Yahoo has done an update of its main free app for iOS. Changes to the main app, which features a blend of news with Yahoo’s interactive lifestyle magazines, consist of slight visual re-tooling. This includes more visuals and a feature that allows one to swipe across the screen looking at before and after photos in the lifestyle sections. It is possible to turn off features one does not wish to see.
Many of its features are however suboptimal from a presentation and utility standpoint. For instance adds and news stories are shown in virtually identical format save for the fact that adds include the word “sponsored”. There are also bugs to add to the dubious design choices. For instance the edit page where you decide which content you want displayed in white on white, making it effectively unreadable and difficult to exit from. One suspects the product testers were half asleep.
It does not help that when you look past the glossy finish the news subjects themselves are to really that compelling or interesting, for all that they are varied. Even more than the paid app Yahoo News Digest this main app suffers from the great issue of many Yahoo news presentation vectors, unsatisfying content. Unlike Yahoo News Digest or any of the other paid Yahoo apps for iOS this app also has presentation issues making it the worst of all possible choices.
Therefore it is my suggestion not to instal this app, the only good thing about it is that it is free so it can be removed without a twinge to the wallet. If that is not damning with faint praise I do not know what is.