Apple is finally bringing a News app to iOS 9 which lets you pick and choose what current affairs cross your path, just like a host of other news apps.
Yesterday was Apple’s big day, with iOS 9 finally revealed to the world with a huge laundry list of fresh new features and worthy updates.
Amongst all the chatter of a brand new Siri and some genuinely helpful new Maps additions, we heard that the company was bringing a brand new app to the next iteration of the platform: News.
Yes, that’s right, iOS is seven years old and it’s only just now getting its very first official news app – well, unless you count Newsstand, of course. Which we don’t.
The News application will allow iOS users to choose what they want to hear about in a similar vein to Flipboard. You choose a few titles, genres and topics of interest and these will be used to populate your own personalised news feed.
The News app’s developers claim that it will learn from your reading habits, so the more you use it, the better and more personalised the news choices will be. Nothing revolutionary as many other news services do the same, and of course the likes of Cortana can already figure out your biggest interests and provide the stories she thinks will really tickle your fancy.
What is nice is that the new format should allow publishers to deliver top quality content with embedded media and even maps, as well as custom layouts and typography. So at least your content will be beautifully presented.
News will launch initially in the US, UK and Australia, with other regions to follow and Apple has partnered with publishers like The New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg, Hearst and ESPN for the app’s bow.
Of course, while we’re glad that Apple is being its usual conscientious self and delivering another core app with lovely aesthetics, owing to the new publishing format and custom layouts, it might have been nice if they included an option in iOS 9 which allows folk bin the core apps which they don’t use anymore – after all, desktop space is something of a premium commodity on an iPhone. Looks like this will probably be another app consigned to the ‘ignore’ folder after just a week or two of iOS 9 launching.
Read next: All of the sexy new iOS 9 features: multi-tasking, maps and more
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