4 ms·

IMO, the most interesting thing happening with Apple right now is the surprising (to me) amount of effort being put into their News and Stock apps (which are be

IMO, the most interesting thing happening with Apple right now is the surprising (to me) amount of effort being put into their News and Stock apps (which are being ported to macOS). The only reason I can come up with for them to be pursuing this with so much effort is that they saw what happened as a result of Facebook dominating news and decided to put their best foot forward in the hopes of bringing some semblance of order.

naravara 8y ago
>IMO, the most interesting thing happening with Apple right now is the surprising (to me) amount of effort being put into their News and Stock apps (which are being ported to macOS). I think you missed the hidden story there (and by 'hidden' I mean, they actually mentioned it during the keynote). They announced that they're working on a toolkit to easily port over iOS apps into MacOS with very few manual changes to the code. The effort they're putting into porting News, Stocks, etc. into MacOS is actually just them field-testing their UIKit <-> AppKit conversion platform.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  I get that these were good apps for them to test out their new UIKit thing on, but that's not all that I'm talking about. They're devoting time at keynotes to their News app. And they're clearly putting time into courting content partners. That's what surprising to me; the totality of their effort in this area.
n42 8y ago
personal anecdote: since that fiasco I have stopped using Facebook entirely, unsubscribed from all news subreddits, and have created a curated collection of reputable news publications (and subscribed to some!) via Apple News. I suspect I'm not alone, and I am quite happy to hear News is coming to macOS. I have to say, I would probably have never paid for news had it not been for how convenient Apple has made it.
dillondoyle 8y ago
Perhaps that's part of it, but I think $ is a bigger factor. Apple News has a surprisingly large (and fast growing) usage numbers/readers (1, 2). Add in news of Apple re-booting ads and allowing simpler multi-site news subscriptions I think News is going to continue to grow profit and importance for Apple (3). It's where I read 90% of my news now. It works with consistent UI+readability, it's way faster than the mobile versions hosted by pubs, and with minimal ad bloat. I highly recommend! Though they might have potential FB-style think-alike algo problems with the love/hate data and personalization News does. [1] http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-news-is-emerging-as-a-significant-traffic-driver-for-some-news-orgs/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-ne... [2] https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/07/apple-news-user-numbers-nbcuniversal-ad-deal/ https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/07/apple-news-user-numbers-nbcun... [3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertising-business-with-new-network-for-apps-1527869990?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertisi...
- n42 8y ago
  > Though they might have potential FB-style think-alike algo problems with the love/hate data and personalization News does. this is my biggest concern with it, and it sounds like they might be making changes to the interface to help: > Apple News is redesigned to make it easier to discover new channels and topics or jump straight to favorites, and on iPad, a new sidebar makes navigation even simpler.

naravara 8y ago

>IMO, the most interesting thing happening with Apple right now is the surprising (to me) amount of effort being put into their News and Stock apps (which are being ported to macOS). I think you missed the hidden story there (and by 'hidden' I mean, they actually mentioned it during the keynote). They announced that they're working on a toolkit to easily port over iOS apps into MacOS with very few manual changes to the code. The effort they're putting into porting News, Stocks, etc. into MacOS is actually just them field-testing their UIKit <-> AppKit conversion platform.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
toasterlovin 8y ago
I get that these were good apps for them to test out their new UIKit thing on, but that's not all that I'm talking about. They're devoting time at keynotes to their News app. And they're clearly putting time into courting content partners. That's what surprising to me; the totality of their effort in this area.

n42 8y ago

personal anecdote: since that fiasco I have stopped using Facebook entirely, unsubscribed from all news subreddits, and have created a curated collection of reputable news publications (and subscribed to some!) via Apple News. I suspect I'm not alone, and I am quite happy to hear News is coming to macOS. I have to say, I would probably have never paid for news had it not been for how convenient Apple has made it.

dillondoyle 8y ago

Perhaps that's part of it, but I think $ is a bigger factor. Apple News has a surprisingly large (and fast growing) usage numbers/readers (1, 2). Add in news of Apple re-booting ads and allowing simpler multi-site news subscriptions I think News is going to continue to grow profit and importance for Apple (3). It's where I read 90% of my news now. It works with consistent UI+readability, it's way faster than the mobile versions hosted by pubs, and with minimal ad bloat. I highly recommend! Though they might have potential FB-style think-alike algo problems with the love/hate data and personalization News does. [1] http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-news-is-emerging-as-a-significant-traffic-driver-for-some-news-orgs/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-a-slow-start-apple-ne... [2] https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/07/apple-news-user-numbers-nbcuniversal-ad-deal/ https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/07/apple-news-user-numbers-nbcun... [3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertising-business-with-new-network-for-apps-1527869990?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertisi...

n42 8y ago
> Though they might have potential FB-style think-alike algo problems with the love/hate data and personalization News does. this is my biggest concern with it, and it sounds like they might be making changes to the interface to help: > Apple News is redesigned to make it easier to discover new channels and topics or jump straight to favorites, and on iPad, a new sidebar makes navigation even simpler.