CNN Launches iPhone App

CNN has taken the wraps off its iPhone application. (As an aside, CNN’s director of PR for digital, Jennifer Martin Tweeted last night: “The tides have turned – blogs honored embargo on CNN iPhone app announcement but AP didn’t.”)

Anyway, here’s the AP’s take:

Among the high points of the CNN app: It offers the chance to essentially join the CNN reporting team. Readers are invited to submit their own photos and video clips to iReport, a feature CNN already uses on its Web site for gathering material from the public.

The app also has live video feeds for big breaking events. So if a plane crashes in the Hudson River, app users won’t have to rush to the nearest TV screen for a live report but could just take out their phone.

It’s customizable as well, providing alerts when news on a particular subject breaks. Users can select a local news option that augments CNN’s reporting with newspaper stories collected by Topix, an Internet company majority owned by newspaper companies.

In his quick take, MobileContentToday’s Todd Ogasawara, “found it odd that CNN’s news app received a 12+ rating with the following warnings:

- Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
- Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco or Drug Use or References
- Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence
- Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes

Um, this is the “news”, right? Strange. MSNBC and Reuters apps do not have any warnings associated with them.

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