Android Apps and News

Through cooperative agreements with some of the world’s largest newspapers and television networks, the Associated Press supplies much of the news items that you’re likely to come across in a given day. With its new AP Mobile Android app, those stories can now be piped directly to your Android device.

AP Mobile delivers the hot-topic news items of the day and strongly encourages users to read the news most relevant to each individual’s preference. The set-up process of the app forces users to choose which categories they would like to read about most – U.S. News, World News, Entertainment, Sports, etc – and then returns the Top 10 most-recent headlines in that category. Users are welcome to select several categories if they can’t get enough news, and there’s even an option for Top Stories, Most Shared stories, and Wacky Headlines.

The Associated Press does more than just written news, so there are also tabs for Photos and Videos. You may often find raw video without any narration, but that’s because the AP distributes content for other outlets who may want to add their own voiceovers to narrate the clip or provide context. I would much rather see a tie-in between this and the news feature; that way, I could read an article and click on relevant video rather than watching video wondering why there’s a man with a gun standing in an office. The lack of narration can leave viewers scratching their heads because video can lack context, but its an overall useful feature.

AP Mobile doesn’t have as much readily-available content as USA Today, but it is definitely a great resource for someone who just wants headline news. Choosing categories allows users to get only the stories they care about without having to navigate through scores, weather, and celebrity headlines. Download AP Mobile if you want “just the facts, ma’am.”