The iPhone is a useful beacon for just about any function that you have seen, both on a phone and off. People turn to this personal device for a whole host of reasons on a consistent basis, from weather reports to videogames. Almost every major news organization has forced an application on us, each with relative success. Now the country’s most popular paper, USA Today, has brought us the USA Today iPhone app that succeeds mainly because of its stability.

The application has a simple interface that provides a number of options easily. The bottom task bar divides the feed into major sections. The main tab is headlines, followed by sports scores, weather, pictures, and then a voting tool.

Once “Headlines” has been selected then another task bar at the top of the workable frame allows you to pick from a variety of subsections, like Top News and Money. The weather function is brought by the Weather Channel, and is effective enough to take most of the wind out of the Weather Channel’s self-titled application. At the very top of the screen a temperature display is always maintained, and does so for your exact location using the GPS function. The sports score section works similar to the way that the headlines one does, with the top task bar giving options for different sports leagues.

All of the articles have the same depth as the publication itself, but what makes them stand out in this setting is the speed at which you can use them. The majority of the news applications available are difficult at times because loading full sized articles and photos is a lengthy process. USA Today loads things almost instantly. This makes the prospect of glancing at and reading a variety of different stories a practical alternative to a physical paper. The application itself does not have any advertising support, which makes the look even cleaner and with fewer distractions. The interactivity of their website is maintained with the “Snapshots” section, which allows the user to vote in polls about current issues. This is the kind of feature that will help mark this application as a major step forward for mobile news.

USA Today has brought something that many of the other ones have not: it made an application that works like an application should. Instead of just relying on the content and reputation to keep audiences they have worked on something that is made perfectly for the device. The iPhone has a number of limitations and benefits, and the USA Today application takes advantage of this well.

Labels: iPhone

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