With most major newspapers and TV news channels having their own apps, you can take your pick from a broad range based on personal preference but user ratings have illustrated different levels of popularity.
So, we have a new version of the London Evening Standard’s regional newspaper for London and the Southeast. And what’s new? Well, not much really, according to it’s description, only ‘feature enhancements’. However they still deliver ‘a different flavour each day’. Monday – trends, Tuesday – fashion, Wednesday – health and beauty, Thursday – London life and Friday – film and music.
Effort has therefore been made to deliver news in a fun format and a little different from the norm. However, the layout is way too similar to others for it to stand out. The news stories tend to be divided into more general categories, so, separate tabs for UK news, local news and world news would have organised its features more efficiently.
It’s not as artistic or flashy as Sky News, which still takes pole position but the amount of adverts cluttering up the pages lets it down. O.K, it’s free, so adverts are a given but the numbers on this news app are a bit excessive.
There is also a slight problem expressed by London users. Maybe if it could work offline, the thousands of commuters traveling underground every day could update themselves on current affairs by using their iPhone.
Anyhow, it functions just as well as any other news application and if you don’t have time to read a whole article, simply store it in the ‘saved’ page to finish later. It may not ease the scram for the last newspaper in the tube station and unless you want to book flights with BA you’ll find their frequent adverts fairly off putting.
