I remember when I first got my iPhone, one of the first apps that I searched for was a CNN app. Being one of the biggest news sources, I thought for sure they would have an app but as it turns out, I had to settle for APmobile . Now don’t get me wrong, APmobile is a great app and for free none the less but at times it simply felt like a cheap rehash of whatever was on a few selected news sites.

Today the new app from CNN went live and I can now understand why it has taken CNN such a long time to get into the game. The app is fantastic! The CNN app for the iPhone is what a news app should be and cuts no corners when it comes to providing the most detailed and attractive app of its kind. Of course this all comes with a price of $2 which is still $2 more than many other news apps.

From the moment you fire up the app however, you will see why it was worth every dollar (come on you spend more on iFart apps!) The home screen layout is set up to default on the headlines arranged into topics that can be scrolled through at the top. Each individual article will have the main points in bullets before the actual body of the article allowing lazy readers to get the gist of any particular story without having to read the whole thing. This is more than just a mobile version of CNN. This is CNN made to be easy to read but still containing all the points of the site. Heck, we wouldn’t mind if the main site was set up this way. The color scheme is also to be commended as white text on a black background turns out to be much easier on the eyes than the other way around. After all, we are all straining to see the small text anyway!

Flipping the iPhone sideways will also yield a cover flow like mode which we don’t really see the use in but still looks cool. This landscape mode is actually designed for all the different functions of the app and not just the headlines. Simply tapping on a cover will yield the bullet points for that news segment or the video if it happens to be a video. It load surprisingly fast even for the Edge network. It is clear that a lot of streamlining was done on the code to promote efficiency and expediency.

CNN’s library of videos and web broadcasts are also available on the CNN app for the iPhone. You can access those via a tab at the bottom and the high quality videos are played through the native iPhone video player. You can even view live feeds as seen in the screenshot to the left. We tested ours out on an iPhone 3G running on the 3G network and there was almost no load time and no buffering pauses. Lexus did happen to interject with a brief advertisement in the beginning though. Yes That will probably be one of our biggest gripes about the app is the fact that we paid for an app that still has advertisements and yet they are not really imposing at all and are easily ignored if you choose to do so.

Access to articles, videos, live broadcasts and even iReport (which is a user submitted news service that seeks to promote user participation in the journalistic process) definitely makes the CNN news app worth the 2 dollars even when compared to the free ones that are out there. Of course, there is the argument that CNN has a tendency to report on a left wing bias so if you’re looking for opinions, you may need more than this app. Still, if you just want to find out about what is going on and make your own judgements, the iPhone CNN app with its push notifications will definitely be a safe bet!

Via:iphonespies