When CNN released an iPhone app in 2009, it got fairly positive reviews, but I thought it was odd that they sold it for $1.99 considering that many other news apps were free. Yesterday, CNN released a free iPad app and also reduced the price of its iPhone app to free. These are excellent news apps, and if you ever use an iPhone or iPad to keep up with the news, you should download these apps immediately.
Since you can (and should) check out these apps for yourself, for free, I'm not sure that there is a need to say much more in this review ... but you can never stop a lawyer from talking, so I'll note a few things. Most interesting to me is that the apps are somewhat different. iPad apps often contain the same content as an iPhone app, just formatted for a different screen. Not true here. For example, unlike the CNN iPad app, the CNN iPhone app includes a CNN iReport feature that allows you to take a photo or video and contribute it to CNN. The app even features "assignments" such as the current "Wintry weather near you" assignment that asks you to take interesting pictures of the effects of snow and cold weather. You can also view the submissions of others, so while I can look out the window of my office and see the Mississippi river flowing through New Orleans, with the iPhone app I can also see that the same river is currently frozen in Minneapolis:
The CNN iPhone app also includes a "My CNN" feature that gives you local weather and local news. That doesn't exist on the CNN iPad app.
On the other hand, the iPad app includes a button that lets you listen to the most recent radio hourly update from CNN. This is missing from the CNN iPhone app.
Perhaps over time both of the apps will gain the same features. What won't change, however, is how nice it is to view CNN news topics on the iPad. Both the iPhone and iPad let you view a list of news story titles along with a thumbnail picture, but on the iPad you can also view a really nice grid view with up to 15 panes visible at a time. You can easily scroll through to see older stories, and once you select a story you can see a large video at the top of the screen while the news article is displayed at the bottom. The CNN iPad app does a great job of taking advantage of the extra screen real estate.
Whether you own an iPhone or an iPad, you should get these CNN apps.
Click here to get CNN for iPhone (free): 
Click here to get CNN for iPad (free):
