Anglophiles have been able to get their British Broadcasting Company News fix on Android for a while now, but if you prefer a larger screen, you were stuck with an upscaled interface on tablets. Until now, that is: the BBC just announced an updated News app that plays nice with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets. At the moment the app is only available to UK users, but according to the news service the international version will soon be updated as well.
Just as before, the app allows readers to access all the portions of the BBC News website in a mobile form factor. A useful addition is the ability to customize your homescreen (a la Google Currents) to see only the news that you care about. Video links contained in each story will play without opening another app. Like any good reader app, you can customize the size of the displayed font to your liking. A few features from the smartphone version have yet to make it to the tablet app, including homescreen widgets and Flash support.
The app is a free download in the Android Market, though as mentioned before, it’s currently only approved for UK users. Early reviews of the tablet version indicate great success – if only all news outlets suported tablets to this degree! (Cough.) We await the international version with bated breath.
