Apple News - page 4

Stories picked by Apple News’ human editors are far more likely to represent a diverse range of outlets — and be more serious and less focused on celebrities and entertainment — than its algorithmically curated alternative, researchers claim.

Jack Bandy and Nicholas Diakopoulos from Northwestern University analyzed thousands of Apple’s “Top Stories” and “Trending” articles over a 10-month period. They discovered that the latter, which are determined algorithmically, show stories from significantly fewer outlets, predominantly CNN or Fox News. Articles from BuzzFeed and People also figured heavily in the mix — with an emphasis on light news.

It’s now easier to keep track of the latest COVID-19 developments with Apple News. The service on Wednesday added a new coronavirus special coverage section dedicated to providing readers with updates on the outbreak.

Ever since its launch, people have mostly been dismissive about Apple News on iPhone, iPad and Mac. One big reason is the way it interacts with links on the web, boxing users into the News app instead of letting them visit the open web.

For me, that’s actually a pretty desirable thing, because I really like the News app. It’s much cleaner-looking than many ad-bloated websites, and far less emotional and combative than getting your news on social media.

But making the News app show you the things you care about, with less clutter and noise, requires one simple trick.

“Hey Siri, who won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary?”

Starting today, Apple’s digital assistant is able to answer that and other election questions as part of Apple News’ 2020 election coverage.

Big Tech employees are feeling the Bern as the U.S. presidential primary season shifts into full gear. New fundraising data disclosed this week reveals that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised more money from the country’s top tech companies than any other presidential candidate.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter employees donated nearly $270,000 to Sanders’ bid to take the White House, with nearly half of that money coming from Google. Check out the full breakdown by company:

Apple News debuted Monday it’s 2020 presidential election coverage and announced plans for various live-stream video coverage of the presidential race beginning with the next Democratic debate in New Hampshire on February 7.

Apple News and ABC News will join forces to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

ABC videos, live-streams, and more will be available inside the Apple News app — alongside data and analysis from FiveThirtyEight. It all kicks off with the Democratic primary debate on February 7, 2020.

No, you didn’t ask for it, but you might soon start receiving a daily Apple News newsletter by email.

“Good Morning” features top news, analysis and features pulled from various sources around the web. You could find all this inside Apple News yourself, at your own convenience, but Apple negates the need to do that by forcing it down your throat.

And good luck trying to unsubscribe.

One of Apple’s biggest publishing partners for Apple News+ is still waiting to be impressed by the fledgling subscription service.

Speaking at Recode’s Code Media conference this week, Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said the “jury is out” on the service. His less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of Apple News+ comes a week after a report claimed Apple is struggling to significantly increase the number of paid subscribers for Apple News+.

Apple News+ has been struggling to ramp up its subscriber numbers since launching in March, according to a new report that claims growth has been stuck in neutral for months.

News came out this morning that Apple is considering bundling services like Apple Music, Apple News+ and Apple TV+ together for a monthly fee. At this point, the company might need to do that to get more people onto the Apple News+ platform in order to make it worthwhile for publishers.

CNN is creating a news aggregator that will collect content from a variety of sources, with some portion of the service requiring a subscription. If this sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what Apple News is.

There’s no coincidence — CNN thinks Apple and other big tech companies have too much control over the news.

Apple’s subscription news service just debuted in the UK and Australia, with access to a range of local and international newspapers and magazines for a single monthly fee.

News+ includes offerings like The Times (UK) and The Daily Telegraph (AU). There’s Cosmopolitan UK, Australian Men’s Health and many more.

Apple has launched a special guide section for Apple News, featuring coverage of 20 Democratic candidates in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. Elections.

The section of the app curates content from a variety of news sources. It also includes basic information about the different candidates who will take place in the first debate. This includes their biography and current position on key issues.

The first four applications Apple ported from iOS to macOS Mojave last year met with a certain amount of criticism for feeling like they were still iPad software. An Apple executive has promised these will become more “Mac-like.”

Apple has “hundreds” of people working to make Apple News+ the best place to read your favorite magazines.

The company has received lots of “great feedback” from many of its publishing partners, it revealed today. And some of them have special things planned for upcoming issues designed especially for Apple News+.

Everyone who signed up for a free trial of Apple News+ right after it was unveiled is about to get charged for their first month. While there’s a lot to like in this digital magazine/newspaper subscription service, anyone who’s not interested should get out before they get their first bill.

Fortunately, iOS makes this a snap.

Apple is looking to beef up its Apple News team, according to new job listings the company has recently posted on LinkedIn.

Among other positions, Apple is looking to hire a new growth marketing manager, senior publisher partnerships manager, and social media manager. In all, it’s aiming to add 22 people to its Apple News team.

Apple News+, the subscription magazine and news service revealed last week, is already more popular than the service and app based it on, Texture.

Apple will close down Texture in May following the recent launch of Apple News+.

Texture, another magazine subscription service, was acquired by Apple for an undisclosed sum last spring. Cupertino encourages existing subscribers to migrate to its new platform. But those who don’t use Mac or iOS will have to find their magazines elsewhere.

Apple has been accused of violating its own App Store guidelines within the new Apple News app.

The Apple News+ signup page is missing a number of important elements that would lead the app to be rejected if it was made by a third-party developer. A former Apple developer says he is surprised the company hasn’t been hit with an “an extremely public lawsuit” for its double standards.

Monday’s “show time” keynote introduced plenty of new faces to Apple fans when it came to presenters. One of them, Peter Stern, is the VP of Services in charge of the company’s Apple+ and Apple News+ services.

Having joined Apple in 2016, he’s a relatively new arrival. However, he’s someone we’re likely to see a lot more of — as a new profile makes clear.

Apple is here to save the magazine and newspaper industry. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Back in 2011, Apple’s Newsstand made the same promise.

Newsstand was a kind of odd hybrid app/folder, and you could subscribe to individual magazines. Some were specially designed to work on the then-new iPad, and others were repurposed PDFs. Publishers thought it would prop up their failing print sales, but it did nothing of the sort.

Will Apple News+ be any different?

Today we see updates for all your Apple devices — Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and even Apple Watch.

Almost all of Apple’s big announcements today were software-based — the titanium Apple Card and the new TV shows were the exceptions — but very few of those announcements will be available today, or even soon. In the U.S. and Canada, you’ll be able to sign up for the new Apple News+ subscription today, but that’s about it.

Let’s see what else is new.

You can now find your favorite magazines inside Apple News.

A new subscription provides access to a wealth of periodicals from the likes of Vogue, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker. It also features content from The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times.

You can read as many as you like, as much as you like, for just $9.99 a month.

The New York Times has yet to sign up to Apple’s news subscription service — and it’s got a warning for those publishers who do.

Mark Thompson, chief executive of the NYT warns publishers that third-party distribution could mean losing control of their product. The New York Times is the biggest U.S. newspaper, as measured by its approximately 4 million subscribers.