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News.me shutters its iPhone and iPad apps
The fallout from Twitter's new rules governing third-party apps that access its service has claimed another victim. While companies such as Tapbots have opted to charge premium prices to keep their apps running in light of user number restrictions and other limitations, News.me has decided to pull its iPhone and iPad apps from the App Store.
Introduced last year, News.me was a subscription-based app that built custom news feeds based on stories shared by people you follow on Twitter. Recently, Twitter introduced new requirements on how third-party apps must display information drawn from the service, and News.me chose to end support for its apps rather than spend the money required to bring them in line with the changes. A post on its blog explained the decision:
A few months ago, Twitter started building products to help people discover news. This move did not come as much of a surprise to us, but it put Twitter squarely in the category of "competitor" to News.me. When Twitter rolled out its latest API guidelines, the News.me apps were deemed to be in violation of the new Display Requirements. We had a decision to make: invest meaningful resources in the News.me apps to meet the new Requirements, or pull the apps from the App Store. Here's what it comes down to: we don't want to invest time and energy into an application that competes with a platform on which it relies.
News.me charged US$0.99 per week or $39.99 per year to use its subscription-based apps. Those who downloaded them prior to their removal from the App Store will be able to continue using the apps without worrying that they've paid for something that will no longer function.
While its apps might be dead, News.me's daily email service, which provides a newsletter-style rundown of stories shared on your friends' Twitter feeds, will continue to operate for free. The company plans to refocus its mobile development efforts on its free Digg app for iPhone and iPad.
