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So, where the hell is the News App for the rest of the world?

LordQ

LordQ

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Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
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I mean, is there a reason why it is US, UK and Canada-only?
I understand the publishing and monetizing thing, but it's been almost two years and nothing for the rest of the world. The worst is, if I set my region to USA, the stories won't even load.
 
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CarlosQG said:
I mean, is there a reason why it is US, UK and Canada-only?
I understand the publishing and monetizing thing, but it's been almost two years and nothing for the rest of the world. The worst is, if I set my region to USA, the stories won't even load.
Click to expand...

You're not missing out on much honestly. The fact that the news widget keeps pushing CNN and Huffpo articles on me even though I chose to mute those 2 sources made me *delete* the news app.
 
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CarlosQG said:
I mean, is there a reason why it is US, UK and Canada-only?
I understand the publishing and monetizing thing, but it's been almost two years and nothing for the rest of the world. The worst is, if I set my region to USA, the stories won't even load.
Click to expand...

There's no news app in Canada.
[doublepost=1484879619][/doublepost]
Techrebel said:
You can change the region to US and have it.
Click to expand...

The issue with that is all measurements are then changed to imperial, not metric.
 
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CarlosQG said:
I mean, is there a reason why it is US, UK and Canada-only?
I understand the publishing and monetizing thing, but it's been almost two years and nothing for the rest of the world. The worst is, if I set my region to USA, the stories won't even load.
Click to expand...
Apple News is not available in Canada. Apple News is available in the US, UK and Australia. You can switch to those regions if you want it.
 
If you change region, the stories for pretty much all my sources won't even bother loading. Is like it is coded to do so if I am not in US or U.K.
 
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Well, Apple News cannot load whatsoever for those Chinese users anyway, whether they use VPN or not.

There are reasons more than just publishing and monetizing.
 
As was pointed out, Apple uses regional restrictions for the content. This is a complete non-starter for me. I recommend forgoing this nonsense and using a decent RSS feed reader or dedicated apps such as Flipboard. A multilingual person such as me will never be satisfied with arbitrary regional barriers and it looks as though Apple is heading in that direction.
 
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CarlosQG said:
I mean, is there a reason why it is US, UK and Canada-only?
I understand the publishing and monetizing thing, but it's been almost two years and nothing for the rest of the world. The worst is, if I set my region to USA, the stories won't even load.
Click to expand...
You can have mine. I never use it. PM me for a reasonable price. ;)
 
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hi

i totally agree with the original poster CarlosQG.
the "rest" of the world would certainly want to have this app.

here is what i encounter:

i set my region to USA in order to get the News app on my iPhone.
although before iOS10 this also reset most other regional formats, iOS10 has an independent setting to at least set Temperature Units to Celsius.

since i am accessing News from outside the USA, the following are the limitations:
the For You tab on News doesnt seem to have any restrictions as to content that can be accessed.
but if you access the Channel from Favorites, it is dependent on if that Channel allows access from outside the USA, frequently giving the message content not available in your region (so it definitely is IP sensing).
the above is true for Channels that are proprietary in the sense that the Channel is a Channel for a specific mag or news source. but, if the "Channel" in Favorites is a generic theme such as "Astronomy" or "Politics" then although the actual news in that theme may be limited it at least does provide most articles.

as was mentioned, News is totally inaccessible from within mainland China.

and, i totally agree that Huff Post is way too prevalent...although i have reset my preferences and re-trained it and was more specific to be clearer what i want more of and it seems to have understood.

it gets more complicated from there if you need to manage credit cards / apple pay through wallet.

and then of course it gets very complicated if i use the Japan version of iPhone 7 in order to have access to Mobile Suica transportation mobile money chip and apple pay using my Japanese bank issued credit card.

in the future: i think two more converging technologies may also require apple to rethink its world's regionalization set up:
1 carrier programs that allow roaming at no extra charge or limited extra charges (cross border device, as is)
2 virtual SIM tech that appears on the horizon (if iPhone 8 in fact has zero ports...)

on the other hand, apple appears to be more willing than i want it to be, for it to pull apps that the governments of China or Russia dont want. so appears to be willing to cave in to "requires server to be physically present within the country" threats.
 
It's strange that Apple News still is limited to a few countries and when it is available is pretty limited in it's functionalities as well so you aren't missing much.

Look for great alternatives like Newsify, Feedly or Heartfeed to get your RSS feeds from all your favorite apps.
 
I'm personally a fan of Feedly & Heartfeed. Of course, it doesn't have the magazine layout of Flipboard or Apple News, but I can quickly peruse my news sources.
 
Apple doesn't give a **** about Poland :D No Siri in Polish, no keyboard suggestions, no News app, no integration with Maps (recommended places)... Maybe in iOS 20 ? :D
 
Personally, I think the iOS10 Apple News App is great. Its fast, clean, functional and shows me relevant news (after a bit of training) from sources I'd never normally visit.
 
You're not missing much. I really want to like it but it's inability to sort / prioritize news sources makes it unusable for me. It also decides how much of a news source you see and you get no say in the matter. So I open the app and I am inundated with garbage from DailyMail before I see anything important. And I like DailyMail stuff at times. Just not 4 pages of it at the top of my feed. The app kinda sucks.
 
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No matter what you do, the news app force displays news from sources you don't want. It's not really 'news' but just companies that paid apple to push content.. The app could happily be renamed 'ads' or 'propaganda'. You can't control what you read. It's not a great news app.
 
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As previous posters has mentioned, the list of features that are exclusive to the US or just a few regions is getting longer and longer.
Say iPhone 6, one of the bigger features that was released alongside with it was Apple Pay. Now, where is it then?
The incentive to buy an apple device is starting to wear thin, if I don't have access to integrated features which I consider to be an strong point apple have, then why should I buy one in the first place?
 
Wrong Turn said:
As previous posters has mentioned, the list of features that are exclusive to the US or just a few regions is getting longer and longer.
Say iPhone 6, one of the bigger features that was released alongside with it was Apple Pay. Now, where is it then?
The incentive to buy an apple device is starting to wear thin, if I don't have access to integrated features which I consider to be an strong point apple have, then why should I buy one in the first place?
Click to expand...
Do you sincerely find it odd that a U.S. based company gives priority to the U.S.? This is not a new phenomenon to Apple. This is not a new phenomenon to any international corporation.

If your "incentives" are wearing thin, then vote with your KRONAS. No amount of whining here will change a single thing.
 
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musio said:
No matter what you do, the news app force displays news from sources you don't want. It's not really 'news' but just companies that paid apple to push content.. The app could happily be renamed 'ads' or 'propaganda'. You can't control what you read. It's not a great news app.
Click to expand...

I think this just changed in the last update. You can now dislike certain sources and the app hides those forever.
 
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