ABC News for iPad features innovative new interface

You don’t usually look to companies like ABC to release innovative new apps for the iPad, but today they did.

ABC News for iPad features a totally new interface and one that I have not seen on any other news app before.

The interface features a globe split up into different stories. You can touch one of the stories to read it or spin the globe to see what else you may want to read. You can also tell the app what types of stories you want to fill the globe, so you always get something you’re interested in reading.

You can also set the globe to include stories from “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer,” “Nightline,” “20/20,” and “This Week.” Archival footage from “This Month in History” is also available as an option.

If the globe interface isn’t appealing to you, it can be switched for a more traditional look and feel with the press of a button.

ABC also said its news site is now optimized in HTML5, so it is viewable from the iPad without an application.

The ABC News for iPad is a free download from the App Store.

http://www.debono.com.au Joseph Debono

The revolution begins (pardon the pun).
IcyFog

Why wouldn’t you expect ABC to be innovative? It’s owned by Disney, a pretty creative company.

Jim Dalrymple

That’s true. It’s just more than I expected from them.

iphonerulez

Good to see HTML5 start getting used more. As Android keeps touting Flash, it will give Apple mobile products a better chance to compete. A few more key sites need to support HTML5. It’s good for every mobile user’s sake. I understand that it’s not practical for every site to switch over due to analytic support features and cost, but I still want to see HTML5 become at least a close alternative. There are still going to be plenty of low-spec’ed Android smartphones that won’t support Flash, so you’d figure those users should be happy, too.