Yahoo’s News Digest App Wants To Reinvent The Way You Consume News [CES 2014]

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CES 2014 bug LAS VEGAS — There are countless ways to catch up on the news thanks to the advent of services like Flipboard and Feedly. You may stick to traditional papers like The New York Times or USA Today, scan Twitter or Facebook, use RSS, visit a few of your favorite sites every day, or a combination of all the above. The possibilities are endless.

Then there’s Yahoo. At a big keynote today during CES, the tech giant announced its new News Digest app for iPhone. It’s a beautiful, bold take on presenting the news that has a good chance of being quite successful.

“Daily ‘digests’ of the biggest stories are delivered to the app twice a day”

The pitch is “a definitive summary of all the important, need-to-know news.” Unlike most of the news apps out there, News Digest is intentionally finite in what it presents you. A combination of algorithms and curation from Yahoo News editors fuels the news gathering. Daily “digests” of the biggest stories (from all categories, not just tech) are delivered to the app twice a day: in the morning and evening. Every reader gets the same 9-10 stories every day.

Yahoo News will pull from other outlets to compile the day’s news, and different elements of a story (images, video, maps, etc.) are called “Atoms.” Not only do you get a summary of the story in text form, but other relevant information in different media formats. It’s all displayed beautifully in the sleek iPhone app. Android and tablet versions will be released in the future based on how well the service does initially.

In an age of infinite scrolling and never-ending firehoses of stories, News Digest is a refreshing take. There are no ads now, but Yahoo of course has plans to monetize eventually. For now, News Digest offers enough to make it compelling, with plenty of room to grow and add new features. Check it out now in the App Store.

Source: App Store

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