The Onion has come to your Windows Phone. The Onion is a news website that covers news, sports, politics, and other issues of the day. But with an interesting, humorist twist much along the lines of The Daily Show and SNL's Weekend Update. The Onion 7 is an unofficial companion app that brings the Onion news stories to your Windows Phone.
On the Onion you can read about HP's new non-computer for those who don't need a computer. Or sports stories such as how every MLB player begins hitting home runs after copying Albert Pujols' batting stance. The Onion 7 brings the lighter side of the news to Windows Phone 7. There are audio casts reporting where McDonalds stock tumbles as consumers turn to food and videos reports on how an internet outage forced people into the streets to voice their opinions.
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App Layout
In a seven page layout, The Onion 7's main pages covers:
- Breaking news: The top news stories that might not have made it to the front page of your local newspaper
- Videos: When the written word just doesn't do these stories justice
- Radio news: It's not exactly the news you would find on NPR but entertaining none the less.
- Sports: No scores here. Instead, all the inside scoops from your favorite sports leagues
- Settings/feedback/Rate the App/Suggestion Box
- Keyword search
- Favorites: See an article you want to share or read later, tag it as a favorite and it will show up here.
The Onion 7's settings menu allows users to choose what headlines show up on the live tile, clear the local cache, choose the accent color and enable a profanity filter.
Individual stories can be shared by email, SMS or with Facebook. You can also launch the Onion's website to view the articles with your mobile browser. The Onion 7 ran smoothly but did have a little drag navigating between the home screens and the secondary pages (individual articles, settings, etc.). Not enough to become frustrating but noticeable.
The Onion 7 has a live tile support that will highlight top news stories for the day. The app is also ad-supported with a small banner ad running along the bottom of the screen.
If you're a fan on the Onion.com, The Onion 7 is a must have app. If you are looking for a little humor in the day, the app might do the trick there as well.
The Onion 7 is a free app and you can find it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.
Update: There is now an ad-free version of Onion 7 over at the Marketplace. For $1.99 you can loose the banner ads and enjoy the entertainment of the Onion clutter free (not that the banners are cluttersome). You can find the paid version here at the Marketplace.
