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Apple Launches Apple News+ in the UK and Australia

ajo said:
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.
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PressReader

free app, then put in your local library details and your library card number.

actual selection of newspapers and magazines will vary by region/council..
I get local papers as well as the national big ones, and tons of magazines that I used to buy. It’s not everything, but for free, it’s pretty blinking good.


RBDigital is for audiobooks and graphic comic books, I think.
 
BMcCoy said:
PressReader

free app, then put in your local library details and your library card number.

actual selection of newspapers and magazines will vary by region/council..
I get local papers as well as the national big ones, and tons of magazines that I used to buy. It’s not everything, but for free, it’s pretty blinking good.


RBDigital is for audiobooks and graphic comic books, I think.
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Sounds like the same thing. I think RBDigitsl does do magazines now. My Dad uses it for The RadioTimes which he has stopped paying for after as long as I remember.
 
ipedro said:
Apple made some early adjustments that fixed Saved Stories and the way favourite publications are displayed.
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ipedro said:
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.
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There's still room for improvements:
  • It's impossible to save a story in case of regular "PDF" magazines. It works for magazines in Apple News format. Curiously, free articles coming from regular website feeds can be saved, yet PDF articles not. Not all newspaper articles (WSJ) can be saved: some yes, others not (I don't get the logic...).
  • It's not possible to create containers/folders inside Saved Stories. If you have just a bunch of stories saved it's OK, otherwise it's a mess: a single list of articles with different topics mixed together.
  • Search is weak, as you pointed out. Too basic – limited.
I hope the searching and archiving tools will improve, otherwise it will remain a service good only for casual news/magazine browsing. Useful, inspiring and informative, yet not reliable enough for more "serious" research purposes.

The old, good RSS is still my main source of informations.

By the way, suddenly Sky&Telescope magazines disappeared since the past week. I don't know why. Maybe because recently they changed the owner (publisher). I've contacted the publisher; still waiting for a reply. Hope it's only a momentary glitch and it'll be back someday. It's like streaming music: one day, due to a change in the agreements, some songs are gone...
 
Apple News+ is probably my least favorite service that Apple offers. It has a very confusing interface and the magazines just seem like .pdf files. It just isn't worth the $9.99/month price point. Every other service has pleased me thus far.
 
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masterleep said:
I really would like a news service like this, but Apple News+ is bad.
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With just about any news websites worth reading behind the paywall, Apple News+ is conceptually a good idea.

I think the problem is the News app, which largely replicates Facebook experience, a feed of news in seemingly random order, supposedly customized for my interests.

That works at certain level, but I wish the subscription would extend to browsing the websites themselves. Perhaps "Sign in with Apple" can extend to News+ subscription?
 
I guess I’ll try it for free for a month.

For this to work, Apple needs to start to limit the free news in Apple News & maybe have just a few free teaser articles each day.
 
Trying out the trial subscription here. I already have a digital subscription to another UK broadsheet so The Times access will be interesting to compare and contrast. Will see how the other content looks and reads over the next month. The PDF based content looks fine on my iPad Pro. On a phone though, not so much.

so far it looks...ok. Not the no brainier subscription that Apple Music is to me or that Apple Arcade looks to be becoming (wife & son both love AA).

Glad I’ve got a month with News+ to properly kick the tyres.
 
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Working on my iPhone but on my iPad Pro it says it is not available for my current region.

Edit: Also not available on my mac.
 
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Wow, this is bad... News Limited is the provider of content, so this makes Apple News just another Murdoch media outlet...

Those publications listed are the Australian tabloids, equivalent of Fox for our American friends. The worst of the worst when it comes to balanced and informative reporting.

Australia already has a problem with our democratic systems being overrun by a concentration of media in one company...
 
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hmarold said:
Wow, this is bad... News Limited is the provider of content, so this makes Apple News just another Murdoch media outlet...

Those publications listed are the Australian tabloids, equivalent of Fox for our American friends. The worst of the worst when it comes to balanced and informative reporting.

Australia already has a problem with our democratic systems being overrun by a concentration of media in one company...
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Tim's in bed with Trump, Goldman Sachs, Murdoch, and takes multi-billion dollar payments from Google

Then he goes on TV and cries about how much he loves privacy and freedom, but he can't stop tracking your kids or sending your Siri requests to contractors just yet

A complete fraud
 
I was genuinely looking forward to News+ in here in Australia, but the catalogue is very disappointing. None of the big names announced back in March available in Australia. Worse still, I’m now stuck with the News+ tab in the news app whether I subscribe or not. Now looking at options to ditch the app altogether.
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Norway next? Please? Pretty please? :)
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And make it so those outside of Norway can read it too. (Even if its half way like with Apple Music - currently you can listen to anything in the Top 100 play list from Norway if your in the United States, but take some songs out and they won't play... (Raske Briller gjøre det ver gang - jeg vet det er jo drittsong).
 
Apple News would be so much better if "following" tab made more sense. I have an endless muddled list of topics and channels. Channels that I follow (like the Guardian) should be in a separate list of "topics" that i follow to steer the algorithm (like space science and Medical Science). In fact 3 tabs along the bottom with so much rammed in to "following" seems like a poor design choice. This could be be two separate tabs to make 4 in total. In fact now i've gone to the effort of writing this post i'm going to copy this and paste it to apple for feedback.
 
A first browse through the range of magazines and newspapers available and I’m quite impressed with the choice and the quality - especially if The Times and Sunday Times grants you the better part of their daily content.

Sure, the interface needs some work but I’m sure that will come in time just as it did with Apple Music. There’s enough there already to justify its cost is my early impression.
 
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.
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It's a great idea ... but I think the option to subscribe to content within various magazine would fair better.

I find magazines and newspapers are VERY similar to classic Cable TV subscriptions from carriers:
Too much of what you do NOT care about and most likely never will ... far too many commercials, and slowing thinning out the heard to real great literary content. (I'm no scholar but I aim to read more, not so much magazines).
 
Yes, I've been waiting for this since it got announced. I'll try it out but after a month I'll probably won't use it. I didn't expect this to come to Australia for awhile. But then again, iirc, Apple News itself is only available in Australia and 2 other countries. All I want now from Apple is ECG enabled in Australia.
 
I was able to trial this for a month a while back, persisted using it for a few days but ultimately I gave up and found myself not bothering.

If you read a lot of articles or magazines already then I can see the appeal but for me, £10 is just not worth it.
 
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