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Apple News app for Mac?
- Thread starter Joseph C
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That's what I'm hoping for! It makes total sense, what with their recent push on Continuity and Handoff features, along with the fact that pretty much every other iOS app is available on OS X in some form. Personally I love the simplicity of the News app and checking it has become as much a habit as checking Twitter and Facebook for me. Personally I do think we'll see it on OS X before long. And Siri is def long-needed as well
In the recent years, it has been a pattern for Apple to test new features (like apps and design elements) on the mobile platform first, before bringing them to desktop. Some claim that this is because Apple does not care about OS X and treats it as an afterthought to iOS. Personally, I think that the explanation is much more mundane: mobile platforms are generally more volatile, users are used to upgrading often and it is fairly ok to have significant changes between releases. On the other hand, desktop users expect at least a bit more stability. This makes iOS a perfect platform for test-driving new tech and refining/polishing it before bringing the new, improved version to OS X.
It's simply a matter of time. Just like Launchpad, Notification Center, iMessage and FaceTime.
I look forward to reading News on my Macbook.
I look forward to reading News on my Macbook.
Or even more likely - The mobile part earns Apple 10x times as much money, so that is where they put their focus first.
Open a browser and locate your favorite news site.
I feel like it's requests like this that lead to the "iOS-ification" of OS X that so many people complain about. I've seen people ask for a Netflix app, now a news app. Both of those can be handled through a browser. I'm not saying it's wrong to want or suggest something, but there are conflicting desires/expectations for the OS. Maybe someone will come up with a news aggregator app and put it in the MAS...
I can see your point however I feel that you do not really understand why the News app exists if you think I should just 'go to my favourite news site'.
The News app provides a place where I can read news stories from several different sources at once and through 'liking' the news stories the app can then provide more tailored content to suit my preferences and reading style. Unless I went onto my browser and opened several tabs at once with multiple news sources I would not achieve this simplicity within my news reading - I also still wouldn't have tailored news.
Maybe you do not see the value in it however let's look at the facts.
- iOS is a massively successful operating system which would suggest it's features are to be desired - why not add these features to OSX?
- The News app has been very popular and even in its early stages it's used by many users daily (I know all of my family definetly do).
- FlipBoard is a program for Windows and Mac systems which does a similar job to News and is very popular - a program like this wouldn't exist if there wasn't demand for it.
I agree with you, @LewisChapman. Even though News has only been around for a few months, already I've found that it's become something that I compulsively check throughout the day, along with Twitter and Facebook. I think it's because it's just such a simple way to check up on multiple sources. I mean, it's way easier than "opening up a browser and going to my favorite website." I can just zip around it with gestures - it's way less work, and everything is already there. Plus, having access to the app on OS X would give me access to history and bookmarks. And yes, I've tried Flipboard, but I just found it way too cluttered for what I was looking for - a barebones way to look at multiple news content providers at once.
And, if News ever gets the ability to handle subscriptions and notifications, it would be even more useful on OS X. For anyone who thinks that "just using a browser" is good enough, I would suggest they just continue to do that and leave it for the rest of us who would find it useful.
The advantage I see is a big one - continuity for the end user. It's all about having the actions be the same throughout, especially now that so much between the two os's has been streamlined. I mean, if we can get our phone calls on our desktops, why not a unified news browsing method, where the history, bookmarks, and favorited news sources is continuous?
Not sure what you mean by the workflow being disrupted. For me personally, it's more disruptive to have to type in individual websites and browse them by themselves, as opposed to having a single place where I can scroll through headlines from multiple places all at once very easily, especially now that I've gotten used to having the latter on one of my devices. Again, I'm sure some people won't see the value in adding this to the desktop, but they can browse the old way if they want. Nobody's forcing anyone to use it if it's ever introduced, but I do think there's definitely value in having it around for users who do want it.
I still see no argument in favour of a native app here. All of this is possible in a browser too. The problem is that you will occasionally want to view an article in the browser. Then Safari is clearly the best place. Sometimes you just have to accept that the browser is the best place. Apple and Google are in between two extremes: Google does everything web-based, whereas Apple does it natively. There are ample examples where the choice for one isn't the best one.
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I've thought about this too. It makes sense and I can't wait to get using it.
I thought its gonna be an app I wouldn't use, but I've been using it on my iPhone and iPad extensively!
I thought its gonna be an app I wouldn't use, but I've been using it on my iPhone and iPad extensively!
https://feedly.com
You should take a look at Feedly. It is a free RSS service where you just search for the feeds or topics you want at the top. You can configure it very much in the sort of "magazine" style like the News app is, or just a list of articles if you prefer.
There is a companion iOS app that will sync your feed, or you can use one of the many OS X or iOS apps that sync with Feedly RSS. I use the RSS app ReadKit on OS X and the iOS app Newsify. Or just use the Feedly web page to read.
Once configured the whole setup works very much like the Apple News app. The only thing missing his begin able to upvote or down vote articles.
I use Feedly every day and have done since Google Reader shut down. Reeder is one of my most used apps on Mac and iOS.
Apple News can be used alongside this and I check it every morning and often through the day on my iPad. It's a lovely "newspaper" to have with my breakfast and the continuity and custom styling is really nice. I really dig Apple News for the way it presents news.
I'd like to have Apple News on Mac either in a web version or a native app and I don't see why Apple wouldn't do this for the next release of OS X.
