Apple showcased its new News application back at WWDC as it seeks to provide iOS users with a fresh news reading experience. For quite some time, while just about everyone has been trying to provide news and fronting their applications, few have done it very well. Twitter is trying to reinvent itself and capitalize on its Breaking News/saw it on Twitter fame to provide news to its users. Facebook is partnering with news publishers to be the go-to platform for news articles. Google just dusted off its old News and Weather application on Android with its first update in years. We may not be sure how the Play Newsstand application it pushed to replace Currents is doing but they have something to keep the younger generation that does not visit Google News hooked. So what has Microsoft been doing besides integrating news on Cortana? Something interesting.
Newscast is the reported name of an application that Microsoft’s Bing team has been working on. The app won’t be your traditional news reader or a rethink like Flipboard was back in the day. Instead, Microsoft is simply acknowledging the busy nature of its target audience today and looking to tap into that. News will be read to you. Simple. You don’t have to bother scrolling on your big smartphone while in public transport. Pop in your earbuds and you’ll be up to date with what’s happening. No, it won’t be like those long podcasts that everyone has been trying to shove down your throat. Each article will be 30 seconds long and there will be customization options so that you get the right balance between whatever is happening locally and elsewhere on the globe.
The app is still under development and is expected to be cross-platform when it is eventually released to fit with the company’s new philosophy of universal apps.
Since this is from internal sources and it is under testing, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to see it go official but you won’t be wrong expecting to see it pop up once it has been taken through the paces and it is ready for everybody to use.
Source: Neowin
