Macworld Review of PimpMyNews iPhone App

Macworld's Ben Boychuk recently reviewed our new iPhone & iPod touch application.

PimpMyNews received a respectable 3.5 stars out of 5. Considering Macworld's reputation as a tough critic, and the fact that The New York Times and ABC News came in at 3 stars, we couldn't be happier.

From the level of detail in Ben's review, it's obvious that he spent a few hours using PimpMyNews, customizing his playlist, listening to various news and blog posts, and composing a well thought out review.

If you keep up with this blog, you know we're diehard user feedback proponents, so any time some one takes the time to do a "deep dive" on our service, we're all ears.

In the review, after Ben finished ribbing us about the "ear-catching" name, he turned toward the unique utility of the app. Ben summarizes the app by saying, "Very simply, the app lets you create 'playlists' of blog items, or news stories, from more than 1,200 sources, and reads them aloud, and on the fly, in a voice that’s almost lifelike."

He then goes on to the core value proposition, stating that, "For people on the move, in their cars, at the gym or multitasking at work, PimpMyNews offers an innovative way to 'read' your favorite Web sites by listening." Ben also cited the daily podcast feature, which plays continuous stories from your playlist for hands-free listening, as his favorite feature.

On the "suggested enhancements" side, Ben suggested that we add the following features, most of which are already in the works:

- A "select your voice" feature
- The ability to add more than 10 feeds to your playlist
- More "continuous play" features, in addition to the existing podcast feature
- The ability for users to manage their feeds on their mobile devices

Thank you Mr. Boychuk. We appreciate your feedback - and we're acting on it.

Be sure to check out the full PimpMyNews iPhone app review on Macworld, and download the app on The App Store. Stay tuned, more time saving enhancements are on the way.

Please keep the feedback coming to Suggestions@PimpMyNews.com

John Atkinson
Co-founder & CEO

PimpMyNews Is Coming To Blackberry App World.

After a nine hour commute and four hours of sleep, we're here onsite at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, with 40,000 other people.

The biggest news so far has been RIM's opening of the Blackberry App World storefront yesterday. Several of the tech blogs we love covered the news, including Mashable, VentureBeat, and Techcrunch.

Today, we're excited to announce that we'll be rolling out PimpMyNews in Blackberry App World this spring.

Below is an excerpt from our news release. You can read the full release on PR Web.

PimpMyNews To Bring "Mobile, Social, Vocal" News Service To Blackberry App World

Popular Service That Converts News & Blogs To Audio Coming to Blackberry Smartphones, Allows Busy Consumers to Listen & Multitask On-The-Go.

Las Vegas, Nevada - April 2, 2009 – PimpMyNews today announced its plans to launch its popular talking news and blog service on The Blackberry App World Storefront.

The service, which received Apple’s coveted “Staff Pick” for its unique iPhone application, will be available this spring for seven Blackberry smartphones.

PimpMyNews is a new media service that puts consumers in control of their news, by automatically collecting breaking stories from over 1,300 news sources based on their preferences, and converting them to audio.

The service eliminates the time-consuming process of searching for news on the Internet, and allows mobile users to listen and multitask while driving, working out, riding the train and more. Users of the service can also set up personalized playlists, view text, images and video, and share “talking stories” on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, and other social sites.

Co-founder John Atkinson states, “We believe the news you care about should come to you, and that you should be able to decide when, where, and how to consume it. Our real-time news engine does the heavy lifting, so consumers can effortlessly receive the content they want, on their terms.”

The company, which launched its talking news service for Apple's iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod touch, iPod and other MP3 players last year, reports that people from over 160 countries have used the service.

The company’s newly updated iPhone app can be downloaded on The App Store here. The service can also be used on Macs and PCs by signing up on the full site.

According to Pew Research Center, 112 million Americans (37%) now use the Internet for news, compared to 2% a decade ago. A recent comScore study indicates that the number of people using mobile devices to access news, and information, more than doubled in the last year.

Representatives of the company are onsite at The CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas. Members of the press can schedule interviews by emailing Press@PimpMyNews.com

Ex-Mashable Blogger Likes The New PimpMyNews [SXSW Interview]

When we first launched about 15 months ago, we considered ourselves very lucky to receive dozens of positive reviews in the press. However, a critical review by Mashable’s Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins led to a “Eureka” moment, which helped us improve our talking mobile news service.

Mark’s review, titled “PimpMyNews: Fun For 10 Minutes,” cited several positive features, but his "verdict" was that, without significant enhancements, people might not be able to listen to the service for an extended period of time.

If you keep up with this blog, or use PimpMyNews, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve released a constant stream of enhancements and new products over the past year. These enhancements are based on your feedback, and feedback from Mark, and other members of the press.

A Chance Meeting with Mark...
Coincidentally, just last week, I ran into Mark at SXSW in Austin. And, when I introduced myself as “one of the founders of PimpMyNews,” Mark was clearly apprehensive. He was concerned that we might have been offended by his review.

After assuring Mark that we took his feedback from 15 months ago to heart, and used it to improve our service, the “tension” vanished. Then, after showing him how far we’ve come with our new iPhone app, he called PimpMyNews “a really great service.”

Mark was intrigued to learn that users of the new PimpMyNews iPhone app use the service for a lot longer than 10 minutes. (Our latest metrics show users spend over 30 minutes per day using PimpMyNews, significantly more time than people spend on the average text news site, according to Google).

Please check out Mark’s interview of us below. [we apologize for the audio and video quality, as it was done “impromptu” on a noisy, sun lit balcony at SXSW]

[Tap Here to Watch the iPhone Version]

You can download the new iPhone app on The App Store Here.

We would love to hear your feedback. What would you like to see in the next version of PimpMyNews? [Leave your comments below, or email suggestions@PimpMyNews.com ]

UPDATE: Mark has posted his take on our meeting on his blog here

Note: Mark Hopkins now blogs for John Furrier's Silicon Angle blog, covering "The Social Web and Tech Innovation."

BlogWorld Expo Radio Interviews PimpMyNews at SXSW

[Listen to the Interview]

We just returned from the SXSW Interactive conference last night. During our three days at the show, we reconnected with old friends, met many new ones, and brushed up on emerging trends in tech and social media.

For me, the highlight of the show was hanging out in the Techset blogger lounge and sharing stories with other entrepreneurs and bloggers, and talking with PimpMyNews users.

Gracious hosts, Brian Solis, who pens the popular PR 2.0 and Bub.blicio.us blogs, Stephanie Agresta, and the Windows Mobile team treated everyone like family, regardless of your Google Page Rank.

While in the Techset lounge, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Blogworld Expo Radio's Jim Turner. To listen to the interview, click here.

We also shared the news about the new PimpMyNews iPhone application with many other top bloggers and social media folks, including Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins, Derek Overbey of 100 Interviews, Jason Falls, Derek Wilmot and many others.

Be sure to follow these thought leaders on Twitter, using the links at the bottom of this post.

[Follow these great folks on Twitter:

Jim Turner: http://twitter.com/genuine

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins: http://twitter.com/rizzn

Derek Overbey: http://twitter.com/doverbey

Jason Falls: http://twitter.com/jasonfalls

Derek Wilmot: http://twitter.com/derekwilmot ]

New PimpMyNews iPhone App, Watch The Demo

As we mentioned in a recent blog post, the new native iPhone & iPod touch app is here!

If you've used the iPhone web app, you'll love the feature-rich speed of the new native application. If you've never used PimpMyNews on your iPhone, now is the time!

Check out the brief demo below, then head on over to The App Store to download the new application. [Tap here to watch the iPhone version]



Please let us know what you think, by sending your feedback to Suggestions@PimpMyNews.com