San Francisco, California – The Apple iPhone is defined by its user experience. “Sleek”, “Sophisticated” and “Stylish” are only some of the words that come to mind when faced with a shiny new iPhone or iPad. Traditionally, national and global news coverage does not have the same sort of adjectives associated with them. Things like “depressing”, “flat” or “biased” are often found more closely tied to how the public views mass news media. Pulling the two together is Blancspot, a revolutionary new way to experience and interact with the news on the iPhone that combines photojournalists elements and solid news reporting with social media and cause activation tools.

The idea has intrigued Apple, which is now prominently featuring Blancspot in the iTunes App Store for the second week running. “We were thrilled at the response we got to Blancspot from Apple”, said Camille LeBlanc, CEO of Blancspot Media. “The idea of Blancspot fits hand in hand with the ideology of Apple, where not only is function paramount, but the entire experience of the user. Blancspot is not just news you read – its news you experience.”

Being on Apple’s good side has its advantages. In the first 24 hours of its release, Blancspot shot to the top five of the best selling news applications, where it stayed for a week. In that time, its sales also landed it the number three position in the coveted top grossing news apps.

The goal of Blancspot is to give consumers a full 360 view of news, allowing them to form their own judgments and become a part of it, either through discussion or active engagement. To do this, Blancspot provides:

* Stunning images from top photojournalists around the world presented in cinematic sequences set to an ever evolving soundtrack.
* An unbiased summary of complex topics with links to relevant external sources on both sides of an story
* Engagement with up to the minute social conversation through a targeted look into Twitter
* The ability to engage with or create causes related to the news

Blancspot is currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch, and to celebrate its successful launch and featuring by Apple has reduced the price to $1.99 for a limited time . An iPad optimized edition of Blancspot is scheduled for a mid September debut. For up to the second headlines and updates, follow Blancspot Media on Twitter @BlancspotMedia, or on Facebook.

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Blancspot Media LLC, a privately held, privately financed company headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and was founded in 2009 by Camille LeBlanc, co-founder and former CEO of Roubini Global Economics, a leading macroeconomic information service and strategy firm. The Blancspot team is made up of technology and media veterans whose experience comes from companies such as Yahoo!, Dow Jones, MobiTV, Sega, Apple, Nokia, NBC, and more. The company raised an angel round of funding from private investors led by veteran Hollywood film producer Frank Marshall of Kennedy/Marshall Company. Copyright (C) 2010 Blancspot Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

January 13 – CBS Mobile and CBS Television Stations today announced that stand-alone news apps for CBS-owned television stations in 13 markets are now available from the App Store. The free apps for iPhone and iPod touch users deliver the latest local news headlines and stories, full length on-demand video, slide shows and Twitter updates from news anchors and reporters at local CBS Television Stations. In addition to the dedicated local content, the apps connect users with breaking CBS News stories and on-demand video from across the nation and around the globe.

“The CBS Television Stations applications are a logical extension of our CBS News app; they give us the chance to engage users at a grass roots level and expose them to the news that matters to them the most,” said Rob Gelick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBS Mobile.  “These apps are also a great way for us to extend the CBS brand and provide users with a new and convenient way to discover and experience the depth of our local news coverage.”

Features of the stand-alone apps include:

• Latest Local News Headlines and Stories from CBS-Owned TV Stations in 13 Markets: Branded apps feature local news, sports and features for CBS-owned stations across the nation, including WCBS-New York, KCBS/KCAL-Los Angeles, WBBM-Chicago, KYW-Philadelphia, WBZ-Boston, KPIX-San Francisco, KTVT-Dallas/Fort Worth, WCCO-Minneapolis/St. Paul, WFOR-Miami, KCNC-Denver, KOVR-Sacramento, KDKA-Pittsburgh and WJZ-Baltimore.
• Full News Video Integration: View on-demand video news coverage from your favorite local market reporters, and from CBS News.
• Local Geo-Targeted Weather: Real time and extended weather forecasts targeted automatically by each user’s location. Users can also check weather conditions in other cities.
• National and Global Breaking News from CBS News: The latest breaking news and on-demand video throughout the day from CBS News reporters across the globe.
• Twitter Feeds: Insights and breaking news from anchors and reporters in local markets. Users can also navigate by topic through the unique “News Trends” section—a collection of the top stories from feeds across Twitter.

CBS Mobile partnered with Treemo Labs (http://www.treemolabs.com) to develop the application, and Transpera (www.transpera.com) to power the pre-roll video and ad capabilities in the application.

The CBS Television Stations apps are now available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/. Users can search for their favorite local station app based on the branding for the CBS-owned television station in their area.

Agence France-Presse announced today the launch of its iPhone application “AFP Mobile” on the Apple App Store. The application for iPhone and iPod Touch enables users to read the latest news from all over the world, delivered with accuracy, speed and in-depth by AFP’s worldwide network of journalists. It gives access to the global news agency’s multimedia content in English, Spanish, Portuguese and German, including breaking world news from wars and conflicts to politics, sport and entertainment, as well as the latest major developments in health, science and technology.

he application can also be adapted for AFP’s clients to integrate their own content and distributed under their brand, for example La Dépêche du Midi, an AFP client in France, have already done this and released their iPhone application January 5^th.

This development is part of AFP’s ongoing mobile strategy to cover all mobile news content needs and to enable its clients to reach their audience across multiple devices and platforms. “Mobile is a key development for media companies. We believe that it is our mission to offer our clients mobile-ready content and technological solutions, so they can expand their visibility and reach new audiences”, says Erik Monjalous, AFP Group Sales and Marketing Director.

AFP Mobile for iPhone and iPod Touch offers a unique user-experience, thanks to original features, such as browsing the news by photos, the customization of the navigation bar to access favourite categories anytime and the possibility to change the language of the content inside the application. AFP news is also available on the mobile browser http://afpmobile.com.

The application can be downloaded from Apple’s AppStore on iPhone and iPod Touch.

CBS News and CBS Mobile today announced the launch of the CBS News Katie Couric application on the App Store. The free app gives iPhone and iPod touch users a one stop destination to keep up with all of Couric’s reporting across all platforms of CBS News including CBS EVENING NEWS, 60 Minutes, CBS SUNDAY MORNING, and the @KatieCouric webcast on CBSNews.com.

“The CBS News Katie Couric app is another way we can keep the CBS News audience constantly updated about what is happening in their world,” said Katie Couric, Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. “From online to social networking, we’ve always had a commitment to broadening our audience reach beyond the traditional newscast and this is one more tool to help us do just that.”

“Katie has an innate ability to connect with her audience across a variety of mediums,” said Mark Larkin, Vice President of CBSNews.com.  “Over the past year, we have seen how her Web coverage has attracted new viewers, and sustained a high level of audience engagement. The new CBS News Katie Couric mobile application offers Katie fans an additional opportunity to discover and experience the depth of CBS News coverage through her eyes—all through the convenience of their iPhone.”

Features of the CBS News Katie Couric application include:

• Breaking News: The latest breaking news and developments on stories throughout the day from CBS EVENING NEWS and CBSNews.com
• “Best of” Katie Couric Highlights: All of the best highlights from Katie Couric’s interviews for CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and other CBS News programs.
• Full Length Interviews and On-demand Excerpts from @KatieCouric Webcast: Katie puts the tough questions to a wide range of people from Al Gore, Michelle Obama, Glen Beck, Shakira, to Tom Friedman on the original webcast @KatieCouric on CBSNews.com. Users can access full interviews or excerpts on-demand.
• Updates and Insights from Katie Couric’s Notebook Blog: Go beyond the headlines and get inside the story through Katie Couric reports and special video and text insights on the Katie Couric Notebook blog.

CBS Mobile partnered with July Systems, a leading mobile Web and applications platform company, to develop the CBS News Katie Couric app. The app is now available for free on iPhone or iPod touch from the App Store or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Fluent Mobile, a mobile content organization and delivery company, today debuted premium features available via in-app-purchase for Fluent News. The new premium features enable news readers to create their own personalized mobile newspaper by filtering out unwanted news sources and “promoting” their favorites to greater prominence. Additionally, they can create unlimited custom news sections on any topic, and eliminate banner ads in section lists.

“We saw an overwhelmingly positive response from consumers and industry leaders to the first version of Fluent News back in June,” said Micah Adler, Fluent Mobile’s CEO and founder. “We know that news consumption is inherently personal and varies by individual. Fluent News empowers readers to hone in on what’s news to them using the fastest, most convenient app for reading news from multiple sources on the iPhone. We’re essentially letting people build their own custom mobile newspaper by defining their own sections and favorite news sources.”

With today’s release, Fluent News readers can create their own personal mobile newspapers by selecting “favorite” news sources. This will bring those news outlets to greater prominence throughout Fluent News’ 13 sections. Fluent News’ content relevancy algorithms will still organize and prioritize the most important stories, but preference will be given to each reader’s favorite outlets. Conversely, users can hide news outlets that are of less interest.  Users without premium access get limited use of this feature; they can promote one source and disable one source.

Fluent News also lets users personalize the news by creating their own custom sections. For example, lots of people are interested in staying up-to-date on the H1N1 flu pandemic. Fluent News includes stories on H1N1 in the health section, but a reader can easily conduct a keyword search on “H1N1” and save it as a custom section. This new H1N1 section will be updated with the most recent news as quickly and with the same frequency as the other Fluent News sections.

Fluent News junkies will continue to enjoy existing features free-of-charge including the ability to search for current and past news articles, article sharing through Twitter, Facebook and in-app email and offline access to the news.  Users will also have the ability to create a limited number of custom sections for free. This release of Fluent News also includes the following:

•       Top news sources including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX News, BBC, ESPN, TMZ, and dozens more.

• Intelligent grouping of similar articles for uncluttered browsing with one-click access to additional coverage on any single story.

•       A save article function that lets users save and then instantly access articles at any time.

•       Complete articles displayed without load-time delays, text pinching or leaving the application.

• Full screen option, which hides everything but the article for full screen viewing.
• Landscape mode.
• Performance enhancements for an even faster experience.

http://www.fluentmobile.com

SearchTrends displays real-time search trends for Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Twitter, and lets you search on these terms from right within the app.

SearchTrends is a great new way to stay up-to-date on popular search terms, news and events. Instead of relying on news sources, you’re keying off of what people around the world are talking about.

Best of all, it’s FREE!

http://littleredbikemedia.com/searchtrends

International Icon, Britney Spears, launches her own iPhone and iPod Touch app. The app, exclusive to the artist, is named “It’s Britney!” and is currently available at the iTunes App Store for $1.99. With the “It’s Britney!!” app, fans get to the front of the line with all things officially Britney. After purchasing the app, fans will receive official news first hand, get exclusive messages from Britney herself, be able to create and share images of themselves and friends on stage with Britney, have access to updated photo galleries which include real time photos, exclusive tour images as well as a photo gallery of over 100+ iconic images of Britney over the years. Additionally, the app features a “Shake Shake Shake” feature in which Britney says “It’s Britney Bitch!” every time the user shakes their iPhone or iPod Touch.

A detailed explanation of each feature the app has to offer is below:

Be Britney’s Dancer: All you need is a photo of yourself and within seconds you’ll have a photo of you onstage with Britney. Users are able to upload their newly created photo to be featured on Britney’s website, www.Britneyspears.com, and share with their friends or upload on Facebook, Twitter and more.

Messages From Britney: Britney will be communicating directly with users by dropping exclusive messages.

News: Users will be the first to receive official news.

Fresh Updated Photo Galleries: Users will have access to 100+ photos from Britney’s archives as well as her recent “Circus” tour which include fans, dancers, behind the scenes and more. The photo galleries will be updates as new Britney images arrive. The photos can be saved to users’ iPhoto library and can be used as wallpaper.

Home Screen: The home screen will frequently be updated and will feature the latest photos of Britney plus photos throughout her career and # 1 selling Circus tour.

Twitter: Users will be able to follow Britney directly and receive her latest tweets.

Sparkler: The Sparkler is the ultimate concert companion. Users will be able to hold up the Sparkler at her concert or keep as a souvenir of the closing finale on her Circus Tour.