The Download Blog

There are already several news apps available in the iTunes Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Some bring you the headlines, while others bring you video, while still others get you the latest images in the news, but there aren't very many comprehensive news apps that bring you everything. Just today, CNN released its CNN App ($1.99) that not only brings you headlines, video, and images, but also adds other useful tools so you can remain in the know wherever you are.

The CNN App interface is immediately impressive upon launch, with sleek white text on a black background and breaking news stories with images. You get story highlights right below the images for quick headline scanning, but you also can scroll down to get more details about a specific story. Flick your finger from right to left to move on to the next headline. If you want local news, simply let the CNN App use your location and you'll get local headlines along with traffic updates and weather info. The overall feel of the app is elegant, with an interface that helps you get to the news you want to watch and read.

For video headlines the CNN App uses a Cover Flow-like interface letting you swipe your finger to browse from video to video. Across the top are headings so you can quickly view several categories including Top Stories, CNN TV, and Most Popular stories, but you can also browse categories like Tech, Health, Travel, and many more. The CNN App attempts to optimize video for your connection, with passable video using the Edge network, on up to high-quality streams using Wi-Fi. We have yet to test the app on the Edge network, but 3G and Wi-Fi video is of good quality. But probably the most impressive video feature is the ability to watch live streaming video for breaking news stories. You can configure the app to push notify you on specific stories you're following or when live video is available.

Following stories for the latest updates is another cool feature. Simply hit a button in the upper right corner of the interface and select "Follow story" to get breaking news for that story as it becomes available. You can then flip to My CNN at the bottom of the interface to browse stories you're following and get the latest updates for each.

For those without a reliable connection (or no connection at all like when you're flying, for example), the CNN App offers the capability to save stories and video to your iPhone so you can watch them later. Even when you're commuting to work and know you'll pass through tunnels or hit dead spots in your connection, you'll be able to read stories and watch video you previously saved.

Perhaps one of the best features that's been added to the CNN App is the capability to report your own news stories on iReport.com. In this section you'll be able to add images with your iPhone 3G or video with your 3GS and submit your story to iReport.com. CNN regularly checks the iReport site for quality stories and additional footage it can air on television, so you may have the opportunity to see your video or images on the network.

Overall, while there are other news apps out there, we think the CNN App offers a nice-looking interface with more features than most apps in the iTunes Store. At $1.99, this app is definitely worth your money if you like to follow breaking news stories in detail or just want a way to quickly scan the headlines for the latest news.

In my business, I deal with all kinds of software from different categories and platforms every day. There's a lot of great software out there for every platform (and certainly some bad ones, too), but once in a while you find something so unique it truly shines. I wouldn't say the app I'm talking about today is the best game I've ever played, but the design, music, and interface are not really found in any other game and are truly something to behold on the iPhone. Let's just say, I've played plenty of iPhone games, but this one is in a class by itself.

This week's apps include a new public radio app and a unique game in which you explore a creepy bug-infested mansion as a spider.

NPR News (Free) is the official NPR app featuring national NPR radio listings, streaming radio, and full news stories to read. The interface includes buttons across the bottom you can select to read news stories; listen to popular programs either by streaming them live or streaming the most recent; and a stations section where you can listen to NPR streaming live from any state. You also get a playlist section where you can select and queue up several streamed stories to play continuously.

Aside from listening to the many entertaining news stories and programs, what makes the NPR News app especially cool is that you can listen and read stories simultaneously, adding an extra element to the broadcast (like looking at images as you listen). The ability to set up playlists is also useful, perfect for long exercise sessions or--if you have a car adapter--long car trips. Simply go to the Programs section, select a program you like and you'll have the option to add it to your playlist. But even with all the listening options in this app, you can still read the latest news stories in a scrollable feed. If you're an NPR fan, this free app has just about everything you need to listen to exactly what you want whenever you want it.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor ($2.99) challenges you to play as a spider, spinning webs, catching bugs, and slowly solving a mystery as you travel from room to room. The interface is fantastic, letting you swipe your screen to jump, a single tap to anchor your web silk, and simply pressing in the direction you want to crawl. Different types of bugs fly around, each with their own challenges as you spin webs (mosquitoes run from you and hornets need to be tackled midair, for example). Each of the bugs have different point values and each room is timed, with a dialog box at the end of each level showing your best time, stats, and score. But as you live you the life of a spider, you'll also stumble upon secret locations with clues to the mystery of the Bryce family.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor quickly becomes mesmerizing as you try to figure out the best way to make polygonal webs within your environment. The combination of the hand-drawn rooms, the movement and ability to create webs anywhere, and the mysterious music that accompanies your quest, make this not just an app, but an almost artistic experience. There are four game modes to play through including the main adventure, a Feeding Frenzy to eat as many bugs as possible; Hunger mode, which forces you to eat quickly to stay alive; and a precision mode giving you shorter threads to make webs as you complete the game. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is truly a unique game on the iPhone, and I think it will appeal to just about anyone (even the ones who hate spiders).

What's your favorite iPhone app? Did NPR do a good job with their first foray into iPhone apps? What do you think of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor? Let me know in the comments!

The publisher of popular RSS readers FeedDemon and NetNewsWire is ditching its proprietary online RSS synchronization in favor of Google Reader. Newsgator's eponymous online service will cease on August 31..

When the beta version of FeedDemon updated earlier this year with the ability to synchronize to either Newsgator or Google Reader, fans of the program rejoiced. Google Reader synchronization, the company says, was one of the most requested features for the Newsgator desktop clients. They have instructions for users who need to move their feeds to Google.

Google Reader may frustrate some, but it has far more users than Newsgator. Newsgator says that this was the main impetus for ditching the Newsgator synchronization for Google, but it's also using the opportunity to revamp its product line.

Along with Google Reader synchronization for FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and the NetNewsWire iPhone app, Newsgator will discontinue Newsgator Online, Newsgator Go!, Newsgator Inbox, the Newsgator browser toolbar, and the desktop notifier. Several features in the desktop apps that depended on the proprietary syncing service will also cease to function at the end of August. If you use the blogroll, ratings or headlines features, Newsgator recommends removing them from any Web site they're used on by August 31. The shared clipping feature will transition into Google Reader's analogous feature.

Despite its popularity, one feature that Google Reader doesn't support that Newsgator does is authenticated feeds. For people who used Newsgator solely for that feature, their opprobrium on message boards and in comment threads is palpable. Interestingly, the last answer in the Newsgator transitioning FAQ points to another reason for the switch: a growing emphasis from the company on their enterprise-based business.

Newsgator recommends that all FeedDemon and NetNewsWire readers upgrade to the beta builds before August 31, since only those latest versions contain the Google Reader option. It gave no word on when the beta builds would finish development, but readers who want the current stable builds can get them for Windows and Mac.

How long does it take you to sync your iPhone? I have the 16GB 3G, about 9GB of music, almost 2GB of apps, and about 60 photos. My "Other" category shows up as more than 2GB (!) in iTunes, but that might be worthy of a separate post. In any case, from start to finish, syncing my iPhone on my Windows PC (it's where my music library is) takes almost an hour. A lot of that time is spent backing up or transferring purchases, but it just doesn't seem right that it should take that long.

A friend of mine uses his Mac for syncing his iPhone and he says it takes less than 10 minutes. Please let me know in the comments how long it takes you to sync your iPhone and what type of system you're using. Any tips for speeding up the process would be greatly appreciated by me and anyone else who suffers the same problem. Now, on to this week's apps!

This week's apps include a new (to me) news feed aggregator and a brand-new game from Freeverse that's on sale for a limited time.

Fluent News (free) is a recent discovery for me and well worth the download if you're looking for a better way to get your news. Fluent News grabs exclusively mobile news content from all the top news sources including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN. Unfortunately, the app is primarily U.S.-centric so international users won't get the news they're looking for. But among the news apps available for iPhone, this one just might be the best I have seen yet.

The interface is easy to use, with tabs across the bottom for Top News stories and sections organized by category. But the layout is what makes Fluent News a standout app. Each story has the headline, which source the news came from, related stories, and a brief description of the story (like many desktop RSS readers). Even better, all the news stories are in mobile format so they're easy to read in the app's included browser. If you find a story you want to share, you can easily post the link to Twitter or Facebook, once you connect to your accounts in the settings menu. Overall, Fluent News is the best free newsreader I've found so far, and it's definitely worth a free download.

Warpack Grunts (99 cents for a limited time) lets you command a squad of four tiny soldiers for shoot-'em-up action in a top-down perspective. Touch the screen to move your squad around the map and double tap to fire your weapons. A few early tutorial missions help you get accustomed to the control system and the different weapons you'll find in the game. As you progress through missions, the game gets harder with more enemy squads to battle and other dangers like snipers and mounted machine guns. As an added bonus, you can play this game in landscape or portrait mode--Warpack Grunts easily switches views on the fly.

Warpack Grunts, like many titles from Freeverse, offers comedy relief with funny voices and sounds to keep the game lighthearted while remaining challenging. There are several items to find in the game like rocket launchers and sniper rifles, along with items that replace downed units (to bring your squad back to four) and increase your health. The missions are quite difficult later in the game and offer unique challenges to keep the game interesting. You can also choose the Zombie Survival gametype to blow away wave after wave of shambling undead. With a ton of missions to explore and the extra game type, Warpack Grunts is definitely worth more than the introductory price, so grab this one while it's still cheap.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you have a better newsreader than Fluent News? How long can you last in Zombie Survival mode? Got a secret way to make iPhone syncing faster? Let me know in the comments!

Updated 6/18/09 at 8:15am: Push notification is now live.

The Associated Press was one company whose iPhone app was ready for Apple's software update to version 3.0 on Wednesday. AP Mobile 3.0 will now take advantage of the iPhone's new ability to push breaking news stories when the app is closed. When you boot it up for the first time, AP Mobile 3.0 asks if you'd like to activate push notification and then presents a list of feeds representing stories you'd like to be pinged about. International and domestic news, local news, entertainment, and sports stories are among them.

Integration with the multiplatform notetaking service Evernote (also updated for iPhone 3.0 today) is another change. In addition to posting AP headlines to Facebook and Twitter, you're now able to file them in your Evernote account, to reference from your Windows or Mac desktop, Web, or mobile phone.

Smooth scrolling, grayed-out headlines to indicate when you've read a story, and a few bug fixes round out the update.

Have you ever used an RSS newsreader? Though you can surf to your favorite sites using your Web browser of choice, RSS readers bring all the news to you in a simple format that's conducive to getting more information quickly. The best RSS readers make it easy to add your favorite sites so you can quickly sift through headlines. When you find something of interest, you can often expand the story in an RSS reader or go directly to the site to read more. If you spend a lot of time on the Web, RSS readers are a great way to find the stuff you want without having to load a bunch of Web sites.

RSS readers come in a lot of flavors, including some that are browser plug-ins, others that offer a standalone desktop app, and still others that behave almost like widgets.

KlipFolio offers a unique RSS experience, giving you a personal dashboard that you can customize with news headlines, your favorite blogs, weather feeds, and tons of other information. The program sits on the side of your desktop and it's skinnable so you can customize it to your style.

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. With this add-on, you can navigate the latest newsfeeds right in your Firefox sidebar. The interface is extremely easy to navigate, with a top panel for headlines and a bottom panel if you want more information about a story. If you're looking for the easiest way to break into RSS, Sage is a good place to start.

RSS Bandit is a standalone reader that has many attractive features, allowing a user to merge news headlines from multiple sources onto a single page, and organize articles based on keyword, read/unread status, and date. The built-in tabbed browser allows you to read a full article and then switch to a different story without closing out the original article. If you like to open and read several stories at once, this is the reader for you.

Snarfer is a top-notch feed reader that will devour your RSS and Atom feeds, but more experienced RSS junkies might find it too basic. An uncomplicated, uncluttered interface follows a generic app design of left-side listed entries with a right-side preview pane. Experienced users will miss customizations like changing fonts and preview pane location, but if you want a simple way to get your news in one place--without an overwhelming amount of settings--Snarfer might be the right choice for you.

FeedDemon is a well-crafted, standalone newsreader that makes for an ideal choice for both novices who've never heard of an RSS feed and advanced users looking to put some oomph and flexibility into their reading habits. FeedDemon also features a Watch Channels option to search for news items containing user-specified keywords and places them in a separate group so they're easier to find. If you're looking for customization and flexibility, FeedDemon delivers.

RSS Captor is an easy-to-use RSS client with a three-pane interface. Feeds are listed on the left, a list of stories on the top right, and details on the lower right. Tabs offer quick access to sections where you can set up folders for automatically saved messages and manually saved messages. RSS Captor excels with its options for sorting, filtering, and searching stories. If you plan on committing yourself to getting all your information via RSS reader, RSS Captor offers a lot to work with.

Some people can get by with using their bookmarks to save their favorite sites. But if you spend a lot of time on the Web and want a way to get the latest news from several sites, any of these programs are up to the task.

RSS aggregator FeedDemon and e-mail client Postbox both have released recent updates to their not-quite-ready for prime-time programs.

FeedDemon 3.0.0.20 beta 5a continues to build out the feature set of the popular RSS and Atom feed manager. FeedDemon 3 is shaping up to be a must-grab improvement on the last stable release, version 2.7.

FeedDemon 3 is able to synchronize feeds not only with FeedDemon's own Web site, NewsGator, for online news reading, but it can also talk to Google Reader. I jumped away from Google Reader because at the time it was sluggish and I wanted to get my podcasts out of my music jukebox, but I've always regretted losing the convenience of having my e-mail and my RSS reader online and smoothly talking to one another. Google Reader integration means that users will have more flexibility in how they use the program and should broaden its appeal. Beta 5 synchronizes Google Reader and FeedDemon tags as well as the feeds themselves.

FeedDemon 3 comes with a slight interface refresh, too, although it's mostly done in service to the new features. The aforementioned tagging is new, bringing a bit of modern convenience to those who use keywords. Sharing has been made easier with a new Share icon, and shortened URLs such as bit.ly or TinyURL support mouse-over tooltips now.

This is becoming a must-have security feature as phishing attacks adapt to more pernicious methods, and works well in FeedDemon 3's stronger support for Twitter. Author names, replies, and hashtags are automatically linked, and profile pictures also appear. Fun stats such as how many unread items and how many flagged items you've got are surfaced, too.

If you do decide to try out the FeedDemon beta, back up the current version first. Go to File, Manage Cache, Backup, and create a back up folder to deposit the backups in. Full release notes for v3.0.0.20 beta 5a can be read here.

Postbox beta 12 for Windows and Mac updates the well-received remix of Mozilla's Thunderbird. New features include search suggestions when you're typing and smoother integration of folder search with global search. Switching between the two is now marginally simpler. The inspector pane on the right side of a message has been tweaked, as well. Sender details, image thumbnails and dimensions, and the revamped search options for messages, images, links, and attachments have been rolled into the pane.

Mac users should find better support for native Mac address books and Growl notifications. Firefox 3.0.10 bug-fixes have also been integrated into this version of Postbox.

Postbox beta 12 is a small update overall, but because of the bug- and security-fixes that have been implemented I'd strongly recommend upgrading. Full release notes are here.

The big news in the world of iPhone was Apple's sneak preview for the iPhone 3.0 software on Tuesday. Available this summer, iPhone 3.0 will bring many features people have asked for and some that will make things easier for developers of iPhone apps. The two major ones on my list were finally added: MMS (sending photos and other media) and the ability to cut, copy, and paste text. There are a ton of changes coming, so check out our coverage if you want to know all of the changes in iPhone 3.0.

This week's apps include a quick and easy way to measure bandwidth and a simple game that somehow manages to keep you coming back for more.

Speed Test (free) from Speedtest.net quickly tests your bandwidth speed wherever you are. A sleek blue speedometer comes to life when you hit the "Start Test" button, first measuring your download speed (the time it takes for data from the server to get to your iPhone), then upload speed (the time it takes for data from your iPhone to get to the server). You can then save the results, making it easy to track available bandwidth in different locations. By moving to different locations, you can even find out which parts of your house get a better Wi-Fi connection--useful if you want to download or update a big app.

10 Balls 7 Cups (99 cents) is a surprisingly fun and challenging Skeeball game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Using crisp 3D graphics and a realistic physics engine, this game manages to capture what it's like to play Skeeball in an arcade. Each game you get 10 balls you can roll down the alley in an attempt to make them land in one of the seven cups of varying score values. Tilt your iPhone to add spin as your ball rolls down the alley. While playing, random cups will light up, and if you manage to land a ball in the cup, you get a score multiplier that lasts until the end of the game. Hit another lit-up cup to increase your multiplier. At the end, you receive tickets depending on your score that you can use to purchase silly items in the store.

When I first saw this game, I thought about how much I liked playing Skeeball as a kid, but didn't think it would translate well for the iPhone (or I would get bored quickly). But soon I was playing game after game, trying to get bonus multipliers, and getting higher scores. The only problem I have with this casual game is that there are no graphics for the silly items (Finger trap! Glittery T-shirt! Submarine (rare)!) in the store. But overall, this simple game is a great time-waster. If you're still not convinced, watch the trailer (I couldn't resist).

What's your favorite iPhone app? Got a better speed test or other useful utility I should check out? What's your best casual iPhone game? Let me know in the comments!

Dear friends and fans of CNET Download Music,

We have some important news to share. On Wednesday, March 11, 2009, the CNET Download Music site will begin redirecting all artist pages and category doors to corresponding pages on our sister music site Last.fm.

We're extremely proud of our close association with Last.fm because, like CNET Download Music, the site shares the same spirit of independence and discovery--not to mention ease of use and a large song catalog--that we find so vital to a satisfying online music experience.

... Read more