Blancspot iPhone App. Reading endless lines of black on white text? Bo-ring.
Scrolling through dozens and dozens of RSS feeds? So overwhelming.
Viewing gorgeous photos with the day’s headlines attached? Now we’re talking.
We don’t watch the evening news in black and white. Why should we read the day’s headlines in such a one-dimensional way? Well, the developers at Blancspot Media say we shouldn’t. Instead, they offer us Blancspot iPhone App, a quirky new iPhone app that offers a hip, image-centric way of viewing the news.
Open up the Blancspot app and it plays a cinematic sequence of stunning high-res photos that depict the headlines from around the world, as well as the top stories in Sports, Business, Politics, Culture, “War Room,” and the Planet. All these slideshows are set with smooth transitions and appropriate music, i.e. the Sports section plays an upbeat tune while the War Room has ominous tones in the background. (Truthfully, the music can be distracting at times.) At the bottom of the screen rests the headline for that image. Tap once to pause the slideshow and bring up the dashboard controls. Tap again to continue your viewing experience. If you’re impatient like me, you can swipe through all the pretty photos until you get to a story you want to check out.
Intrigued by an image of a man donning a red and white Viking helmet? (Well, I was…) Click on the headline below—“World’s Most Competitive Country?”—and you’re taken to an editorial summary of said article, in this case, one that claims Switzerland is the big winner. Scroll down and you’ll see the “Read More” section with links to external sources like CNN and Forbes where you can (duh) read more about the issue. Tap on one of these links and out pops the news article within the app—no need to switch out to Safari here. Finally, there’s the “Engage” section, which has additional information and links to help you learn more about the given issue. Every story you select is automatically paced in the your “My Channel” section for quick reference.
Want to let Sven, your buddy in Zurich, know that he resides in the “World’s Most Competitive Country”? Click the little people icon on the dashboard and up comes a screen allowing you to share this article with him via email, Twitter, or Facebook. Or if Sven’s got Blancspot on his iPhone, you can “Suggest” it to him and your fellow Blancspot buddies. Blancspot is adept in not only beautifying the news but also adding a social media component to it. If you select the blocks icon on the dashboard, you’re taken to a screen with four rows of images: Editorial (i.e. all the featured stories), Suggested (what articles your friends on Blancspot have suggested to you), Friend’s Activity (what your pals have been reading), and My Channel (what you’ve read). Of course, when you suggest stories to your Blancspot friends, that article will show up in their “Suggested” channel.
Slick and stylish as it is, Blancspot app for iphone is not without its faults. My biggest gripe is the lack of actual news content; users pretty much get whatever Blancspot’s editors decide to post. So where are my Tech and Travel sections? Moreover, the slideshows are a bit slow in loading and display each image a bit too long for my taste. I’d love it if the app could toggle between portrait and landscape mode (currently, it’s a landscape-only app). And there should be an option to turn off the background music, so that I can listen to my own music while using the app.
Overall, Blancspot’s polished design and unique premise far outweigh its few faults. It offers a new and unique way of taking in the news from your iPhone without straining your eyes and giving yourself a migraine in the process.
So for naysayers who argue that the daily news can’t be stylish and entertaining, Blancspot’s out there now proving them all wrong. Get this Blancspot iPhone News app in iTunes apps store here for only $0.99.
Rating: 4/5
Check Out These Too:
- What Does it Mean When Your iPhone Screen Turns White What Does it Mean When Your iPhone Screen Turns White. It is undeniable that iPhone can definitely give you good quality time especially when you are alone and have no…
- Case Crown iPad Cases We've already brought you some of the great iPad cases that are out there, but Case Crown has also released several lines of cases that are not only stylish, but…
- Friendly for Facebook The Friendly for Facebook app seems to be somewhat confusing. It looks like Facebook, and it feels like Facebook, so why isn't it just called the Facebook app? And, doesn't…
- Apple Revises iBooks Policy Last week dozens of book publishers and authors voiced their opinion about some issues regarding the iBooks license agreement and today Apple pushed out their latest version of the agreement.…
- How to Transfer Documents in iPhone via E-Mail When you need to get documents onto the iPad or iPhone quickly, you can simply e-mail them to an account n t iPad or iPhone. You can then open the…
- Developers Having Trouble with iOS 5 Jailbreak iOS 5 has been a tough nut to crack according o many of the leading jailbreaking developers and unfortunately it looks like progress is going to be slow for quite…
- Tweetdeck; Free iPod Touch App Review Tweetdeck is one of the many free Twitter apps for the iPod Touch and iPhone device and it is also one that has been around the longest. Tweetdeck is a…
- Understanding How the iPad and iPhone Handle Documents As you know, Apple has made iTunes the preferred management tool for iPads and iPhones, handling everything from activation and initial setup to daily synchronization and updates. iTunes is also…
- Solution for iBooks Crash Problem Solution for iBooks Crash Problem. It is said that a lot of iPad users are readers - that's why they bought the iPad in the first place. Well, if you…
- TOP 10 FREE APPS FOR iPOD TOUCH Top 10 iPod Touch Apps Free. The iPod Touch is every music lover’s dream gadget. This unique gadget from Apple packs all the features a MP3 player ever requires. However,…
- True Tone iPhone True Tone is a feature that first appeared on the iPhone 8 in 2017 and continues to be embedded in Apple phones to this day. This feature allows the iPhone…
- Apple Delays Release of White iPhone 4 Again Since the release of the iPhone 4 device from Apple a few months ago, they have kept delaying the release of the white version of the phone, each time giving…
- Apple Rejecting Apps That Track UDID Info Each Apple iOS device comes with a completely unique identification number called a UDID. For a while now apps have been accessing and tracking that identifier and now it appears…
- Are You Looking For The Best IPhone Deals? Are You Looking For The Best IPhone Deals?. With the iPhone the excellence is in the details. Similarly, the best iphone deal is found when you can go through the…
- Facebook's iPad App Arrives Facebook's iPad App Arrives Be it updating some status for likes and comments, engaging into fun-filled games on the go, talking to friends via chat, or reading their Wall posts,…
- Apple to Launch News Corp iPad Newspaper There have been a lot of rumours over the past few months that there will be subscription services for magazines being available for the iPad device in the near future.…
- Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Skateboarding iPhone App Stop playing with that thing and go play outside. Sound familiar? If you've heard this from your parents, or if you've said this to your kids, you're going to like…
- How To Use Cloth and Organize Your Wardrobe In iPhone? Do you want to arrange the outfits you wear in different categories and keep those organized in your wardrobe? You don’t need an assistant or wardrobe adviser, but the popular…
- iPhone 4 Available from China Unicom Today For current users of the iPhone 4 in China, or those who live in the country and were thinking about getting one of the new devices, this could be great…
- Best IPad Apps for Lawyers - Our Favorite Legal Apps… Best ipad Apps for Lawyers Admit it, iPads are one of the hottest gadgets nowadays, aren’t they? Well, here is yet another post for you. This time, I will share…
- Viewing iPad Apps in Full Screen Mode The iPad is a great little device, there's no doubt about it. But you've gotta know that when you take features, such as apps for the iPhone and iPod, and…
- SportsTap for the iPod Touch If you are an avid lover of sports and need to constantly know what's going on, then you might find the SportsTap app for the iPod Touch quite handy, indeed.…
- 2Do - Prettiest iPhone Task Manager in App Store I’m sure everyone has been there. Those times where you forget what you needed to do, or you never got to what you wanted to do? Notecards, notepads, sticky notes…
- White iPhone 4 Rumours as Walmart make Shelf Space As many of you will know, the iPhone 4 device was released by Apple a couple of months ago now and still, we haven’t seen the release of the white…
- How to find out about the iPhone 5 first Apple will be unveiling at the event but there are still a lot of rumours as to exactly what the iPhone 5 will have in store for us. If you…
- Pastebot -The unique copy and paste tool The iPhone is probably one of the trendiest phones today. It is not just trendy but the utilities available in them are many and very useful for day to day…
- Projector for iPhone Best Projectors for iPhone - There are many reasons why you might need a projector for your iPhone. For example, if you want to watch a movie at home or…
- BBC News; Free iPod Touch App Review BBC news is one of the biggest sources of news in the world and ,many people visit the website on a daily basis to catch up on the latest goings…
- iPhone OS 3.0: The Scintillating Advanced Mobile Platform Apple had recently presented blueprint for a new operating system called iPhone OS 3.0. This is the next version after their last OS 2.0 and it is right now considered…
- Apple Planning Media Event in January Today the news broke that Apple is officially working on a major media event at the end of this month. Nobody knows exactly what Apple is planning to announce or…
