tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2011:/1/tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005- 2011-08-16T17:18:43Z Comments for News Pro: Reuters App for the IPhone Dissapoints Movable Type 4.35-en tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005 2009-05-11T17:39:14Z 2009-05-11T17:55:53Z News Pro: Reuters App for the IPhone Dissapoints Thomson Reuters, the U.K.-based news service, released News Pro today, a new application for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Blackberry that gives users easy, almost real-time access to Reuters' news wire. We spent some time with the iPhone version of the application today (iTunes link), and while we like the fact that the app gives... Frederic Lardinois treuters_logo_may09.pngThomson Reuters, the U.K.-based news service, released News Pro today, a new application for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Blackberry that gives users easy, almost real-time access to Reuters' news wire. We spent some time with the iPhone version of the application today (iTunes link), and while we like the fact that the app gives us easy access to a lot of great content, the application itself could use a lot of polishing, especially when compared to some of its closest competitors from the Associated Press (iTunes link) and Bloomberg (iTunes link).

]]> It should be noted that the iPhone and BlackBerry apps are bit different. According to PaidContent's David Kaplan, the BlackBerry version is more text-centric, while the iPhone app puts more emphasis on Reuter's video and photo content. The BlackBerry app can be found here.

reuters_stocks.jpgCurrently both apps are available for free (with ads), but Thomson Reuters is looking into a subscription model as well, though according to PaidContent, it will be a few months before we will hear more details about this.

iPhone App Needs Polish

We have seen a number of impressive news applications for the iPhone from prominent players like the New York Times (our review), Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the BBC, and Bloomberg. Sadly, the Reuters app turned out to be one of the weakest applications in this group.

Let's start with the good news. While a lot of the other apps tend to take a long time to start up and update their news feeds (though the Bloomberg app also starts up and updates quite quickly), the Thomson Reuters app is ready to go within seconds.

Unlike all of its competitors, though, the Reuters app starts up with the Top News feed by default, and presents the rest of the news categories in a long list, without the ability to customize the order of these categories. If you want the app to show you the latest 'Internet News' when you start the program, for example, you are out of luck, as you have to flick past the stories in the 'Top News' section first.

news_apps_comparison.jpg

All the other apps also allow users to set shortcuts to their favorite sections, while the shortcut menu in the Reuters app is static (News, Pictures, Video, Markets, and Stocks).

In terms of presentation, the image section is nicely done, but the videos look blocky (even with a fast connection) and the Bloomberg app does a way better job at showing information about the stock market.

Verdict

The app has a lot of potential, especially thanks to the excellent and timely content that Reuters is able to offer. Sadly, the iPhone app currently falls short and doesn't quite deliver the experience to complement the quality of the available content. It should be relatively easy to rectify some of these problems, though, and we hope the see a new and better version of the app soon.

]]> tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:185884 Comment from kondigg on 2010-02-03 kondigg http://www.kondigg.com thx. i love iPhone

]]> 2010-02-04T06:38:54Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:172735 Comment from benzroman on 2009-12-05 benzroman I love you more ideas. it seems like another blog I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

]]> 2009-12-05T08:31:00Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:150627 Comment from Ricardo on 2009-08-04 Ricardo
Another problem: If you add a feed, and you want to delete it........GOOD LUCK BUDY!!! You will not be able.And if you "dream" to contact someone from your application, sit down, relax, start to read the news, and maybe by 2085 someone will answer.


]]> 2009-08-04T22:13:30Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:138683 Comment from Steve on 2009-05-19 Steve For whatever reason it just won't display any market data when I use it - just says "unavailable". Re-installing etc still no dice. Bloomberg is still the leader.

]]> 2009-05-19T12:49:57Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:138071 Comment from Jim Hill on 2009-05-14 Jim Hill I agree with article but a step further. Thomson Reuters iPhone application is terrible. The UI is poorly laid out and doesn't seem to offer that much more than their web application. In fact, I'd rather use their web app and use Bloomberg's iPhone application.

]]> 2009-05-14T14:34:03Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2009://1.15005-comment:137927 Comment from Kevin on 2009-05-13 Kevin Very disappointed in your article. The competitors that you sited are not even in the ball park with regards to the content that the Reuters app delivers. This is coundn't more true with the amount of information in regards to markets,and stocks. I really have a hard time seeing how this app disapoints, it clearly doesnt disapoint amoung comments in the App Store.

Poor Review

]]> 2009-05-13T19:56:50Z