AP Mobile

Upgraders from 4.3 will experience a crash on first launch, but only first launch. It is recommended that 4.3 users delete the app before installing 4.3.2. This issue will be addressed in 4.4.

4.3.1 upgraders are fine to upgrade.

We experienced a brief server outage last night, Jan. 25th from approx. 9pm to 11pm EST. This affected only new users and upgraders, more specifically, apps that registered with our servers for the first time during that time window.  So existing apps would not have experienced this problem. All operations are now back to normal.

This happened to have coincided with the first day that version 4.3.2 of AP Mobile was available so those who upgraded and launched the app in that time frame would have received an error “No news sources available at the moment. please try again later.”

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The AP Mobile team is extremely excited to announce the official release of the AP 2010 World Cup Coverage, the best way to stay on top of all the football news and stats for the 2010 World Cup!

With the AP 2010 World Cup Coverage, you will  be able  to follow your favorite team’s progress throughout the World Cup by getting the  latest news, scores, photos and videos from the world’s most trusted news source.  Users can also get general World Cup news and photos in French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Follow your team or the entire tournament with an easy-to-read schedule, bracket, and live score feed, all of which are frequently updated to give you the latest coverage. Expand your World Cup knowledge between games by reading about any of the 32 teams and their star players or about the 10 different venues and their local points of interest scattered around South Africa. Want to share your thoughts or see what others are saying about the World Cup? Just pick a question and cast your vote with the app’s live polling and voting.

Whether you’re a diehard fan or just want to stay in the loop with the world’s most viewed sporting event, with the AP 2010 World Cup Coverage app you’ll never miss a moment. Get it free for the following devices below:

iPhone:

http://bit.ly/iPhoneWCup

Android:

http://bit.ly/AndroidWCup

Nokia:

http://bit.ly/OviWCup

You can view the WAP site from any phone via http://m.apsports.com/.

For more information, go to http://www.getapmobile.com/worldcup/.

Want the latest coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics, whenever & wherever you are?

With 120 journalists in Vancouver, AP’s coverage of the Winter Games is as comprehensive and up-to-date as its breaking news coverage.

Winter Game enthusiasts can:

• Read the latest breaking news from the Winter Games
• Follow specific sporting events
• View extensive photo galleries
• Watch videos
• Enjoy one-of-a-kind interactive features (only on http://wintergames.ap.org)

Where to find us:

• Mobile: Download the AP Mobile app and look for the Vancouver 2010 category or visit our mobile website at www.apnews.com
  
• Desktop: Visit http://wintergames.ap.org.

The McClatchy Company joins AP Mobile!

We are exited to announce the McClatchy group has joined AP Mobile.  They are the third largest newspaper group in America owning 29 papers such as The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee.

The AP Mobile team is always working hard to increase the depth of our local coverage so that you can get the news YOU choose.  We recognize how important and personal where you get the news is to you.  We provide you with more than 1,000 trusted local news sources and look forward to increasing that number.

We are always interested in hearing your thoughts so feel free to email us at apmobile@ap.org

Video graphics are a new genre of visual journalism for The Associated Press and are available on our iPhone and Palm Pre mobile applications.

The short videos aim to give depth, background or context to a story making headlines.  Others may take a quirky or offbeat approach.  Through the combined use of graphics, illustration, animation, photos and video, AP’s interactive producers aim to say a lot with very little time. That’s what makes these projects so unique!

For example, when cyber attacks caused outages on prominent government-run sites in both the U.S. and South Korea, our team used animated graphics to explain visually how this type of attack works.

Or perhaps you’re more interested in learning about a selection of the new words added to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. If you check out our video graphic, you’ll get the exact pronunciation along with an animated rendition of the definition. No dictionary can do that!

These projects are produced twice weekly. Whatever the topic, we seek to inform, entertain and create a memorable experience. We hope you’ll be inspired to share them by text or e-mail your friends.  Let us know what you think – e-mail us at apmobile@ap.org.

–Arian Smedley, mobile editor

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.

Large Oscar statues lie in a tent awaiting their placement along the red carpet outside the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. The 81st Academy Awards will be held Sunday. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Oscar Night is the biggest movie event of the year. Check AP Mobile on Feb. 22 for all the glitz and glamour from the 81st Annual Academy Awards. AP reporters and photographers will bring you exclusive coverage, including:

• Photos and videos from the red carpet, including ceremony highlights, exclusive backstage access and after parties.
• Stories with vignettes from the bleachers, the theater and backstage
• A complete list of nominees.
• Film trailers in our video gallery.

Like what you see, or have suggestions on how we can improve? Send feedback to mnnfeedback@ap.org.

-Arian Smedley, Mobile Editor