Review: Very nicely formatted news app
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2013
NOTE: This is a review of the app and the news experience it provides. This isn't a commentary on the news content or the subscription price. Use your own judgement on the news content provided: That's a personal preference. It's up to you to decide whether it's too liberal or too conservative for you.----I have used a lot of different news apps on my Kindle Fire, and this is my second favorite so far.  (Sadly, my favorite news app was discontinued, so this one is my next best choice.)The first thing that struck me about this app is the easy-to-read home page.  The home page uses a nice clear large typeface for the headlines and a smaller font for the summaries.  To the right of most of the headlines is a large photo that spans half of the column.  Between each headline is a good sized white margin.  The sum effect of these design elements is a list of articles that is very easy on the eyes.The top menu bar has a drop-down list of categories similar to the categories on the NYT webpage.  Because this is a major news publication, the content in each of the categories is pretty extensive.  And unlike some news apps that are just news aggregators, the articles are all original NYT content.The settings are easy to access and provide some nice options.  One option that I really like is the "Night Mode" viewing.  Similar to the Kindle Fire's native book reading app, you can invert the text areas so that the text is white and the background is white.  I use this mode when I read in bed or on an airplane.  (TIP:  If you fly a lot, use the Night Mode on the plane so that your screen won't glow as brightly and won't be so visible to the flight attendants.  This will buy you a few more minutes of reading time before they come around and tell everyone to turn off their electronics.)Once you are actually reading an article, it's very easy to move on to the next/previous article by swiping the screen left or right.One feature that I wish they had is a different landscape view.  Some news apps add a list of articles to the right margin when you're in landscape view.  In this app switching to landscape enlarges the photo(s) and the text margins.All in all, this is definitely a very strong news app.  It's very easy to read and easy to navigate.  Well done, NYT.