Customize the News App in iOS

 The Apple News app enables you to read the latest headlines, trending stories suggested by Siri, and a lot of other engaging topics that interest you. Magazines, newspapers, and digital publications, you can get it all with Apple’s news application. This service is not popular only for its rich content but also for the customizable experience it provides. The more time you spend browsing and reading in Apple News, the more personalized the stories will become. Apple understands how displeasing it feels when you see all the headlines in your feed that does not even bother you. Taking care of that Apple has done everything to make the News app “your own.” Furthermore, we are here to tell you about some useful settings that help increase your personalized experience on your Apple News app.

Adding Channels

The first thing to attain personalized experience is to add channels that you would like to get the news from. These are your favorite topics or news sites that you should follow to get relatable news content. To do so, you need to navigate to ” Discover Channels & Topics.” If you are a first user of the News app then you will find this option at the bottom left of your screen, in case you have been using the app from before, then you will find this option in the file section under the menu bar.

Once you select “Discover Channels & Topics,” you will be taken to an endless list, where you can choose the type of news you would want to read, like gaming, celebrity, politics, science, and more. If you happen to choose more political sites to follow, the algorithm will recognize your interest and you will notice more political news on your feed.

Unfollowing Channels

If you feel that a certain channel does not serve your interest anymore or maybe the site does not exist anymore, you can simply unfollow that channel. To do so, navigate to the “Following” section. Here, you will find a list of topics or sites on the left sidebar that you are following. Right-click on the unwanted site/topic and select “Unfollow Channel/Topic.”

Restricted View

When you unfollow a particular site or topic, you restrict the stories from that specific site or topic but you will still see stories from other sites in your feed. These stories from other sites might be undesirable for you. If you don’t want your feed to be loaded with such unwanted news stories, you can easily restrict them and see news only from the topics and sites you follow. To do so, navigate to “News” in the Mac menu bar and open “Preferences.” You will see an option named “Restrict Stories in Today,” right-click on that. Once done, all other stories and topics will get blocked.

Voting on Stories

Even if you have customized the News app completely to see stories only from the sites or topics that you are following, you will still see some news stories from other sources. This is not bad to ensure, you are aware of everything that is happening around or to explore newer interests. Right?

So, if you come across a site that you don’t follow but found it interesting, you can “Vote” that story to see more like it. Now, this is done differently on the mobile Apple News app and the Mac. On the mobile app, you can simply swipe each story to vote, and for the Mac app, you will have to right-click on the story that you would like to read more. After this either select “Suggest More Like This” or “Suggest Less Like This.” Whatever you choose, the News app algorithm will understand your interests and present more stories according to it.

Manage Notifications

Both the mobile Apple News app and the Mac app can send notifications to you. Now, it’s up to you, if you want to see the notifications from all the sites or just a few. If you choose the former, you will likely be bombarded with notifications throughout the day. To avoid this, you can manage your notifications and limit them to specific sites or topics. To do so, navigate to the Mac menu bar. Under the file section, select “Manage Notifications & Email.” Once done, you will see a list of topics and channels. Here, you can select the ones from where you wish to receive the notifications.

We hope that you were able to get a kick out of a truly personalized experience with the Apple News app after reading this article.

Source : https://setuppost.com/customize-the-news-app-in-ios/

Epic Games Finds Support in News Publishers in Battle Against the Mighty Apple

 Days after Epic Games slammed Apple and Google for the unjustified App store fees, representatives from publishing giants like New York Times and Washington Post have arrived on the scene asking “what it will take to cut its fees down?”

They are apparently looking up to Apple to bring its 30 per cent fees down to 15 per cent to ensure fair competition.

The acrimonious tussle between Epic Games and “mighty” Apple does not seem to cool down. It has just been one week since Epic announced that they are definitely going to sue Apple over the App Store fees spar, it again has been asked to bring its fees down by a different part from another industry.

A trade organization called Digital Content Next which is a representative of printed news publishing giants like New York Times, Washington Post and Viacom CBS (that owns a website called CNET.com) has made it clear that Apple must bring that 30 per cent fee down to 15 per cent.

In case you are not caught up, Fortnite was thrown out by Apple and Google for bypassing the payment system set up in their respective App Store by creating their own payment system within the game. Apple and Google were not having any of that, so they took an action that massively infuriated Epic, which owns the hugely popular game Fortnite.

Now, Digital Content Next has also come forward and has asked Apple to bring down its fees; the reason that compelled Epic to create its own payment system in the first place.

The move from Digital Content Next was actually inspired by another business giant Amazon. The employees of DCN went through the documents which were released after the antitrust briefing, which was held between a congressional committee and CEOs of all the tech giants. The documents clearly stated that Apple takes around 15 per cent cut from Amazon’s Prime Video revenue from Appstore. Apple takes 15 per cent in that despite the standard charges set to be 30 per cent.

Mathematically speaking, 30 per cent is way too high. It means that the tech colossus will directly own nearly a third of every newspaper subscription via Apple devices which includes iPhone, iPads and others.

DCN has severely criticized Apple for its so-called “non-negotiable” App Store fees. The fees also put pressure on the app developers to increase the subscription value, which in turn makes Apple earn more despite providing the same services.

In an open letter to Tim Cook, CEO of DCN has demanded a clear written statement of the conditions that Apple requires from a developer so that they also get the same treatment that Amazon gets from Apple.

The conditions set in the Apple marketplace continue to affect free and fair means of investment in the informative and entertainment industry. In simpler terms, the conditions favour a larger firm’s monopoly, which should not happen in a fair market place. Apple has not issued any statement yet regarding the open letter sent by the DCN CEO. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this dilemma.

Source : Battle Against the Mighty Apple