News24 Android application – now available
Posted in Mobile on August 17th, 2009 by Ronald Bach – Tags: Android, mobile app, news24
Ronald
20fourLabs is excited to announce the launch of the News24 Android application.
Android users can now access breaking news, sport and lifestyle information from South Africa’s leading digital publisher, 24.com, quickly and easily on their Android handsets.
Check out some of the features and screenshots below.
Google’s Andy Rubin predicted earlier this year that there would be between 18-20 Android handsets available by the end of 2009. There are currently 2 Android handsets available in South Africa – the HTC Dream (on MTN) and the HTC Magic (on Vodacom) with a third – the Samsung i7500 Galaxy – launching mid-September. This all points to 2010 being a big year for Android powered handsets – worldwide and in South Africa.
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Features include:
- Up to the second news, sport, finance, motoring and entertainment news
- View current and 7 day weather forecast
- Local restaurant search
- Customisable homescreen widget – select content and set refresh rates
- Share content, provide feedback & choose start-up view
- Easy tabbed navigation
- Touchscreen or TrackBall interface - with haptic feedback (vibration) option
- Read stories in portrait or landscape mode
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The app is built on the Android 1.5 Cupcake OS so MTN users still running version 1.1 on their HTC Dream handsets will first need to do a firmware upgrade before installing the application. The upgrade will be done at the same time the new “Android Market enabled” ROMs are installed.
The free application is already available on the Leaf Open Market (see News & Weather) and will be available on the Android Market when it launches in South Africa.
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November 6th, 2009 3:57 pm
[...] News24 Android application, which was launched in August has been well received by early adopters of Android handsets and an average user currently spends [...]
November 19th, 2009 10:51 pm
[...] ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].getAttribute(’wpid’)) + ‘&’; } } document.write(”); })(); //]]> News24 released their app for Google Android handsets (HTC, OpenMoko available in South Africa and Samsung [...]
December 23rd, 2009 4:03 pm
[...] News24 is the number 1 news site in South Africa. Features of the Andoid app include: [...]
January 21st, 2010 4:37 pm
Have been using this application on my Moto Dext Android smart phone, and have had no issues so far - works well. (South Africans might look out for Motorola’s Milestone /new & improved Droid /latest version Android 2.0)
Cheers
January 26th, 2010 11:13 am
Hey Jason
Glad to hear it. The app also works well on the Nexus One, which I was lucky enough to try out last week.
Looking forward to a lot more Android devices hitting SA this year!
Cheers
Ron
January 27th, 2010 4:40 pm
What is the value of an Android application in a market with an insignificant penetration for this platform ?
February 3rd, 2010 2:49 pm
Hey Rob
While both iPhone and Android numbers are still low, these are super users who consume a lot more content per session than the average wap site user.
We believe Android will become a significant platform in the next 6-12 months as more Android devices enter the market.
Cheers
Ron
April 4th, 2010 7:40 pm
I don’t understand, why not ever smartphone with android 1.5 can be upgraded to 2.1? That would be really great.
June 28th, 2010 5:02 pm
Great Widget as well - works very well on my nexus one. Would however like the widget to be customizable in size. Great effort though much better than other Android news apps
July 17th, 2010 5:25 pm
I use to have an iPhone and used that News24 app a lot…
But I am now using an HTC Legend with Android 2.1.
I get no results searching for News24 in the Market app.
Any ideas? As this is a core app I really love and need!
July 19th, 2010 3:40 pm
Dries - we’ve tested on a few different devices running 2.1 and 2.2 and they all show the News24 app when you search for it.
Try click on the link below to open the relevant Android Market search result page on your device:
market://search?q=pname:com.news24.ui
Otherwise you can download the app from Getjar.
July 26th, 2010 2:37 pm
only problem i’ve experienced is: i cant comment on or make my opinion be available….i dont know whether this is because i havent really familiarised myself with the app…but if the feature is available then i apologise