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Shortly after updating to iOS 9, you’ll spot a shiny new red icon on your home screen. Before you get upset, cursing Apple under your breath for adding yet another useless app to your iOS device, take a deep breath and give the new News app a try.
Apple News , as it’s properly called, is the company’s new attempt at putting the news you care about in a single location. Think of it as popular news aggregating app Flipboard, only made by Apple.
Upon first launch, Apple presents you with a list of select media outlets for you to add to your feed. Along the top of the screen are five outlets already added on your behalf, which you can change after initial setup. You have to select three additional sources before you can proceed. Scroll down, tap on thumbnails of at least three news organizations you like and then select Continue at the bottom of the screen.
Enlarge ImageScreenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Next, select Sign Me Up if you’d like Apple to send “the best stories” to your inbox to continue. Not Now skips this section.
The main For You section will feature news highlights from the outlets you selected when setting up the app. You can scroll vertically through the list of articles; tapping on one opens it.
When reading an article, a horizontal swipe in either direction will take you to the next (or previous) article. Tapping the heart will let Apple News know you enjoyed the article and to surface more like it. Double-tapping the heart indicates the exact opposite. The bookmark icon will save the article for later reading.
Enlarge ImageScreenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Using the tabs along the bottom you can navigate to a grid of your favorite outlets, explore, search, and view saved articles. The Favorites tab is where you go to read articles from a specific outlet. You can also remove any outlets you no longer want to follow; such as those Apple added on your behalf.
Explore will provide suggested channels and topics for you to add to your feed. Search lets you search for specific outlets and topics, while Explore offers both sources and categories to browse through, for both immediate reading and adding to your feed.
If you’ve loaded iOS 9 on more than one iOS device, here’s a pro tip: Open the Settings app, scroll down and select iCloud. Find News and slide the switch next to it to the “on” position. Repeat the process on each device running iOS 9 and your preferences will sync.
