One of the main uses of an iPhone, iPad, or any kind of mobile tech device is to catch up on news. One of the easiest ways of getting your news is to subscribe to a bunch of websites' RSS and use a feed reader to sort through them. Now it seems that The New York Times has asked Apple to withdraw the Pulse App because it infringes upon its copyright. The App is back in the store after only a day out of it.
One of the most convenient feed readers is simply Google Reader. It's easy to use and you can just open up a tab on your browser to read all of your sites. However, if you're using your iPhone or iPad, you've probably explored a few different types of feed readers that are available in the App Store.
Pulse is a popular news reader that has gotten some good reviews. It can easily aggregate news from different sources and present them in a way that's really user-friendly. The overall design of the app was impressive enough that Steve Jobs mentioned it during his keynote speech earlier this month. Recently, Apple has withdrawn the app from its store. Why? This was done at the request of The New York Times because they said it violated their copyright. The app was out of the store for a very short time, less than 24 hours. It's been back in the store for the last 2 weeks. Pulse costs $4 and it has been downloaded 35,000 times.
Initially, we were really dumbfounded why The New York Times would do this but it's good to see that the App is back in the App Store. There are other free news readers like The Early Edition which also do the job.
[via Gizmodo, images via Gizmodo, Apple, and The Early Edition]
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This story is fully two weeks old (and out of date). The NYT objected to the fact that their RSS feed was pre-loaded upon purchase; Pulse removed the feed, resubmitted to Apple, and the app was back up on the App Store within a day. Users can still add the NYT feed to Pulse manually, it just isn't pre-loaded.
It was pulled June 8th, and returned the next day. You can find it on the iTunes store still, here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-reader/id371088673
News of the return:
http://www.slashgear.com/pulse-news-reader-returns-after-ny-times-cut-out-0989026/
This news is 2 weeks old, and is it stands now, the post here is pretty much incorrect. You guys should really correct this post. The post right now makes it seem like Pulse is not in the App Store, yet Pulse has been back in the App Store for 2 straight weeks.
Pulse was removed from the App Store late at night on June 7th, and then it was back in the App Store less than 24 hours later on June 8th. The developers, Alphonso Labs, eventually changed their screenshots to not include NYTimes.com feeds, and they may have stopped including the NYTimes.com feed preloaded. When I bought Pulse (after it had been put back in the App Store on June 8th, the NYT feed was still pre-loaded).
This part of this post makes no sense: "Pulse used to cost $4 and it has been downloaded 35,000 times. The problem with this is that the app isn't free. Apparently the NYT has no problems with free apps displaying its feeds, but if a paid app does the same it violates their copyright."
First of all, it still costs $4 as it is in the App Store right now. I guess you didn't think about checking the App Store for it. And to clarify, the NYT's complaints were that the app: had "NYTimes.com RSS feed preloaded, which is prominently featured in the screen shots used to sell the app on iTunes." and that "The app also frames the NYTimes.com and Boston.com websites in violation of their respective Terms of Use."
The framing claim is kind of ridiculous, but the main problem was that buy Pulse displays screenshots of the NYTimes.com feed and by having it preloaded, and by selling the app for $4, that Pulse was using the NYTimes.com feed for commercial purposes, which is against the New York Times RSS feed's Terms of Service.
The bottom line is that this post is really outdated, and it is totally giving the wrong impression. Anyone not familiar with the story who reads this post will probably believe that Pulse is not still in the App Store. This post makes it seem like Pulse can't be purchased, yet, of course, it can be easily purchased in the App Store.
If you want to read more about the story, you can read Kara Swisher's original post, which included the letter from the New York Times' Senior Counsel: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100608/popular-pulse-news-reader-ipad-app-gets-steve-jobs-praise-in-morning-then-booted-from-app-store-hours-later-after-new-york-times-complaint/
You can also read Brad Stone's write-up from the New York Times Bits Blog: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/times-company-objects-to-news-reader-app/
Hi guys, post has been updated. My bad for not researching it properly. Cheers!