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Apple Launches Apple News+ in the UK and Australia

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Apple News+, Apple's subscription news and magazine service, has launched for users who live in the UK and Australia, Apple announced today.

Apple News+ subscribers can access more than 150 publications in Apple News+, with a one month free trial available to test the service before having to pay the £9.99 (UK) or $14.99 (Australia) monthly fee.

applenewsplus-800x618.jpg

Available magazines and publications in the UK include The Times and The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan UK, Elle UK, Esquire UK, FourFourTwo, Empire, Hello!, Cyclist and Grazia, plus US-based newspapers and magazines like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Vox and more.

Magazines and publications in Australia include The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, Vogue, Australian Women's Health, Elle, The Australian Women's Weekly, Harper's Bazaar Australia, GQ, Australian Men's Health, Delicious and Australian Geographic, plus US and UK-based newspapers and magazines.

Apple News+ has been available in the United States and Canada since March, and it is designed to present magazine and news content in a media rich format on iPhone and iPad. Apple said that Apple News+ would come to the UK and Australia as part of iOS 13, though it is also available for those using iOS 12.2 or later and those using macOS 10.14.4 and later.

Apple News+ was built using Texture, a now-discontinued magazine subscription service that Apple purchased in 2018. It has thus far received some criticism for its formatting (not all publications support Apple's media rich format) and for its confusing interface, though some improvements have been made since the U.S. launch.

For more on Apple News+, make sure to check out our Apple News+ guide.

Article Link: Apple Launches Apple News+ in the UK and Australia
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/30/apple-news-plus-uk-australia-launch/
I really would like a news service like this, but Apple News+ is bad.
- the newspaper selection is very limited and not growing as far as I can tell.
- the reader is worse than a website in reader mode (for example, you can't zoom on article text).
- it's harder to find articles in the News interface than on a normal news website.
- links on the web or social media don't understand how to redirect into the News app, so you get stuck on the website / paywall anyhow.
 
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bgraham said:
Interesting how they got the UK Times on board, despite their individual subscriptions being over £20 a month normally.

Not that bad at all.
Click to expand...
Are you sure it will grant you access to the complete paper? If I recall, in the US I think the WSJ did not let subscribers see everything.
masterleep said:
I really would like a news service like this, but Apple News+ is bad.
- the newspaper selection is very limited and not growing as far as I can tell.
- the reader is worse than a website in reader mode (for example, you can't zoom on article text).
- it's harder to find articles in the News interface than on a normal news website.
- links on the web or social media don't understand how to redirect into the News app, so you get stuck on the website / paywall anyhow.
Click to expand...
Sounds fantastic :oops:
 
I want to know if it is the full Times experience, as that would be a bargain by comparison.
 
Northern Man said:
Are you sure it will grant you access to the complete paper? If I recall, in the US I think the WSJ did not let subscribers see everything.
Click to expand...

I mean I just got on the trial and it looks as if it's at least today's stories with no big archive to search through. I'm not an avid reader of the Times so I'm not completely sure, though.
 
I really have grown to love AppleNews+ as its integrated into my daily routine. I reach for my iPad Pro to read news rather than open a browser like I used to. The 12.9" screen looks like a full size GQ magazine except with a crisp glowing screen.

It's such an incredible value when you think that The Toronto Star subscription alone would be almost as much as the entire News+ subscription. I used to subscribe to The Star and GQ and would often pick up editions of Time, National Geographic and Popular Science.

Apple made some early adjustments that fixed Saved Stories and the way favourite publications are displayed. The one remaining issue is how isolated AppleNews is from the rest of iOS. If I come across an article online, it opens in Safari or on Twitter for example. If it happens to be a paywalled site that I would otherwise have access to with my news News+ subscription, I have to manually open AppleNews and search for the article. Often, I can't find it because Search is so bad even though I can browse to the article by going into the publication's AppleNews page and scrolling through to find it.

The way it should work is that AppleNews should be integrated into iOS so that when there's a link in Safari or Twitter or anywhere else, iOS would analyze it, determine that it's an article available in AppleNews, then offer to open the article in News, rather than in Safari.

Apple typically offers barebones new services and software, then iterates quickly to get it up to an expected feature set. I'm confident that they'll get AppleNews to where it needs to be as they continue to roll it out worldwide. In the meantime, it's still an excellent value.
 
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ipedro said:
I really have grown to love AppleNews+ as its integrated into my daily routine. I reach for my iPad Pro to read news rather than open a browser. The 12.9" screen looks like a full size GQ magazine except with a crisp glowing screen.
Click to expand...
You are about to mention GQ and (News-) Journalism in the same context.
I knew someone who was sent to hell for less... 😃
 
I've had a browse though and have to agree with what someone else mentioned for those in the UK, Readly has more of the titles I want to read. So I won't be moving over. I will keep an eye on it though.
 
Ok had to uninstall and reinstall and it worked. For now though Readly is far superior. The layout of the Apple News+ isn’t very user friendly either, not instinctive. Sticking with Readly and will see if things change in six months or so.
 
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Your local library gives to access to online versions to lots of magazines. They are just pdfs of the full print version, but this is all for free. It’s not something that I use, but my family do, I think it’s called RB Digital.
 
My only interaction with Apple News is when tapping certain suggestions in the Safari location bar, and having a system dialog appear telling me to reinstall the News app, instead of taking me to the website 😞
 
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