Five newsworthy iPhone apps

2. The Guardian

Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.01
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
User rating : 4 out of 5
Developer: Guardian News and Media

If you are willing to pay the hefty $4.99 price tag, UK newspaper The Guardian has produced one of the most thorough new applications.

Whilst still providing easy to browse headlines and a simple and intuitive interface, you get that the Guardian still wanted the application to reflect their reputation for credible journalism beyond the headlines. The result is a heady mix of content that would keep the most avid readers satisfied.

There are over 26 content areas to search from top stories to art & design and an in-depth features section. Users can also browse by their favourite columnist.

The key issue with multi faceted news coverage on a smaller screen device is allowing users to intuitively navigate their way through the content.

The Guardian achieve this by allowing the user to select the number of stories in each subject field the user wants to display on their home screen as well as providing an integrated menu from each story that provides links to related stories.

Another useful feature is the ability to download stories for offline use, providing a great solution to be able to save stories for a read at a more convenient time regardless of whether a network connection is available.

3. BBC World News Live

Price: $3.99 (30 Day Subscription)
Version Reviewed: 2.0.0
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
User rating : 3 out of 5
Developer: Livestation

While we're in the UK, we're also keen on another application, BBC World News Live.

This is one of the first in what is likely to be a long list of attempts to make paid for news content work on the mobile, in this case, via a subscription.

For $3.99 per month, the purchaser buys access to BBC's 24 hour international news and current affairs television channel, streamed directly to their iPhone.

The speed and quality of the video is adapted according to the type of network connection available, ensuring the broadcast remains fluid throughout the viewing experience.

This application obviously will suit travellers without access to a TV network, but you can't help but shudder at the thought of the roaming data charges should a Wi-Fi network not be available.