News

Gist intelligently summarizes your news articles

Many people turn to their iOS devices as a way to catch up on news and consume reading materials, keeping updated with daily happenings. Other than Twitter, there are few options to instantly give a short synopsis of a story or news blurb.

Personally, I use Flipboard, but even it utilizes the entire article. If you are pressed for time or only want the key points of an otherwise much larger article, a new app called Gist is aiming to provide only the quick details of news articles...

Google revamps mobile News site with new design, improved navigation and more

Google today announced that it's making a number of new changes to its mobile Google News site. Well, the changes have already been made, and News readers on Android and iOS devices should start seeing them over the next few days.

Among the changes are an improved overall look-and-feel, making it easier to read and track separate stories, and the ability to customize the web application by changing the theme from light to dark, adjusting the font size, and more...

Wibbitz: stay updated on the latest news with beautiful video summaries

Lately, there have been quite a few apps launched in the App Store that do more than just show you typical news stories that you read. With today’s technologies, there is no reason to actually read anything.

Wibbitz reads you the news, but also presents you with a visual companion to make listening to the news more interesting. It is like a mini movie for your favorite articles…

Umano app reads you the news so you don’t have to

Apps that read you the news are all the rage right now. Well, at least a few of them are raging hard in the App Store. Just a few days ago, we reviewed Uttr, which reads you the headlines of your favorite RSS feeds.

Umano is another news related app that reads to you. This one features real-life narrators. Sorry Siri, there’s a new voice in town…

HalfPeeled releases Ruby app for easy Reddit viewing

For the Reddit fans out there looking for a slick way to interact with your feeds and threads, a new app will solve your woes. Until now, there were limited options in the App Store for easy Reddit enjoyment. Today Ruby hits the market, granting easy access to your favorite threads in a crisp package. Having been a beta tester for the app over previous weeks, I really like the UI and functionality.

This is not HalfPeeled's first time around the app development block. When it comes to apps, their innovation is starting to show. Published by Nate Chiger, a 2012 and 2013 WWDC Scholarship Recipient, Ruby is his newest offering and follows several other quality apps. Take a step inside for a quick run down of the nice features...

Yahoo! News modernizes design

There's no denying that the Internet giant Yahoo has been on quite a roll lately.

Over the course of just two months, the company has managed to roll out the awesome Weather app (that Apple seemingly copied quite slavishly in iOS 7), launch the Mail app on iPad, update its Search iOS app with Summly summaries and acquire the blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion.

Today, the company announced it is revamping its popular News portal on the web and mobile devices with a  new design aimed at creating a more consistent feel across all of Yahoo. The all-new Yahoo News look is also available when browsing the website on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices...

Chicago Sun-Times fires photo staff, now training reporters in iPhoneography

You've probably noticed that we have been talking a lot about iPhoneography here on iDB lately. It's a popular topic with a lot of folks. It seems like the better the iPhone's camera gets, the more people are willing to ditch their standalone shooters.

And perhaps there's no better example of that than what's going on right now over at the Chicago Sun-Times. Just a day after it fired its entire photo staff, the newspaper has reportedly begun training its reporters in the basics of iPhone photography...

App Store randomly prompts user to update available apps

This afternoon I turned on my iPad to see a surprising alert from the iOS App Store. The alert prompted me with a message stating that "5 app updates are available," with options to either ignore or update all. In the screenshot, it is confirmed I have 5 updates available in the App Store.

This is the first time I have seen such an update and after a quick browse around the net, cannot confirm this has happened to other users recently or in the past...

Yahoo updates iOS app with Summly summaries

Yahoo last week refreshed its Mail iOS app and released a brand new and beautiful weather software for the iPhone and iPad. In the continuation of its re-newed mobile-first strategy, the search firm this morning updated its iOS client with a summarization technology it snapped up last month for $30 million from UK-based startup Summly, founded by the 17-year-old founder Nick D’Aloisio. Thanks to that acqui-hire, the new Yahoo! version 3.0 software taps Summly natural-language algorithms and machine learning for personalized story summaries...

iDownloadBlog challenges you to join our March Madness pool

Again we hit the hallowed time during the year when the world exalts American college basketball players as if they were gods. Millions of dollars in lost productivity across the US puts a further damper on the economy as we all turn from work to watch basketball.

At iDownloadBlog we relish the opportunity to participate in this worldwide assault on productivity – not that we will stop bringing you the best Apple news for a month. Join us beyond the fold to learn how to monitor the action from your favorite iOS devices and sign up for the iDownloadBlog tourny pool...

Winston for iPhone wants to be the Siri for news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPH2PK5WZys

I know your news reader choices on iOS are rich. There's Flipboard, Instapaper, Readability, News360, News.me and a whole lot of other lesser known apps. Winston, a new software by a Colorado-based startup, is unlike your regular news client. Instead of overwhelming you with an endless stream of updates, Winston presents you with a personable British butler which compiles a daily brief from your selected news sources and social network feeds.

It detects what's important and then reads the summaries out aloud, so you can catch up on the latest while doing something else. It's a novel approach that saves time and as such is likely to strike a chord with busy mobile users. I'm already liking Winston a lot. More tidbits right past the fold...

The Daily Recap – Jan 29, 2013 edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ngFg3vYgM

Welcome to The Daily Recap for January 29th, 2013. Watch our video for a quick look at some of the top stories from the day in less than two minutes. If you missed out on any of today's big news, this is a great way for you to get caught up fast.

For your convenience, you'll also find links to all of the stories listed in today's recap inside...