TBD.com
Just over a week after the launch of its new all-digital news operation, the TBD.com iPhone app rolled into the iTune store last night, joining an Android app and a forthcoming mobile site in the startup’s portfolio. The iPhone app was planned for a release last week to coincide with the website launch but was delayed by Apple’s approval process.
The app appears well targeted to the D.C. and metro audience with the main navigation dedicated to news, weather, mass transit and traffic. Any conversation around the nation’s capital is guaranteed to include at least three of those four topics. Noticeably missing, though, is an easy way to access sports scores and stories.
Sports stories are available but integrated into the general news stream. TBD.com features sports content prominently, so this may be an attempt to focus the app more narrowly, or it may simply be a navigation item to be added to the free app at a later date.
The app allows some personalization options that let readers filter news and weather reports by city and county. Doing so requires that you have a TBD.com account, which can be created using a Facebook login.
It will be interesting to see what user behavior metrics TBD is willing to share after readers spend some time with this app. The experience does feel designed for “mobile-native” use. News content is available, but the dominant expected use of the app appears to be on-the-go focused tools such as traffic alerts and metro (subway) trip planning and status reports.
A few early bugs are apparent: the seven-day forecast for Ashburn. Va., calls for a 9,000 percent chance of rain tomorrow, and some errant HTML formatting is appearing in the weather blog summaries. However, overall the app appears well-designed and well-aligned with TBD’s mission to innovate.
TBD is hosting a live chat about its Android and iPhone apps today (Tuesday) at 11 a.m. ET.
