WP7 App(s) Launch: ‘AU Newswire’ + ‘UK Newswire’

 

In my ongoing quest to achieve world domination release a truckload of WP7 apps – 2 x new apps were submitted to the WP7 Marketplace for certification over the past couple of days (taking the mobilewares total published apps up to 18).

These new apps are designed to allow you to access the ‘best of’ new sources in the given regions (AU for Australia, UK for United Kingdom) – by offering a fast (and slightly sexy) RSS reading experience, grouped together by topics.

 

	UK Newswire Click here for product page Offers best of news from around the UK (England, Wales, Scotland + Nth Ireland) including BBC World, Sky News, The Telegraph, SUN, Mirror, Evening Standard, The Mail Online, Independant.IE and more..
	AU Newswire Click here for product page Offers best of news from around Australia – including ABC Online, TheAge, SMH, Brisbane Times, Mercury, Daily Telgraph, news.com, Herald-Sun, Bigpond (Unmetered access for Telstra users) and more..

Both apps share a common engine – and each provide around 200 built in/preset feeds for you to chose from (so no need to search for content/rss feeds on a ‘generic’ rss reader).  For each topic (10 different ones to chose from) – they can be enabled/disabled and reordered for the main page/pivot (via settings page) – and you can then assign a ‘default’ feed to each one (so it quickly brings up that source when you pivot across to that topic).   For any additional feeds – there’s also a ‘by topic’ and ‘by publisher’ browser allowing you to access any other feeds you don’t have assigned as a default feed for a topic. 

Once you’re viewing a topic/feed – clicking on any news item takes you directly to an inbuilt viewer (with a web browser hosted inside the page) – so you don’t need to leave the app or lose your context/place.

Here’s some screenshots below (from both AU + UK versions) – check out the product pages (linked above) for the full set of screenshots and details of each app.

        

        

 

As with many of the Apps I have written so far – I’ve made this one to cater for a core user in mind – ‘me’. Personally, I wanted an App to be able to get to news from some of the more serious news sources (like Australia’s ABC, TheAge, The Australian etc) – as all the offerings around at the moment were locked into publications I wouldn’t normally be interested in due to their more lightweight/tabloid reporting or lack of local content (such as NineMSN, Bigpond etc).  

While there’s a number of great WP7 RSS readers already out there too – all of them required quite a bit of setup/configuration to bring in all the feeds I actually wanted – so the idea of an app with everything ‘preloaded’ seemed like the way to go.

Hopefully there’s some other users out there with similar needs that will enjoy using this app.

Both apps have trial versions (so you can see if you like it first) – and are selling for the introductory ‘base’ price of USD$1.29 (which on the Microsoft Wp7 Marketplace currency exchange actually translates to AUD$1.70 and GBP£0.99).

These should be available sometime soon, both are already submitted (first one 2 days ago) – but there appears to be a bit of a backlog on marketplace testing this week (some of the FM radio apps submitted last weekend are still to be approved or tested). 

Keep an eye out for these in the ‘News & Weather’ categories in paid apps on a Windows Phone 7 near you.

Off Topic: Reconciliation at last for the Aboriginal people of Australia

I’m really happy to see the positive (and actual) steps being taken by the new Rudd (Labour) government today to finally apologize – and officially acknowledge to the Aboriginal people of Australia the immense wrong that was done to them.

The recently ousted Liberal government’s 10 year refusal to say ‘Sorry’ has been one of many embarrassing things of late – where I sometimes feel ‘ashamed’ to be an Australian (along with the involvement in the Iraq invasion, the refusal to agree to environmental pacts like Kyoto – and the appalling treatment of asylum seekers and political refugees).

If you’re a reader from overseas (and have never heard of this matter before) – for some more information – please see this article from news.com.au -  Kevin Rudd Apologises to Stolen Generations 

(the caption below from their front page sums it up quite well.)

" Sorry … Kevin Rudd has apologised for the "profound grief, suffering and loss" inflicted on generations of indigenous Australians"

Also for some more context – an award winning movie called Rabit Proof Fence (made in 2002) touches on some of what went on (from the perspective of 3 young aboriginal children) – and might be available in your country. (and worth a watch to understand just how shocking the treatment of Aboriginals was in the past – and most shockingly occurred right up until about 25 years ago).

Hopefully – it’s a sign of good/better things to come in Australia – and that we didn’t trade-off our economy – to get this privilege (by voting Labour in – who are not known to be the best at managing the financial state of the country).

New Australian Copyright laws set to make us all Criminals.

 

It’s no secret that politicians and technology don’t mix – and when it’s left up to the Australian government to make decisions on how technology vs copyright laws should be applied – what started out as good intentions can only end as one big muddle.

 

According to  Professor Brian Fitzgerald (Head of Law at QUT) – the new Australian Copyright laws (set to be passed through parliament before years end) – "have the potential to make everyday Australians in homes and businesses across the country into criminals on a scale that we have not witnessed before".

 

One of the most scary aspects of the proposed changes, is that the new laws allow police to charge people with ‘criminal’ offences (including AUD$1300 on the spot fines) – for copyright breaches. In the past the copyright owner had to instigate ‘civil’ proceedings against offenders – which meant in *most* cases – common sense prevailed and action was taken only where necessary (ie. it was just people who were redistributing copyrighted works en masse - although a small handful of very unlucky people also sued to ‘set an example’).

 

Unfortunately while the bills aimed to initially provide exceptions to the rules (to allow for legitimate usage of copyrighted materials on things such as MP3 players, people with DVRs/VCRs) - a complete lack of understanding has left most of us in the lurch (and most modern technologies were not covered by exceptions). Under the new changes - the laws aimed to "lower the standard of proof" required to charge someone with copyright infringement – which means in some cases just owning an Ipod, Camera, Mobile Phone, DVD recorder etc might land you in jail. (see article from theAge – "The $65000 question: do you  own an Ipod")

 

There’s also some very harsh implications of these laws with regards to popular songs – the following example highlights just how everyone could be at risk (see full article – "New Copyright Laws Risk Criminalsing Everyday Australians"):

"As an example,” said Mr Coroneos, “a family who holds a birthday picnic in a place of public entertainment (for example, the grounds of a zoo) and sings ‘Happy Birthday’ in a manner that can be heard by others, risks an infringement notice carrying a fine of up to $1320. If they make a video recording of the event, they risk a further fine for the possession of a device for the purpose of making an infringing copy of a song. And if they go home and upload the clip to the internet where it can be accessed by others, they risk a further fine of up to $1320 for illegal distribution. All in all, possible fines of up to $3960 for this series of acts – and the new offences do not require knowledge or improper intent. Just the doing of the acts is enough to ground a legal liability under the new ‘strict liability’ offences.”

I also heard on the radio – that sports fans were warned they could be charged for singing copyrighted songs at the cricket this summer.

 

I don’t think a single politician is going to be safe from this either – so I wonder who will be the first to be forced to resign for breaching one of these new laws.

 

Even our national anthem is copyrighted (I think) – it doesn’t get more crazy then this!

 

And back to the topic of this blog – it also raises the issue of whether running Vista Media Center in Australia is going to be illegal too.