/article-new/2015/10/Apple-News-Format.jpg?lossy)
Apple has released an Apple News Format Reference in the iOS Developer Library that provides developers with technical details on how to prepare for the upcoming release of Apple News Format, which allows news publishers to create customized layouts with iOS fonts, rich photo galleries, videos and animations optimized for iPhone and iPad.
Apple News Format will allow for all news publishers to have customized layouts with rich graphics and other content, rather than basic articles being pulled straight from an RSS feed, as initial selected partners have had since iOS 9 was released. Apple has shared a direct download of example articles as a guideline.
Apple has also released an Apple News API Reference that explains how publishers can use the Apple News API to integrate Apple News with their existing content management system to access a rich suite of tools for measuring user engagement with published content. Apple also updated its News Publishing Guide with new Delivering Content and Managing Content sections.
Apple News Format is still listed as "coming soon" on Apple's website.
(Thanks, Eric!)
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I'm going to stick with RSS until either it dies or I do.
This format offers far more to publishers than RSS does. Stuff like rich media galleries and far less overhead making it download much quicker on Apple devices.…the tag line for the advertisement of the app: "Give you the news that you want..."
People are self-censoring by nature. That is, we turn a deaf ear to news and opinions we don’t already agree with. How many of us, for example, bother to read any of the Android-centric product reviews or blogs to see what their camp is actually achieving? How many of us will read the opinions of an opposing political proponent rather than rely on soundbites fed to us by our party?Give you what YOU want to read?!? This is not news, but a better way to control what you really know...or what they want you to know...
nt5672 does have a legitimate concern. News organizations are slanted. What is to prevent Apple from excluding articles that are critical of it?
Years ago at a SigGrapgh conference a very interesting UI was presented with a "wing slider" at the bottom of the app view. Slide to the left, more liberal, slide to the right, more conservative.
That sounds like a superb idea.It had a self-layout algorithm that gave more, less or no layout space to an article based on the political history of an article byline according to how it matched the setting of the wing slider.
A very fluid flow of a newspaper layout was done sliding the wing slider from the left to the right of the screen. Thus user and not the editor had control over layout. The mainstream media types in the audience were notably disturbed seeing this demo.
The best news app would give you control according to your views on everything you could think of. I don't want to see any articles from people who are pro-abortion, anti-hunting or writing about rap music, for instance.
I look forward to someone catering to our needs, though I doubt it will be Apple; Tim Cook has turned Apple into his own political party.
RSS feeds are visually insipid, something existing news apps sought to improve. The best, by far, was Zite. Its layout/UI resembled a casual magazine. Unfortunately, Flipbook acquired Zite and is shuttering it. Flipbook, in comparison, is a tacky kaleidoscope of content and bloated UI. Browsing it is a chore.