AFP launches iPad App in Spanish and Portuguese

Agence France-Presse (AFP) has launched its iPad application in Spanish and Portuguese providing access to the latest stories, videos, pictures and graphics from its network of correspondents around the world.

The application, the first in Spanish and Portuguese by a leading international news agency, can be downloaded, free of charge, on Apple's iTunes page: http://itunes.apple.com/mx/app/afp-ipad-edition/id448339846?mt=8.

"The launch of the iPad application in Spanish is part of the investments AFP is currently making in Latin America," said Emmanuel Hoog, AFP's chairman and chief executive officer.

"Our objective is to bring the agency closer to a public keen to receive international and local news which only a global network of 1,500 journalists in 150 countries can offer," he added.

News in real time - text and pictures - can be accessed directly from the application’s homepage.
Sections on Latin America, World, Sports, Economy, Science and Technology, Culture, Lifestyle and Environment are accessible from that page, along with a header listing news alerts.

A special edition of the application, with items of specific interest, is also available for clients from Spain.

With one click, the reader can access a selection of the top pictures and videos of the day as well an Analysis section which deals in depth with major issues.

Some of this content is also available on the iPhone application launched by AFP in January 2010 in five languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Arabic). iPad applications will be launched in November.

AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from wars and conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology.

It delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.

Facebook’s new iPad app: six spectacular features

Facebook's new iPad app has been more than a year in the making, and thus far, anxious iPad users have only received ambiguous "it's coming… eventually" updates from Mark Zuckerberg and Co. TechCrunch blogger discovered a hidden version of Facebook's new iPad app while playing around in the code for the site's iPhone app. Several other tech bloggers subsequently accessed the app - before Facebook caught on and blocked it - posting their early reactions online. It's unclear when exactly the app will be officially released, but in the meantime, what improvements do we have to look forward to in this "spectacular" new offering?

Here the features go:
1. Easy sidebar navigation
The "most important difference" between this newly discovered iPad app and current iterations of Facebook on iPhones and other platforms, is the retooled navigation system. There's now an expandable navigation sidebar that pops out from the left side of the screen, accessed with the mere flick of a finger. From the menu, users can navigate between the News Feed, Messages, Events, and other features, allowing for "speedier movement." The sidebar is a smart use of iPad's "screen real estate," says TIME, because it can always be tucked away, "your screen is never overcrowded."

2. Time-saving overlay menus
The new app makes "great use" of "pop-overs," or overlay menus, that have become popular on other iPad apps. That means that instead of being taken to a whole new window to view notifications or compose messages, these features just pop up in a small window in the corner of the existing screen. "This allows users to quickly check for these types of activity without losing what they’re currently viewing," says Constine at TIME.

3. Improved chat
Just as navigation appears in a sidebar on the left of the screen, the chat feature can now be accessed via a sidebar on the right side. This is designed to "permit persistent use" of chat while doing other things on Facebook.

4. A big emphasis on Places
"Facebook's location push is apparent" in the way the new app ramps up the Places tab. Places, which allows users to check in to locations like restaurants and bars, connects directly to the iPad's GPS, displaying a large map on the right side of the screen, and friends' location updates on the left. You can comment on friends' locations using this feature, too.

5. Eye-popping photos
"Browsing photos on the Facebook iPad app is a fantastic experience". Not only does the iPad's 9.7-inch screen blow up the photos beautifully, but it's "twitch-fast" to toggle among them. The app also allows you to crop photos using two fingers to define the boundaries of the crop. "It has a nice Minority Report feelin' to it."

6. A better-looking Friends page
The iPad app offers an improved showcase for the Friends page, which now uses "large, square-shaped thumbnails" to display high-quality photos of friends in an alphabetized, easy-to-navigate list. "It seems like Facebook's answer to Google+ Circles."