The AP Mobile team is excited to use Apple’s “push notification” to send breaking news alerts to iPhone users.

During testing, Ing. Francisco Xavier González Alvarez, an AP Mobile beta user, witnessed a strong earthquake in Mexico City and got an AP alert a ”couple of minutes after the earthquake ended.” Alvarez told us the functionality is “a new level of real-time information.” And that’s
just what we hope to provide.

The AP reports a huge volume of news each day, but we don’t plan to “push” every headline. We realize that would be overwhelming and not terribly useful. Our editors will be selective. And when important news breaks that our users need to know, we’ll send an alert as soon as possible.

Please let us know what you think! We welcome your feedback.

Thanks for all your feedback to 2.0.1. We would like to let you know that we are working on addressing all your great comments. In the next release we will ensure that the update process is seamless, story scrolling is much more smooth, the edit button on the More screen is reinstated and that you do not lose any personally stored information.

Some people have let us know that they liked having Top News as the first screen as opposed to the new fully customizable Front Page. If you like the earlier version better you can either navigate to Categories > Top News and leave the application on this page. Alternatively you can switch off all categories other than Top News Headlines and switch the number of stories to download in Settings to 5.

AP Mobile 2.0 has launched today on iTunes. You can download the application directly from iTunes App Store.

Please note: This is considerable update to AP News. Some users who already have 1.5.1 are experiencing problems upgrading to 2.1. We are working on a urgent fix to this but, in the meantime, please delete AP News from your phone before downloading and installing.

AP Mobile v2.0 Features include:

• Front Page, a simple way for you to choose your news.
• Choose Your News. Customize the application by switching on and off categories that interest you.
• Customize the number of stories that are shown on the Front Page.
• Select your region for region-specific news.
• Added localization for French and Spanish.
• Added current weather and five-day forecast.
• You can now choose which local papers show up in your weather tab.
• Changed application icon.
• Increased content (Health, Science, Press Releases).
• Control the size of the font you use to read stories.
• Read stories vertically or horizontally.
• Send to AP allows you to send breaking stories directly to AP from your phone.
• Send stories directly to Twitter and Facebook.
• Fixed photo viewer. Photos can now be stretched fullscreen.
• Fixed Story Rating.
• Read more than 10 stories in feeds.
• Major increases to stability.
• Bug fixes.

Version 1.5 of the Mobile News Network for iPhone was released to the app store and we suggest that all users of the Mobile News Network upgrade. Download it directly from the iTunes App Store at
http://bit.ly/mnn
.  The latest version addresses a number of bugs and increases the stability of the application. In addition, the application adds the following features:

1. Refresh the content of a category on the fly with a new refresh button.
2. Rate stories and see how others have rated the same story.
3. Added more Business and Tech content
4. Server-side search now allows you to search all available news stories for the last 30 days, not just those cached on your device.
5. Watch high resolution video over WIFI and when you are out and about watch low resolution video over EDGE.
6. The app now remembers where you were in a list when you go navigate back from a story.
7. Send report has been moved to the top level. Send the AP breaking news reports from your iPhone.

If you have any issues or would like to get in touch with the team with suggestions, please use the form below.

- Benjamin Mosse, Director, Mobile

Some users have been experiencing a timestamp issue in headline packages on the iPhone 1.4 and 1.4.1 MNN releases, with a “December 31, 1969″ date showing in place of the  correct date or “X minutes ago” notice.  

We are working to resolve the problem.  Until then, the recommended workaround is to change your device clock from 12 hour mode to 24  hour mode.  We will update this posting once a permanent fix is put into place.

If you continue to have problems, email us at mnnfeedback@ap.org or complete the form below with your email address, device type (iPod Touch/iPhone), the Reference # (available from the Mobile News section in Settings) and a short description of the issue.

We’re pleased to announce a new release of the Mobile News Network (v1.4.1) for the iPhone. It is available in the Apple App Store. As a result of your feedback, we’ve identified and addressed a number of issues and recommend that all users upgrade to the new version.

Specifically, 1.4.1
- Speeds up initial launch time
- Resolves application crash resulting from a memory leak associated with images
- Fixes an issue related to users switching between networks while downloading content
- Improves users’ ability to see and download all available content

We appreciate your feedback. You can always download the Mobile News Network from the App Store. Here’s a link.

Mobile News Network 1.4 for iPhone Mobile News Network was released today on Apple iTunes. Version 1.4 includes patches that offer both more stability and more content. We recommend that you upgrade to this version as it adds a number of new features and functions requested by users.

At the same time, we have noticed comments in the App Store that some users are having problems installing the application. For those experiencing problems we recommend the following helpful solutions:

1. If you see the following error message, “Mobile News experienced an error updating. Please restart and try again” we recommend that you restart your iPhone after downloading the application. Manually power down your iPhone and then re-power up.
2. Alternatively, if the problem continues after trying this fix, manually delete the application from your iPhone and then reinstall it from the App Store.

Please note, that this version of the Mobile News Network was released for iPhone 2.1 and if you are using 2.0 you will need to update your phone to use the application.

One final note, please be aware that the first time you use the application, you will notice a delay while content is refreshed. You won’t experience this delay again — it’s a function of  downloading content for the first time.

UPDATE: In some instances, especially in photo galleries, we have noticed that users have had problems with the application crashing. We’ve been able to replicate the problem here and will have a fix ready shortly. If you continue to have problems, email us at mnnfeedback@ap.org or complete the form below with your email address, device type (iPod Touch/iPhone), the Reference # (available from the Mobile News section in Settings) and a short description of your problem.