Welcome to our App of the Week series where we highlight Smartphone and iPad applications for business.
In work and personal life, conversations often start out very similarly. After a short greeting and a "how's it going?", the topic often turns to a current event. For example, when eastern Canada was shaken by an earthquake earlier this week, you can guarantee that thousands of meetings and conference calls started with "did you feel the earthquake?"
Within minutes of the earthquake, people were looking for facts, not only for personal knowledge but more importantly to share with colleagues. Knowledge is power in business and knowing what's happening in the world grows personal strength.
An easy way to keep up to date with current events is to use a news application on your Smartphone. These apps make fast work of scanning and reading headlines or full articles. The problem is that Canadian content isn't always easy to find. To assist, here are 5 of our favourite Canadian news apps for the Apple iPhone:
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has offered an iPhone app for some time now. The app loads fast and top stories are readily available. Each headline includes a picture, making it easy to scan through articles. Articles are up to date and they offer an excellent mobile business section. Free from the iTunes store.
Metro News
The worlds free urban commuter newspaper is also available as an iPhone app. Although the app can sometimes be on the slower side to load, it's regional settings make it a good option for those in major cities as it provides solid local content. The Latest News option makes for quick scanning of major news worldwide. Of major note, this application is bilingual. Free from the iTunes store.
CBC Radio
CBC has taken an interesting approach to offering news to mobile users. They have invested more in making their www.cbc.ca/news website mobile friendly - and have been quite successful at it. They also offer an excellent app for CBC Radio in both English and French. From the application you can listen to CBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and selected CBC Television audio including George Stroumboulopoulos and Rex Murphy. On the French version of the app, local Radio Canada stations are available as well as RCI. Personally, I find the hourly news on Radio 1 very satisfying and it's great to be able to pull it up on your iPhone from anywhere in 3G+ coverage. CBC Radio English: free from iTunes store. La Radio de Radio-Canada: free from iTunes store.
Canadian Business Mobile
Canadian Business Mobile is a simple application focused solely on business news. Although the application displays advertisements (common for free apps), it's a good application to review business news at the end of the day. The major stories are accessible and easy to read with a good solid focus on Canadian content. Free from the iTunes store.
Macleans's
A long standing Canadian magazine, Maclean's also offers an iPhone app. True to Maclean's journalistic style, the application doesn't necessarily focus on stories that have broke in the last five minutes, but rather analysis, perspective and “behind the scenes” background - as they say "what matters to Canadians". If you like the magazine, you will enjoy the app. Free from the iTunes store.
How about you? Do you have an application that you like to use to keep up to date on Canadian news? Let the Community know by adding a comment below.
