Now get Canadian news content on your mobile device in English and French!
Les nouvelles sans fil de La Presse Canadienne
Developed by The Associated Press on its award-winning mobile platform, this all-in-one news application from The Canadian Press gives you the convenience of viewing, searching, saving, sharing and rating stories, photos and soon video – all displayed in a slick format and personalized based on your choice of postal codes and topics.
You can select news from your hometown or favorite cities from categories such as business, sports, hockey, entertainment, technology, science, travel and wacky news. Launching the app updates and caches your content to keep you in the know when you’re on the go, on a plane or underground.
The Canadian Press Mobile is your single access point to news from a growing list of reliable sources:
- The Canadian Press – Canada’s national news agency with more than 250 journalists reporting round the clock in English and French.
- The Globe and Mail – Canada’s No.1 national newspaper
- The Toronto Star – Canada’s largest daily newspaper
- CTV – Canada’s No.1 television network with coverage from British Columbia, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
- Transcontinental – Eastern Canada’s leading publisher with coverage from Nova Scotia, P.E.I, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.
- AP – The essential global news network
For a limited time, The Canadian Press is offering its mobile news application for an introductory price of $3.69 CDN ($2.99 USD) for a one-year license – Only a penny a day for credible news from multiple sources! The app will also feature relevant ads.
BlackBerry App World – You may need an update
When the BlackBerry App World launched on April 1st, some people who attempted to purchase and download the AP News or Canadian Press application received incorrect versions for their device and OS.
While our apps support older OS versions, it was determined that App World does not. This caused all devices – including phones with newer operating systems – to pull down the version for OS v4.0 and as a result, some applications are not working as well as they should.
The problem was quickly addressed by RIM but since it has taken some time to propagate through the network, we encourage you to check your device.
Signs you have an incorrect version:
1) Cannot navigate or move between categories using your trackball
2) Show a blue frame around the app on your Storm
3) Cannot use your touch navigation on the Storm
4) Show a persistent keyboard on the Storm
If you suspect that you have an incorrect version then you should do the following:
1) Go to your device settings and click “About” to check which version of the OS your device is running (e.g., 4.2, 4.21, 4.3, 4.6, 4.7, etc)
2) Then go into the AP or CP application that you purchased and check “settings/about.” Scroll down until you see the platform version. It should say something like “Blackberry 421 en.” For example, your device OS may be v4.6.0.167 but the platform version of the app might be BlackBerry 400 en. In this case the 400 version of the app is not compatible. You should contact support for instructions on how to get the correct version (which we will post here as soon as it is available), or respond to this posting.
We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
Thank you for your continued support.
Show your support for AP Mobile!
AP Mobile Blackberry
Choose “AP Mobile News for BlackBerry” as Best in Show at CTIA Wireless 2009.
For the first time, you can see all the entries on a dedicated microsite. Visit the CTIA Emerging Technology Awards site and select “Mobile Applications & Widgets – Mobile Entertainment/Social Networking” from the dropdown. Mark it as a Favorite to vote.
The winner of the “Best In Show” award which will be announced at the E-Tech Awards Ceremony on April 2, 2009.
CTIA-The Wireless Association is an international nonprofit membership organization founded in 1984 representing all sectors of wireless communications.
Get all that *glitters* on Oscar Night from AP
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
AP gets nod from SXSW Web Awards
The South by Southwest Interactive Festival picked AP as a finalist for its mobile category. The conference is considered a hub for cutting edge work and has been a powerful platform for introducing Twitter and media technologies to the world. Our team is honored to be nominated! The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony Sunday, March 15. Stay tuned …
Check out the complete list of finalists: http://sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/finalists
You can vote for the AP team in The People’s Choice Award, once per day until March 6.
So please help us get out the vote! http://sxsw.com/peoples-choice
– Caroline Kim, Mobile Editor
More financial news at your fingertips
The economic crisis was one of the top stories of 2008, and continues to make headlines in 2009. MNN users can stay up-to-date on the latest news from the street with a new business subcategory called “Markets,” which adds even more specialized financial news from AP.
1. Ahead of the Bell stories offer an outlook for the day’s stock movements. Published between 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST, they feature economic indicators, analyst research and company news that could affect stocks, sectors or the entire market.
2. Sector Snaps, published between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST, provide market updates and spotlight newsmakers in various industries, including banking, airlines, retail, construction and more.
3. The Markets section also features Wall Street and overseas markets reports that are updated frequently throughout the day.
If you’d like to see other subjects included in MNN, send feedback to mnnfeedback@ap.org.
-Caroline Kim, Mobile Editor
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 15, 2008 in New York. A stunning reshaping of the Wall Street landscape sent stocks down sharply that day with the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. (AP Photo/Jin Lee)
MNN for iPhone version 1.5 released
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:
- Refresh the content of a category on the fly with a new refresh button.
- Rate stories and see how others have rated the same story.
- Added more Business and Tech content
- Server-side search now allows you to search all available news stories for the last 30 days, not just those cached on your device.
- Watch high resolution video over WIFI and when you are out and about watch low resolution video over EDGE.
- The app now remembers where you were in a list when you go navigate back from a story.
- 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
Ask your news questions; we’ll answer them
One of the new features in the Mobile News Network is the Ask AP content tab. Ask AP is a weekly question-and-answer column where the Associated Press answers readers’ questions about the news.
Each week, editors select three or four e-mailed questions, and journalists who are experts on the topic provide the answers. In addition to MNN, the Q & A appears online and in newspapers.
Readers can submit questions to newsquestions@ap.org. Since the feature launched in early 2008, the AP has received nearly a thousand questions. They have ranged from “Where do reporters go to stay safe during a hurricane?” to “What ever happened to Tiny Tim?” (You’ll have to read the column to find out).
When choosing to answer a question, editors consider whether the question would be of interest to the general public, its relevance to recent news developments, or if it would elicit an answer that offers interesting historical perspective on the news.
Please note, all submissions are read by AP editors, but we don’t answer questions we’ve answered before or use the column to respond to reader opinions.
Submit your own questions to newsquestions@ap.org and check out the latest installment: http://tinyurl.com/64j53a!
– Caroline Kim, Mobile Editor
Mobile News Network for BlackBerry v2.5.3 launched (including Storm and J2ME support)
UPDATE (4/8/09): Version 2.5.3 is no longer available at http://bb.apnews.com. Please go to BlackBerry App World to download current versions of AP News.
We’re pleased to announce a new release of the Mobile News Network (v2.5.3) for the Blackberry. The new version is available for download from http://bb.apnews.com and we recommend that all users upgrade.
V2.5.3 offers a number of improvements and enhancements, specifically:
- Additional support: we’ve added Blackberry Storm and J2ME support.
- A more personalized experience: a dialog at first launch asks for email and zip code to automatically populate your setting with local news rather than news from a default location. You can still add/delete zip codes as before.
- An easier way to share and manage content: “Send”, “Facebook”, and “Save Article” buttons are available at the top and bottom of each article.
- An improved user experience: we’ve removed the distracting “Update Progress” status bar at the top of the app and replaced with arrows in the corner.
We recommend that you delete your old version of MNN before installing 2.5.3 and then restart your device.
As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback.
- Michael Boord, Deputy Director, Mobile Operations
Why are there ads in my application?
The addition of an advertising component to the iPhone and other Mobile News Network applications has generated significant feedback from users – largely negative. At present, an ad-supported model is our best option to provide MNN apps free to the user. However, we recognize that ads can be frustrating and we’d like to explain why advertising is a necessary component, at least for now.
The AP is a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative. The Mobile News Network is part of an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for news and information produced by AP members. It’s designed to offer users access to local and national news from trusted sources and it makes AP members competitive in the mobile news business.
Ads on the Mobile News Network allow us to supply you with the best possible comprehensive news application on the market. We’ve gone to great lengths to make the user experience a positive one as we understand that a mobile device is very personal. We’re happy to see that user reviews and media coverage of the MNN have been overwhelmingly positive.
Developing mobile applications, especially native client applications, is a very costly proposition. They require not only start-up capital but ongoing investment in maintenance, upgrading operating systems, developing new features, building new releases and delivery platforms, etc. The MNN is not a one-time, self-contained, downloaded app, but a live application that ingests content from a central system on a real-time basis. Multiply this by multiple carriers, device manufacturers and operating systems and you can start to understand the complexity and costs involved. AP has a responsibility to operate the cooperative efficiently for its members and is not in a position to underwrite or fully subsidize these costs.
Mobile screens vary in size but there is limited real-estate available for ads. We continually work to make ads on the MNN as unobtrusive as possible while ensuring they’re an effective vehicle for advertisers. We plan to monitor and make changes as necessary in future releases to maintain this balance. Currently the ads on the MNN disappear quickly and move to the end of the story you are on. We may explore other options in the future.
Some users have said they’d prefer a paid application as an alternative to the ad-supported model. We have been exploring, and will continue to explore, this path and invite you to participate in a user poll so that we can better gauge the appetite for paid applications.
We encourage you to watch this blog for new information about the MNN applications, including information about how we’ll handle ads in upcoming releases. We sincerely appreciate your continued support of the Mobile News Network and look forward to your feedback in the future.
- Michael Boord , Deputy Director, Mobile Operations
