Associated Press brings world news to the iPhone

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 06 May 2008 01:55

Your IT - Mobility

The Associated Press news agency has launched a mobile web portal optimised for the iPhone and claimed to provide the widest coverage available of breaking news, sports, entertainment, and business developments.

The Mobile News Network www.ap.org/mobilenews is the first product from AP's new Digital Cooperative, an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for the news and information produced by AP members. At launch it offers news from more than 100 news publishers covering most of the world.

Although the service is being promoted as being "optimised for iPhone", APs' ambition is to "create a single access point for news on smart phone platforms," according to Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president and director of digital media for Hearst Newspapers and a member of an advisory group of executives from AP members that helped plan the project.

The new service claims to offer a full multimedia experience, from photo galleries of sports events to spot video coverage of the US presidential campaign. Users can personalise the interface to select news from their hometown, business destination or favourite cities, share stories, photos and video with friends and rate the information they receive. AP says future versions of The Mobile News Network will include additional content from more newspapers and broadcasters and will be optimised for additional next generation mobile phones.