Download of the week: BBC News for iPad

There are almost as many news app as there are iPad users. So to stand out you need something special. The BBC News app covers has everything you could want: quality content displayed professionally with relevant multimedia when needed.

You’re greeted with the BBC red globe, as seen on the television show, followed by the top story for that moment. In portrait you’re given a header bar full of the top stories complete with photographs and headlines and in landscape you’re given the same but down the left hand side of the page.

The content is easy to read and simple to browse. It’s hard to tell if this is a result of the iPads interface or the app itself.

Each page has an option to share the article by email, Facebook or Twitter without leaving the app itself. You can increase or decrease the apps text size, this feature feels a little redundant on a computer but on a device designed to have the user viewing long articles for periods of time it is highly useful.

Knowing the real-time nature of news online the Beeb has also included a header bar labelled ‘latest’. This rotates the most recently published stories from the BBC new site although it does only give you the headline; you will have to go to the website to read the whole story.

My favourite feature is the ‘Live’ button in the top left hand corner. Although on television I’m against rolling news channels it’s great to have the option on the move to see what is happening in the world. This stream can be viewed in either portrait or landscape and be expanded to fit the whole screen. Additionally I discovered the ability to scroll through stories by pulling your finger across the screen. It’s as close to turning a page as you’re going to get in an iPad app. It makes reading every news story for the day both easy and oddly addictive.

Although it provides a wide selection of that day’s stories, I think they missed an opportunity to include all of the categories. You can see what I would guess is the top sections on the website (Top Stories, World, UK and Sport) but no others. I love to get an annual dose of random news from their ‘also in the news’ section, or get my teeth into a length feature.

A big pet peeve is the lack of a search feature. You don’t tend to notice it at first as the biggest stories are right in your face from the get go but it’s a key tool that would make a large difference.

Something I don’t get much out of but I can see why it’s an integral feature is the ability to change language. The app supports ten languages including Spanish, Hindi and Chinese.

If you want to know what’s going on in a clear, concise and professional way the BBC news app is the best on the market. The articles are well researched and written in an easy-to-read manner. The app itself is intuitive and full of little design features that help set it apart from the others on the market. Best of all it’s free; you don’t even have to be a licence payer.