TechCrunch Finally Has An iPhone App, And It Lets You Easily Share News And Read Things Later

When I first started at TechCrunch oh so many months ago, I asked the team "Why don't we have an iPhone app?" As an iPhone user, I find it handy to be able to read on the go the news from the publication that I work for. I was told the team was working on one. Other than being quite stoked that we had a team for this, I impatiently waited to get my hands on it.

Today, it's available on the App Store, and it's kinda gorgeous, and I'm not saying that because I work for TechCrunch. It could use some adjustments and tweaks in further versions, such as more customizations based on the type of news you actually like and want to read more of, but for its first version, it's pretty good.

I'll spare you all of the "What's new" copy that I used to write at previous jobs of mine. There's lots of fluffy words in there, but let me break this one down for you. I read through all of AOL's internal release notes and discussions, so I do know that you need iOS 5 or later for this. There are iPad tweaks, too.

We've surfaced videos for you so that you can watch our TCTV content easily in the iPad version. Before, they were buried in posts on the mobile version of the site and app. Not anymore. Just don't watch videos with me in it. I have a face for radio. Additionally, on the iPad you can now watch all of the videos in a series rather than skipping around. Great, but again, skip mine please.

No Android yet. I don't like iOS first, Android later, but that's what we have to work with. Android is coming in a "few weeks," and I'll be counting those weeks down. Must have it on the Nexus 7, ugh.

Back to the iPhone. Have a look at the main navigation screens, which I like because it gets you into the action:

Once you're digging around in a post you can tap for comments, to share or save it to read later, without having to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post, which I happen to like a lot. There's nothing worse than, ya know, having to read, right? Kidding. It is nice, though:

Within the settings, you can choose to connect all of your social accounts, like Google+, Facebook, Read It Later, Pocket and Evernote, for sharing and commenting purposes, so you don't have to keep tapping in your password. Unless your phone forgets your password all of the time, like mine, which drives me absolutely crazy. Other goodies to check out are the "Trending" areas and "Tweets," which is perfect in case our account gets compromised again.

I've been playing around with this for a while, and already gave feedback, but I'd love to hear yours, so drop them in the comments.