L.A Times releases iPhone apps for news, sports
In addition to print, the Web and Amazon's Kindle, the L.A. Times adds another medium to its arsenal. You can now get your daily dose of L.A. Times news on your iPhone and iPod Touch, thanks to two new applications.
Once downloaded through Apple's App Store, the L.A. Times News Reader (iTunes link) provides news stories from LATimes.com, formatted for mobile reading.
The default view lets users scroll through headlines by flicking left or right on the top half of the screen and browse sections on the lower half. To quickly browse headlines, users can switch to a list view using the button on the top right of the app.
The story reader includes the full text of the article and the ability to view the accompanying photos by flicking to the right of the headline. Users can also reposition the viewing area by dragging the center-right portion of the screen -- the space that looks like metallic emboss -- to provide more room for reading.
A separate app, called the L.A. Times Sports Reader (iTunes link) is very similar, but replaces the section's browser with a sports scoreboard. Users can select individual games to get a more detailed breakdown of the action. Sports news is displayed in the same way as News Reader.
The premiere versions of the apps don't currently offer online viewing for places where WiFi or wireless Internet access may not be available -- like on the subway or airplane. Both apps can be downloaded through iTunes or directly on the devices for free. There's also an iPhone-formatted version of the website at latimes.com/iphone.
-- Mark Milian
Congrats on the new iPhone app; just downloaded it and looked it over. Lead story is about the demise of Bea Arthur. Our condolences, but this is the top story?
First thoughts - why isn't there a capability to read stories offline? And second thought, there's a big banner at the bottom of the first screen of the app for LA Times Sports Reader - but the Sports Reader isn't part of this app; touching this banner leads out of the app to the iTunes Store and you have the opportunity to download the Sports Reader as a separate app.
The Toy Lounge - http://thetoylounge.com/newspapers - creates custom iPhone apps for newspapers, magazines, ebooks, children's books and radio stations among others.
Posted by: The Toy Lounge | April 25, 2009 at 02:26 PM
Great way for a SoCal native who lives in Seattle to keep up with the latest in L.A. sports but there seems to be a bug in the app? Sometimes, well usually, the bottom banner that says LA Times Sports Reader doesn't appear and because so, when I try to scroll down on a story I am reading it just closes out the entire app! Sometimes the banner shows and it's fine but usualluy it doesn't and appears as a blank banner bottom. Tried deleteting the app and re-installing but same problem. Is there a fix?
Posted by: LakeRon | July 21, 2009 at 10:21 PM