The iPhone is about as commonplace as coffee around Portland these days. Don’t believe me? Take a ride on the streetcar between PSU and the Pearl and count them, on my last trip alone I saw 11 people either talking into, or staring blankly at, their beloved little Apple crack phones. I’m not judging mind you, I joined them and made an even dozen – if it’s tech and addictive and makes my life a little easier and better informed, count me in.
Twitter and Facebook apps aside, my favorites are basically glorified RSS readers. I like to stay informed, particularly with local news, so I was ecstatic to find KPTV Fox 12’s app a couple of months ago and I’ve been using it an average of 4 or 5 times a day ever since. The damn thing was almost perfect – good looking and informative, not unlike KPTV’s own Shauna Parsons – what more could I ask for? Well, imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery so along came apps from both KATU and KOIN. Ugh. Do I need them all? Which is best? Let’s find out…
KPTV Fox 12
The one that started it all, at least around Portland anyway, the KPTV app has been my steady companion since early May. Produced by “My Local TV”, the KPTV has it all – with an emphasis on local news. It takes a little more time to load than the rest but once it’s up, it’s awesome. Simple buttons line the bottom of the screen that take you directly to Weather, Local News, and Videos (and darn good ones at that). A “More” button brings up National News, Traffic (cameras mostly), and Sports. Everything works just like you’d expect it to and access to the main categories is always available. Video works flawlessly with a halfway decent 3G signal or on WiFi. News stories are complete, usually include a photo for visual interest, and the Weather has replaced my other dedicated weather apps. Overall a very, very nice app.
Rating: A
KOIN 6
Produced by doapp, inc., the KOIN 6 app ain’t half bad. A little slower to load and a little slower to respond here and there but geared for the complete news enthusiast to say the least. It’s biggest flaw? Navigation. Where KPTV’s app offers one button access to nearly everything, KOIN and doapp provide the world’s worst news app navigation interface. Those nifty buttons at the bottom of KPTV’s screen are replaced by a double decker slider at the top of the screen. Not only is it slow to respond and hard to control, it forces you to block what you’re reading when you’re just about done with it and want to move on. The quality of the news and video is definitely good, it’s how you’re forced to get there that sucks. After several hours with the app I’m still struggling with coaxing it into doing what I want it to do – and let’s face it, if you’re using this sucker one-handed on the streetcar you need it to be easy.
Rating: B-
KATU
If you install and use these in the order they’re listed, the first thing you’ll notice is that KATU’s app is IDENTICAL to KOIN’s. Both have the same crappy navigation interface, both harass you about using your current location every time you load them, and both seem like they would be chockfull of news goodness. Or are they? As it turns out, everything that KOIN managed to do right, KATU does horribly, horribly wrong. Similarities and navigation failures aside, it’s painfully obvious that KATU views the modern mobile newsgeek with disinterest and disdain because nearly every news story on the KATU iPhone app consists of a single teaser paragraph and nothing more. That’s right, want to know about that guy that was assaulted out in Hillsboro? Here’s his picture, here’s two sentences stating that he was indeed assaulted, and that’s it. No click through for more information, no scroll to see more, nothing. Maybe it’s a simple glitch on this story, let’s check another… Nope, same thing. Let’s click this one, it’s titled “Former high school teacher struggles to clear his name”. What do we get? A “story” that ends with “…One former Stayton High School history teacher knows the answer. KATU’s Melica Johnson reports.” … Uhhh, reports what? What was the report? Anyone? Melica? Hello?
FUCK!!! Really?
It wasn’t bad enough that it took way too much effort to even get to where I wanted to go in the app itself, now you’re going to tease me with a story and give me no means to read the rest? FUCK!!! Seriously? KATU was my second favorite local TV news station – this app has placed them firmly dead last in my book. Who puts something like this out? Did no one even try the damn thing? Do the folks at KATU figure that iPhone/mobile communications are a fad and by throwing a few bucks at a crappy app like this they’re satisfying that market? I can see the board meeting now… “Oh yes, we’ve definitely got our finger on the pulse of the digital and mobile revolution, here’s our iPhone app – please ignore the fact that it’s completely fucking inept, ok?”
Let me be clear. KATU iPhone app = EPIC FUCKING FAILURE
Rating: F
I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect much from any of these apps when I first got them. I’ve become hooked on USA Today for national news and I’m convinced that it should come packed in with every iPhone sold, but that’s USA Today, not a local news station. I was blown away by how much I used KPTV’s app and the bar was instantly raised. It’s not without it’s minor flaws but I really do use it quite a few times every day. KOIN has potential and frankly the things I don’t like about their app have much more to do with the developers mistakes than the content itself. KATU though, they have no excuse. Do they actually think that I’ll see these stupid little abbreviated news blurbs and then rush to my nearest TV and tune in for a news broadcast? I won’t. No one will. And if KATU can’t be bothered to make a functional iPhone app then I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that they can’t be bothered to give two shits about their viewing audience either.
For the record, all three apps are ad supported and in what I feel is a very unobtrusive way. Kudos to both developers for that.
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I disagree with Robert. One thing I don’t like about Fox 12’s app is that the window to read a story is small, taken up by navigation, ads, their logo, etc. and the text is too small.
The video on both KOIN & Fox 12 apps are comparable.
Configuring the menu on the Fox 12 is kind of cool but I prefer having access to all news categories like KOIN has. Not sure why Robert was having trouble tapping the iphone screen to get to a new category on the KOIN app.
KOIN: A
Fox 12: B
Had only seen katu and assumed whole medium was doomed
I have seen quite a many mews and magazine apps these days however i bought iwound a fashion magazine apps.
this is a cool app. i love the iphone