I don’t see the news

That’s not to say there’s a problem with photos, videos or even text displaying. No, the problem is that they’re so damn small on my MacBook Pro 15″ screen (as well as the 27″ LG Ultrafine it’s connected to) that I can’t read anything.

With the exception of “feature” articles which appear at the top of the main pages with larger headlines, virtually nothing in News is readable, especially on pages such as Top News Stories, etc. The publication titles are completely unreadable, headlines are a bold and condensed font, making them difficult at best, the article summaries are not only too small, but Apple chose to make them a light gray color. To rub salt in the open wound, the timestamp and share buttons look like a bug got smooshed on my screen.

Even the Discover Channels & Topics button in the lower left corner of the navigation column pops-up this tiny little modal box floating in the middle of the massive screen real estate I have available. Inside the static-sized box, Apple crams 12 previews and the name of the publication. At least, that’s what I assume it is, because I can’t read it.

Once you click on a headline and are taken to the actual article page, you are afforded some relief in that while the article text is tiny by default, you can hit the Command + keys several times to make the text legible.

Gee,  thanks Apple. Would it have killed you to allow me to set a text size default in the preferences, or at least remember my zoom setting across relaunch?

The second thing that really bugs me about Apple’s News app is that I can’t share articles.

Part of reading the news these days is sharing a great article with friends, family or social media followers.

There is a Share button for each article, but you’ll have to find it. Sometimes it’s at the bottom of the article, sometimes next to the headline, and sometimes in the menubar. It just depends on what type of page you’re on. No matter what, it’s tiny.

But the biggest problem is that Apple has decided that the Share button should only allow you to share with yourself.

Since Apple chose to remove system-level access to Facebook & Twitter (and every other social network), you can now only share with apps that Apple has chosen for you, or 3rd party apps that specifically build-in a Share Sheet extension. Those apps are few and far between.

Apple allows me to “share” an article to my own Notes, Reminders, or send as a text message. Who would use any of those options? Even email isn’t an option for many people, unless you have a 3rd party app like MailPlane that offers a Share Sheet extension.

At the very least, Apple should have built-in the ability to copy the link to the article on the publisher’s website.

Overall, Apple News is a decent app for a 1st version. But it has a long way to go, in my opinion. I look forward to any improvements they make.

The cost of a ad on LATimes.com to reach the same 500,000 people is about $7,000.

The cost of an ad reaching 500,000 people that’s served up by Google and appears on LATimes.com can be as little as $20.

Looking at those figures, it’s easy to see why companies have all but moved completely to web-based advertising.

The problem is two-fold: First, when you pay for a subscription to a print product, you almost certainly read it… cover-to-cover. When you view web pages for news, you almost certainly either block the ads, or have grown so used to them that you don’t even see them. So while it’s cheaper to advertise on the web, it is my opinion that most companies are throwing their money away. They fall in love with social media shares/likes, click-through rates, page views, and a host of other analytics—but they fail to accept the only number that counts: sales!

The second problem is that due to the first, journalism has devolved into click-bait producing bloggers being paid $25 per post to “report the news.” They do this because they can’t afford to pay real journalists to investigate stories and spend time crafting something worth paying for. And because of that, I’m not willing to pay for it.

It’s a vicious circle.

Image Designed by kstudio / Freepik

It didn’t take long for some TUAW alumni to start a new site after AOL shut down the long-running Mac-related news site. TUAW was one of those sites I had a love-hate relationship with as far as content, but I always respected the writers and their work.

Apple World Today has launched, with Steve Sande, Dave Caolo, and Kelly Hodgkins at the helm. I’m looking forward to seeing what these guys come up with on a daily basis; as I’ve grown tired of the sensationalistic headlines (and quite craptacular articles) found at some of the other Mac sites out there.

I also recently added SixColors (by Jason Snell, former editor at Macworld) and MacSparky to my “check regularly” bookmark folder in Safari.

By far, the best site I’ve come across for iPhone apps is AppShopper. When you want to read descriptions, reviews, and price watching, AppShopper is the place to go. It’s also the best looking and most organized site of the bunch. The site also offers a free iPhone app to complete the mobile experience.

The original iPod/iPhone site, iLounge, is still one of the first places people go for news and reviews on all things iPhone. In particular, the quality of their reviews of various iPhone/iPod Touch cases cannot be touched by anyone!

FreshApps is another app review site. The site doesn’t have nearly the amount of content as some others, but the layout is clean and I like the quality of content so far.

iPhone Alley isn’t one of my favorite iPhone sites, but it does contain quite a bit of good content, so it’s worth bookmarking.

148Apps is one of the more popular iPhone sites around, and for good reason. App reviews contain useful ratings, reviews and screenshots. This is one site you’ll want to check out when you’re considering purchasing an app. In particular I like the Price Drops section, where you can quickly see which apps have lowered their price or gone free.

Below are a few of the sites I tend to go to when I’m looking for news on any particular Apple/Mac related news. The Mac Observer is a daily visit for me, and MacNews is a favorite forum hangout.

Mac.Alltop

Alltop is a site which allows you to view the latest topics on virtually any subject you wish with a customized MyAlltop page. Mac news is pulled from numerous sites, including some more obscure places that even I didn’t know about.

The Mac Observer

The Mac Observer, a site that’s been around for many, many years is one of the best Mac news portals out there. They have an extensive list of sites they pull news from. Generally speaking, if there’s news about Apple, The Mac Observer has you covered.

MacNews

MacNews, part of the AppleCentral group of sites, brings together top headlines from a variety of RSS feeds. The site also offers a great group of discussion forums.

Addict-O-Mattic

Addict-O-Matic provides the latest headlines on topics such as entertainment, politics, shopping, sports, and of course, Apple. You get all the feeds from the best sources in each category. And like your search results dashboard, you can personalize the layout of the headline boxes, delete ones you don’t like and bookmark your personalized page. I love the clean layout of this site.

MacDailyNews

MacDailyNews is great because you’re presented with a long list of headlines and one-line summaries of the articles, making it quite easy to find what you’re looking for.

MacNN

MacNN offers a news portal page, collection all the latest headlines for you. I’m not a huge fan of the site, but it has been around for many years and offers plenty to read.

AppleLinks

If you’re looking for volume, AppleLinks is the place to visit. Over 2,000 pages of Mac news awaits you. They also have an interesting way of presenting the news that you really have to see because it’s difficult to describe.

TechMeme

Techmeme pulls together tech news of all sorts, but features quite a bit of Apple news at any given time. I like the site because it gives a great overview of all the hottest geek news, regardless of what OS you prefer.

If you have a favorite Mac and Apple-related news site, feel free to share it in the comments.