iOS 9 launched this morning and brought a ton of new features and capabilities to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. One update is the inclusion of an entirely new application called News. The News app is an awesome news aggregator that allows users to read, save and share up-to-date content from their favorite providers. Here is how to set up and use News.
Setting Up the News App
Upon first opening News, you are instructed to select favorite news sources from a preset collection of providers. Simply scroll through the list of news sources and select the ones that interest you. You can chose from popular providers such as Wired, the New York Times and CNN as well as broader topic categories such as entertainment, technology, world events and more.
Once you are done selecting the news sources you are interested in, click Continue.
News in Your Inbox
After selecting your favorite news sources, News gives you an option to enroll in an email service where you will be sent a curated selection of headlines and content that matches your interests directly to your inbox. Click Sign Me Up to enroll in the service or Not Now to opt-out or set up later.
The For You Page
Once the setup is complete, News takes you to the For You section. This section of the app is a curated and aggregated newsfeed that will display stories, videos and more from the sources you selected as favorites. Simple click on the stories to read them in their entirety.
If you find a story that interests you, but you don't have time to read it, you can click and hold on the story. A popup menu will appear and selecting Save Story will save it for later. This popup menu also includes options to like and share story through Facebook, email, Messages, Notes, etc.
The Favorites Section
Clicking on the Favorites tab toward the bottom of the app brings you into the Favorites section. Here, you will see all of the categories and news providers that you marked as favorites in the setup process. You can click on one of these sources (Wired, for this example) and News will take you to that provider's section. These sections are almost like digital magazines for the content providers published in the News app.
Finding New News
The Search and Explore sections of the News app are awesome places to find new stories and content providers to favorite and follow. The Explore section is very similar to the Featured section of the iTunes and App Store, providing you a curated selection of popular news and sources that are similar to your interests. The Search section allows you to search for specific content providers as well as news stories.
The Saved Section
The last section of the News app, Saved, is where you can store articles for future reading as well as check out your viewing history. The Saved tab displays articles that you have specifically saved to News, while the History tab displays a list of the articles you have clicked on, sorted by recency.
News in iCloud
A completely new toggle for News has been added to iCloud settings. Navigate to Settings > iCloud and turn the News toggle on. This will save your News preferences, history and saved articles across all of your devices logged in with your Apple ID.
All-in-all, the News app is an awesome way to get a comprehensive view of stories and content provided by sources you love and trust. It's a simple, well-designed app that integrates well with other parts of iOS 9. What do you think of the app? Will it replace whatever app you currently use for reading news? Let us know in the comments below!