Thursday, March 17, 2011

Apple : Hands on: Sky News app for iPad review

Apple : Hands on: Sky News app for iPad review

Hands on: Sky News app for iPad review

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 05:14 AM PDT

The Sky News app for iPad represents a bold step for Sky, who should be praised for merely adapting their popular iPhone app for a bigger screen. It's fabulous to look at, slick to use and intuitive to boot, but questions remain about the content it is offering.

Sky has pumped huge investment into its apps, and the broadcast giant currently offers up some of the most impressive offerings in the Apple App Store.

And the Sky News app for iPhone will, for a while at least, represent one of the crown jewels of Sky's efforts in applications.

Top stories

From the very first page it is clear that this is a big step in terms of the user interface. The Home screen offers a series of pictures of differing sizes, with the main story immediately being pushed to the forefront and the other stories spreading down the page.

These pictures represent the main stories of the day, and clicking on each on brings up what can probably be termed a hub page for that story. We'll look at those pages in a minute.

Also on offer on the home page is a 'live' option that streams Sky News to your iPad as it happens. We were trying out the app over Wi-Fi and the quality was great.

Sky news app for ipad

To the top left of the screen is an option to switch from the top stories view to a timeline view – which (as the name suggests) allows you to chronologically list the stories rather than look at the more editorialised view.

It does this by placing the latest story to the right and you can scroll back left across the timeline. It sounds obvious and it is – intuitive, nicely designed and well thought through.

Sky news app for ipad timeline

Back on to the hub pages, and we get a taste of just how powerful an experience the Sky News app for iPad provides.

The page groups the relevant content around the story. Obviously the top story today across the globe is the crisis in Japan, and the grouped coverage is comprehensive.

There is a central report and around the outside is a timeline of how the story unfolded, supporting graphics and graphs, galleries of the harrowing images and maps, along with other video reports on some of the other aspects of the story and text reports.

News story hub

One criticism that is likely to be levelled at the Sky News app is that the text reports do feel a little after the Lord Mayor's show – this is an app that doesn't seem particularly fond of the written word, but it's been shoved in there for a sense of completeness anyway.

Throughout all of this content there is the option to have video running live, either blown up to full screen or in the corner as you take a peek at the supporting content.

The whole application feels futuristic; it's immediately nice to play around with and, as we said, easy to use. It is clear that this is a video-led app that is wonderfully suited to the fine screen on an iPad.

iPad event home

But there are three huge issues that have to be considered when you look at the Sky News app for iPad

First up, and perhaps not as critical as it seems on the surface, this will become a paid for app at some point this year, but only if you are not a Sky subscriber – subscribers pay nothing.

Is this a massive barrier? Definitely for those who are just after news and don't pay for satellite TV; but Sky is confident that it has enough subscribers with iPads to mean that the app will be a success.

Secondly,this is an online application. If you check out the news on the underground or on a train through areas with patchy coverage this may not be the app for you. Sky News has decided that it is all about the now (the app is updated every minute) and isn't interested in offering offline content.

Sky news for ipad - graphics

Which is a shame, because you think the combination of the two would not only give an obvious boost in terms of commuter worth, but also give that pesky text a much-needed larger role.

And onto the third issue – which for many people is a potential dealbreaker: The Sky News app for iPad only focuse on the major news stories.

That means if you like tech news on a day when Steve Jobs hasn't taken to the stage, then you might as well not bother. If you are looking for the Chelsea score from last night, then you might not find it and if you are interested in anything from the world of entertainment, weather or the quirky section, give up now – they aren't going to be there.

It's a crying shame, but it appears that the sacrifice made in order to bring a brilliant experience to the main stories means that there is not enough in the tank to focus on anything else.

Unhelpfully, when TechRadar asked about this narrowing of the news agenda,Sky pointed out that there are other apps available – which rather missed the point of a news app.

This is a wonderful application, beautifully designed and fun to use – but by focusing so entirely on a few topics, it may well find that it's missing out on a huge audience who want to look beyond the headlines but not beyond the news.

But, presumably, that's something that can be rectified.

Sky News chief: tablets represent the future for digital news

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 04:21 AM PDT

Sky News supremo John Ryley has insisted that the arrival of a made-to-measure iPad app is one of the most important events in the company's history, and that tablets represent the future of digital news.

The Sky News app for iPad has arrived in a blaze of glory, with an innovative interface that is built around the headline stories of the day – with each story becoming a hub of video content, pictures, features, timelines, text reports and graphics.

There is also a live feed of Sky News but, curiously no categories, so unless the sport of technology news is in the top few stories of the day it simply won't be covered, and the app will not function without an internet connection.

Important development

"With more and more of our viewers embracing mobile devices to stay connected to the news, the launch of Sky News for iPad is one of the most important developments in Sky News' history," suggested Ryley.

Sky news app for ipad

"I think that tablets represent the future of digital news. This is Sky News, we're a live broadcaster - and the big thing about tablets is they offer people choice, be it in this room or in the café up the road, to find out instantly what's happening or go back in time and see how it happened."

Ryley believes that a service that is all about live information is the key, and that focusing on a handful of stories plays to the Sky News strengths, insisting that it is not narrowing the news agenda.

Playing to our strengths

"Sky news is a live broadcaster," said Ryley in answer to TechRadar's question about coverage.

"It's about covering the main stories in as much detail as we can muster, and the app plays to our strengths.

"A big news story means weather or sport takes second place."

Sky's John Jelley – an executive producer who has been tasked with leading the iPad product over the past year added: "There's a lot of very good weather apps out there, and the Sky Sports News app is fantastic.

"There aren't many big stories around today, with Japan and Libya dominating the agenda.

"We're not trying to do everything, we're trying to offer a really immersive experience.

"And the thing about apps is that it's probably better to focus a little bit."

Sky News app for iPad unveiled

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 03:44 AM PDT

The Sky News iPad app has been unveiled – an innovative and fresh application that focuses on a handful of key stories and is mainly focused around live video.

Positioned cleverly as a cool and slick app for a device that ticks the same boxes, Sky has decided that its latest offering should only work when the user is online, and that it will become a paid-for application later in the year for non-Sky customers.

The Sky News app for iPad is completely different from the already-popular iPhone app, and is built around hubs of visual and video content, alongside graphs and text reports.

John Ryley, Head of Sky News, commented: "We pride ourselves on being an innovative, brave and mould-breaking news service, and work hard to give our audiences access to news on their terms.

Next logical platform

"Having delivered content across digital, online and mobile, iPad was the next logical platform on which to break new ground.

"With more and more of our viewers embracing mobile devices to stay connected to the news, the launch of Sky News for iPad is one of the most important developments in Sky News' history."

The decision to focus on rich content on only key stories was taken, according to Ryley, because Sky News wanted to focus on its key strengths.

When asked about the lack of sports and weather content, Ryley pointed out that other apps were available for these things, although it seems likely that the content range will broaden in the fullness of time.

Tutorial: How to merge iTunes music collections

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 03:12 AM PDT

Perhaps more than one person uses your Mac, each with his or her own user account. If so, the chances are there's a lot of music on the hard drive that you can't add to your iTunes library.

While tracks stored outside your iTunes Media folder can be added to your music collection, if they're inside someone else's home folder, they can't be reached.

But there's a solution. Move your iTunes music collection to a shared folder and other people with accounts on your Mac can play them natively in their own iTunes music library. Any number of people can share their music with other account holders on the same Mac in this way.

After following this tutorial, your main iTunes music library will contain all of your own iTunes media and also that of other account holders, all seamlessly combined. Tracks or albums that are in several account holders' libraries will appear multiple times in the combined collection, but you can always delete the spares.

Finally, if your iTunes library was created before iTunes 9, your iTunes Media folder is called iTunes Music.

01. Move iTunes Media Folder

step 1

If you have iTunes open, quit it. Find your iTunes Media folder (or iTunes Music, if applicable). It's located in [User]/Music/iTunes.

Move the iTunes Media (or Music) folder to your Public folder, which is in your home folder. You should only move the iTunes Media/Music folder; make sure you don't move the iTunes folder, the iTunes Library file or the iTunes Library.xml file.

02. iTunes preferences

step 2

Open the iTunes application. From the iTunes menu bar pull-down, select Preferences. In the window that appears, click on the Advanced icon on the right-hand side of the top row.

This gives you a series of controls, including the option to change the location of the iTunes Media folder, which is what we're to do now.

03. Change the location

step 3

Our iTunes Media folder is currently in our Public folder, but we haven't yet told iTunes. This is why the folder tree in the iTunes Media Folder Location box still points to [User]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media.

We must change this now. Click on the Change button near the top-right corner, and you're given a Finder-style window.

04. Navigate to Media Folder

step 4

In browser window, navigate to the current location of the iTunes Media folder. As it's now in your Public folder, go to Users/Home Folder/Public. Highlight the iTunes Media folder, and click on Choose.

In the Preferences window, click OK to update. iTunes should play it as normal. Opt to reorganise the files if you wish.

05. Other users' music

step 5

Repeat steps 1 to 4 for every account holder on your Mac who wishes to share his or her music library. To add music stored in another user's Public folder to your own, open iTunes' Preferences and click Advanced.

Deselect the checkbox labelled, Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library. Click OK.

06. Add the music

step 6

In iTunes' File menu, select Add to Library (or press Command+O). From the Finder window that opens, navigate to the folder you wish to add, for example: Users > Home Folder (theirs, not yours) > Public.

Highlight iTunes Media and click OK. Repeat this step for every account on your Mac whose music you wish to add to your own library.

07. Add more Music

step 7

You now have access to other account holders' music without wasting space by duplicating files. When someone on your Mac adds more tracks or rips a CD to their library, repeat step 6 to update your own with their new music.

You can navigate past the iTunes Media folder and directly to the newly added material if you wish.
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