There are really very few rules or useful generalizations, at least yet. The game is still very new. And much depends not on the properties of a class, which a

There are really very few rules or useful generalizations, at least yet. The game is still very new. And much depends not on the properties of a class, which are still _very_ fuzzy, but on the specifics of a particular implementation. For example, the Facebook app for the iphone is in many ways a better experience compared to the web site. This is more of an indictment against the website, which is simply, and unutterably horrible, no matter how useful or fun it might be to many people. (The lesson here would seem to be that killer content/functionality trumps nearly any other consideration.) And for reading the web I often use NetNewsWire, an app that is an RSS reader with its own built in browser. Does that count as an app or as a browser? This is much better than any of the browsers with built in RSS readers. Again, how does that count. edit: When I examine my own usage, I consume books, comics, manga, music, and video in special purpose apps. For mainstream news I usually use a web based aggregator (Google News.) An exception is The New York Times which has a very nice iPhone/iPod Touch app that is great and as a bonus buffers a days content so that I can read when I'm offline. If magazine publishers were looking for a model that app would be a nice place to start. For NewZ (blogs, aggregators, etc.) I use an RSS reader and then a web browser to pick up stuff like Hacker News, Reddit, or Slashdot that would simply bloat an RSS reader. I have tried apps to follow Reddit and Hack News, and on the iPhone/iPod Touch they rock. On the iPad the experience is a mixed bag.