, Messages or social networks including Twitter and Facebook.
Apple News gets fresh content
Despite iOS 9 being only a few days old, Apple has already started lining up exclusive content, including an in-depth feature on star architect Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) written by Andrew Rice for Wired.
The article details BIG's efforts to design the dramatic new $4 billion World Trade Center 2 skyscraper in New York City, challenged by requirements ranging from client needs (including its anchor tenant, the offices of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and News Corp) to safety regulations (necessitating heavy bomb-resistant glass) and existing site realities (including the massive mall and transit center being built below the site by Santiago Calatrava, along with a foundation designed for an earlier skyscraper of a different design by Norman Foster).
The exclusive article, as noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, is only accessible to iOS 9 Apple News readers through Tuesday. Other Wired readers on the web (including those on Macs or older iPhones and iPads who haven't yet upgraded to iOS 9) are presented with a slug noting:
"This story is being previewed exclusively on Apple News until Tuesday, September 22nd. Please check this page again at that time. To view this story in the Apple News app on your iOS 9 device, follow this link: https://news.apple.com/A-oPQmJNfTyi9oHKs1xCY3w."
iOS users get fresh software
Apple's ability to entice content creators to rapidly embrace its new initiatives— and to provide content exclusives— for features such as iOS 9's new Apple News app (as well as Apple Music) is explained in part by the unprecedented speed at which the company can introduce and roll out new features to millions of users. Just three days after the launch of iOS 9, an incredible 36.7 percent have already installed it. Only 21 percent of active Android users have some version of Android 5.0 Lollipop from nearly a year ago
Just three days after the launch of iOS 9, Mixpanel reported that an incredible 36.7 percent of the installed base it monitors has already installed the new software.
In comparison, Google currently reports that only 21 percent of its active Android users have obtained some version of Android 5.0 Lollipop since it first became available nearly a year ago.
Other features ranging from Apple Pay and Touch ID authentication to Apple Maps and Passbook (now know as Wallet in iOS 9) have similarly seen rapid, enthusiastic adoption from developers and merchants seeking to reach the company's valuable demographic of iPhone and iPad users.
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Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
27 Comments
I don't like this at all. In a free world, access to news must not be controlled. Control always leads to abuse. This will influence my purchasing behaviour the next I buy a smartphone or tablet. I don't understand that Apple Insider is so proud and so stupid at the same time to present this news item as "BIG", because this practice is extremely bad for AI. Apple has all the cards in hand to control its news and to sell it to the biggest advertiser/publisher in the Apple News app. AI will have to wait for 72 hours before they can publish it. The advertisers will loose interest in AI because of this.
I think you're misinterpreting AI's use of the term "BIG". That is the name of the firm designing the World Trade Center, it is not an adjective describing the importance of the news article.
I don't quite understand AI's own content in News. Each article lists only the opening teaser paragraph. Beyond that, to read the actual article you have to punch out (via News) to the regular AI site. I thought News would keep you inside the News app to read content in a more consistent look-and-feel across publications?
So how does this work exactly? Is Apple paying publications like Wired to give them exclusive content for a few days?
I don't like this at all. In a free world, access to news must not be controlled. Control always leads to abuse. This will influence my purchasing behaviour the next I buy a smartphone or tablet.
I guess this depends on what you consider "news" content versus "entertainment" content. The lines are blurry and often tainted by sensationalism, shady, and inept journalism. I'd be hard pressed to claim that a story about cityscapes and building architecture is "news" in any sense of the word. It's just an entertainment story. Is any "celebrity news" ever really "news" in a public information sense? Are we concerned that Apple or a news aggregator app may be shading, filtering, or somehow altering or suppressing the cold hard facts about the Kardashians? Oh my!
The Apple News app is simply a "content delivery and presentation system" regardless of its name. It's simply Apple's answer to Flipboard. As such, it's entirely acceptable that they would try to acquire original and exclusive "content" to serve their customer base and differentiate themselves from their competitors.
I wouldn't get too hung up on the word "news" because most of the content on the plethora of so-called "news sites" and aggregation apps is mostly entertainment and fluff. The news signal-to-noise ratio is very poor and only getting worse. At least some entertainment "news" sites like The Onion do a better job of telling you upfront that they are slanting and shaping the "news" that they present for entertainment purposes. The Onion offers 10 minutes of chuckling before getting old. Other sites like CNN and Forbes use less obvious and subtle ways to shape the news that they present to make it more compelling, entertaining, or to advance their political or social biases. Few chuckles to be had there, but still lots of fluff.
There's never been a time when the phrase "you can't believe everything you read" has been more appropriate when it comes to discerning what is "news" and what is "fluff" or entertainment. And where does so called "infotainment" fit in? Maybe the best answer is that it's all infotainment. It's still up to you to be aware and apply critical thinking to stay informed, don't get too caught up in how content in any form is presented.