NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts 12+

App is pretty good, but needs the ability to search the headlines for keywords. Also needs a filter so that certain sources may always be omitted from results, e.g. always exclude CNN, etc. Also, the ability to mark story categories that you don’t want to see anymore would be useful. Say a story pops up about sex or gender issues, and you just prefer not to see those type of stories anymore. Also, big ads which appear as if they are stories are repeating or often shown. It would be nice to mark or tag the ad and say “I’ve seen this, I’m not interested, please don’t show it to me anymore thank you”. The app is surprisingly fast and responsive. There are so many news apps out there, this one seems to distinguish itself by it’s responsiveness — its very fast. The big ads appearing as if they were stories is an interesting take on generating ad revenue, but they are not obtrusive (at least in 2 column landscape mode on an iPad since real stories appear on the left, while the ads feed appears on the right column with other real stories.) The app needs more features as I have mentioned to make it more appealing.

My grandpa loves the NewsBreak app. I live in Virginia and he lives in Pennsylvania. Every week or so he calls me and tell me his phone isn’t working and I have to take a day off of work and drive the 6 hours to come help him. And every single time it’s because some weird Ad has popped up and he can’t figure out how to close the ad. It’s very disappointing that a news app has so many weird and unusual ads that my 90 Year Old grandpa cannot use the app for more than a few days without getting stuck on an Ad. You should add an option for senior citizens to verify their ID and disable ads if they are over a certain age. I’ve tried to teach him how to close the ad but every single ad is different. Some you close in the top right and some at the bottom. And some you have to wait 30 seconds to continue. It’s very disappointing that a News app does not cater to senior citizens and offer a one time purchase to disable ads or some way to disable ads for older people who can’t figure out how to close an ad. Other than that the app is great but it’s seriously disappointing how they try to take advantage of senior citizens. I have been with him when he has gotten some scam ads. Some ads telling him that he owes money or he has a virus. Do better NewsBreak. Cater to the people who mostly use the app. I bet over 50% of the apps users are older people and they have ads out the wazoo.

I downloaded this app because news stories from local sources often linked to articles here, usually articles by the local newspaper where they are not available to read online unless you have an subscription. At first I thought it was a pretty good source for a variety of news articles but have quickly seen that the entire app is like one big radio morning show with odd pieces of trivia and other off-beat news stories. Many of the articles come off as legit, but when you look closely, it’s clear that it’s all made up. Another issue is the rapid fire ads that are blasted in your face. One article I tried to read opened with some radio station’s banner across the top of page, a video ad adjacent to the banner and another on the lower part of the page. While trying to read the headline to see if I clicked on the right article, a screen filling ad for the same radio station that already had taken up almost half the page with banner and video ads shockingly popped up. I tried to close the pop up ad but it opened another full screen ad first so I had to close it then the other ad. Frankly, it’s just a constant visual assault that is frustrating. So if you like mostly fake (unverified) news, radio station morning show approach, and constant sensory assault from an app, this is the app for you.