Lifehacker Asks How You Get News, Tell 'em PimpMyNews

I was just listening to Lifehacker with the PimpMyNews iPhone app, while relaxing on the couch, and I came across this interesting post by Jason Fitzpatrick. [audio version]

If you're not familiar with Lifehacker, it's a great resource on all things productivity. I listen to it several times a week in the car, or at the gym, and I frequently pop on over to read the comments section.

In the post, Jason asks, "How Do You Get Your News?" He then goes on to say, "if your great grandparents wanted to stay current on news, they had to make a conscious effort to be places where people were talking about it. Now you can have it streamed, beamed, and delivered."

As you know, the news industry, which was dominated by traditional sources for nearly 200 years, is undergoing a massive change. We, as consumers, are now in control, and we expect the news and blogs we care about to automatically come to us, no matter where we happen to be.

We also expect it to be available in multiple formats, so we can choose the format that fits best with the situation we're in, whether we're driving, riding, working out, or lying on the couch.

Be sure to head on over the Lifehacker and answer Jason's question, "How Do You Get Your News?

Hopefully, Jason will be compiling the data and sharing the findings in a future post.

Have a great, productive week!

John Atkinson

Co-founder & CEO

[Image via Digital Inspiration]

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

Keeping it in the San Francisco Family

Last week, I took the family out to visit my brother's family in San Francisco. It was great to be in the bay area for a week of rest and relaxation. (that's my niece, Nicole, modeling her stylish new PimpMyNews Tee shirt)

The "hard part" of the trip from Cincinnati to SF (if there was one) was navigating all the trains, planes, and automobiles with our two little kids, car seats, strollers and way too much luggage.

Of course, I used the two 8 hour stretches of on the go travel time (going there, and coming back) to catch up on my blogs by listening to them via PimpMyNews.

On the plane, I was able to catch up on a full week's worth of PR Squared, CenterNetworks, Mashable, TechCrunch, Seth Godin, and The Wall Street Journal.

Of course you would expect this, but using PimpMyNews on my iPhone is the way I get all of my news, whether I'm at home, at the gym, or out of town.

I'd love to hear how you use PimpMyNews to stay current and multitask on the go.

Please shoot me an email at John@PimpMyNews.com

Be sure to download our newest iPhone app on The App Store [http://bit.ly/PMNiPhone]

Take care,
John

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 ]

Is Voice the New "Killer App" for Mobile ?

Back when text-to-speech voice quality was "unlistenable," and before the explosion of mobile devices, TTS seemed to be a technology looking for a market beyond applications for the visually impaired.

Now that nearly everyone has a mobile device, and we're all looking to multitask on the go, it looks like voice could become the killer app for mobile.

Today, Apple announced a new talking iPod Shuffle. Instead of including a display on the new shuffle, Apple added a feature called "Voice Over", which reads the artist and song name aloud to you. A couple of weeks ago, Amazon launched the Kindle 2, which includes a text-to-speech feature that drew a ruckus from the overly sensitive Author's Guild.

Voice-to-text technology is also on the rise. Mobile services like SpinVox, Google Voice, Cha Cha, and many others have been coming out of the woodwork lately, allowing you to speak into your phone and receive transcribed text messages.

The talking iPod, the vocal Kindle, and these other cool voice-enabled services, seem to further validate the relevance of our mobile talking news & blog service.

Reading your blogs and driving don't mix... but listening? Now there's a benefit!

What's next? A talking toaster? Probably.