We first looked at AP Mobile when it launched for Windows Mobile. The news reader presented today's news and weather in a well laid out fashion. AP Mobile has made the transition to Windows Phone 7 and is a free app over at the Marketplace.
One of the nice design features of Windows Phone 7 is the metro or hub design. It allows applications to lay out information in an easily accessible manner that is easy to navigate around. AP Mobile takes full advantage of this design.
The main hub of AP Mobile consists of:
- The Front Page: Here is where your top stories are listed.
- Media Pages: This is a gallery of images from the day's stories.
- Category Page: Here is the break down of the broad headline categories. They include such items as your local news, weather showbiz, and technology. Your search command and settings menu also rests on this page.
To see what type impression AP Mobile for Windows Phone 7 left with us, ease on past the break.
Navigation
At any time you want to read the full story, simply tap the headline blurb and you are sent to the full AP story. If your curious about one of the photos on the Media Page, tap it and you're sent to the full story that is behind the picture.
With each individual story you have the options to:
- Rate the story
- Save the Story to your Windows Phone
- Share the story via email or text messages
- Send a comment to AP
You also have a link to AP Mobile's Settings and the "About" screen for AP Mobile on each story view.
To view your local stories or weather information, simply tap the appropriate link on the Category Page and you are sent to a secondary hub that contains your local news or weather and the Category Page.
The Weather Page will show your current conditions and a five day forecast (all provided by Accuweather). The Local News Page contains your local headlines (much like the Front Page).
Settings
AP Mobile's settings covers:
- Front Page: What news categories are listed on the app's Front Page and more importantly what categories you don't want listed on the Front Page.
- Local News: Where you want the local news stories pulled from.
- Weather: The locations you want the weather information from.
- Region: What part of the world do you want to view stories from.
Your local news and weather location preferences are established manually or by using your Windows Phone location. You can add and view multiple locations at the same time for both news and weather information.
Overall Impression
Overall, AP Mobile on Windows Phone 7 is a quality application that puts a lot of information at your disposal. The application ran smoothly with no bugs, glitches or crashes experienced. While I liked the app, it does have room for improvement.
The only problem I see with the settings rest with what is viewable on the Front Page. While you have a wide category of news items to place on your Front Page, local news is not amongst them. I think the app would be more efficient if you could view your local news from the Front Page instead of drilling down to another hub.
I do like the ability to view local headlines and weather information from multiple locations. I can view my headlines, swipe over a page and see what's happening in my home town and swipe again to see the headlines for the Gulf Coast. When traveling, I can add multiple cities and keep track of the weather conditions simply by swiping from one page to another.
All in all, AP Mobile is an application that should be on everyone's short list who wants to keep up with the news. It's a free application that can be downloaded at the Marketplace.
