Apple News

Apple starts promoting News stories on Twitter

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 5, 2016

I discover my news (mostly) on Twitter and I think many other technophiles do just that. Acknowledging as much, Apple has started promoting stories published on the Apple News platform on Twitter, via its @AppleNews handle that started tweeting out curated stories earlier today.

“Follow us here for top stories and great reads from your favorite publishers, curated by our U.S. editors,” reads their first tweet. That account is now officially verified by Twitter.

Another curated tweet links to a Wired story which explains how reporters from around the world secretly collaborated to unveil the complex web behind the Panama Papers, the biggest leak in whistleblower history.

Apple to accept native ads on News platform that display inline with regular articles

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 15, 2016

Apple yesterday shared new information regarding upcoming ad formats on News, its iOS 9 app and content-aggregating platform.

A developer document, titled “Ad Specifications for iAd” (PDF download), highlights several new ad formats that content creators and publishers can deploy in the News format, including so-called native ads which are basically sponsored posts that resemble normal articles and appear directly in users' feeds inline with regular articles.

Apple planning to offer subscription content in News app, report says

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple is looking to add support for subscription content in its News app, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says the move will give publishers with paywalls a new way to control who sees their articles and track who is reading them.

Such a change would help differentiate the struggling Apple News with Facebook's Instant Articles, which does not currently offer subscriber-only content. It's unclear right now how Apple plans to authenticate subscribers, or if it's going to take a cut of in-app subscription fees.

Facebook reportedly launching standalone news app next week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Facebook is preparing to launch a new standalone news app next week, according to The Financial Times. Citing sources familiar with the project, the outlet says that the app is going to be called Notify, and it is going to feature content from dozens of media partners including CBS and Vogue.

As reported by BusinessInsider in August, the app will look similar to Twitter, in that it will allow publications to blast short push notifications to “followers” when they have urgent news to share. If users want to read more about a headline, the can click a link that will take them to the full story.

NewsOfTheWorld: a new jailbreak tweak for enabling Apple News in all regions

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

If you live in a region outside of the United States and wish to access Apple News, there's now a jailbreak tweak method for doing so. There is a way to access Apple News in restricted regions on non-jailbroken devices, but that involves changing region settings on your iPhone, which can be annoying, and it can act finicky as well.

NewsOfTheWorld is a brand new jailbreak tweak, from well-known developer Hamza Sood, that makes it easy to get Apple News in all regions. All it takes is a jailbroken iOS 9 device, and a couple of reboots.

How to enable iOS 9 News app if you’re outside US

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 17, 2015

Among other things, iOS 9 adds four new non-removable apps to your Home screen, one of them called News and the other three being iCloud Drive, Find My iPhone and Find My Friends.

Unfortunately, folks living outside the United States are out of luck as News is US-only at launch.

Now, the forthcoming iOS 9.1 software update will officially bring News to the United Kingdom and perhaps some other markets. That being said, you can actually enable News regardless of where you live, and here's how.

Apple’s News app to feature content from more than 50 publishers at launch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple's upcoming News app will feature content from more than 50 publishers, reports Recode. That's up significantly from the 18 it had commitments from in June, when the app was introduced, suggesting that Apple has been busy these last few months promoting the new platform.

For those that missed the WWDC unveiling, the News app is a Flipboard-like application coming to iPhones and iPads in iOS 9. The goal of the app is to present users with curated news stories and other interesting content through a beautiful UI that makes the experience more enjoyable.

Apple hiring a team of professional journalists to run Apple News service and curate content

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2015

Apple News, a brand new Flipboard-like app set to debut when iOS 9 launches this fall, will be run by a team of professional journalists who are currently being hired by Apple, The Financial Times learned Tuesday.

It's part of a broader push by the company to personalize the content it delivers to users of its devices, according to a recent job ad seeking successful candidates that would “identify and deliver the best in breaking national, global and local news”.

More importantly, the move indicates Apple is more interested in doing curated distribution for the News service than rely on algorithms like Google News does.