Let's just say we have a sixth sense about these things.
Last night, a new iPhone app tapped its way onto our radar screen—named, simply, Chattanooga. According to the app store listing, it is designed to deliver "all the major (and minor) news, gossip, social media chatter, and event information" from the scenic city in one application. The app aggregates RSS headlines from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Chattanoogan and Chattarati, along with posts from Chattanooga bloggers and Twitter users. If you haven't already guessed, it was developed by Medium.
We spoke with president Josiah Roe about Chattanooga, the company's first iPhone app, and he stated:
"It's a very basic app with basic functionality. We plan on rolling out a version that includes a recommendation engine like Digg and reddit, along with better Twitter integration such as being able to Tweet shortened URL's to stories you like from within the app, once iPhone OS 3.0 is released." -Josiah Roe, President of Medium
Mr. Roe also stated that future plans include aggregating tweets using #CHA hashtags. Similar apps for other cities are also in the works, though Mr. Roe would not confirm either the expected launch dates or cities included.
Chicago, anyone?
John Hawbaker
CaseyTuggle on May 13, 2009
Very cool. Now can we make it work on Android?
Dylan on May 13, 2009
Here Here... Useless to me until it's on Android
DavidMorton on May 13, 2009
Bummer—not compatible with my 1G iPhone. #legacyFAIL.
Update: Scratch that. Updated my iPhone software, and the app installed. This will be very handy for a local news junkie like me.
josiahq on May 13, 2009
We've got Blackberry and Android versions in the queue (it's actually pretty simple once the content aggregation is taken care of, which is done server-side). Right now we really want to focus on the recommendation engine, so basically anyone with the app can vote stories up and down. Eventually we'll even include commenting.
Leonel Macias on May 13, 2009
oooh, very nice...installing
Carazy on May 13, 2009
Medium link goes forwards you to a parked domain.
John Hawbaker on May 13, 2009
Medium link fixed. Thanks for the heads up, Warren.