The News and Sports apps inside of Windows 10 are solid news aggregators with a fresh user interface that fits well inside of Windows 10. That’s no surprise since they are both made by Microsoft. By collecting news from all over the web, these apps provide users with a customizable information stream that lets them stay up to date without having to jump between multiple apps. In this week’s Windows 10 in depth video we run through these apps and how they can help fill your hunger for news and sport.
The home page of both apps is warm and welcoming. The News app fills the home page with stories based on your personal interests and also has sections for Top Stories and any other specific interest that you’d like to be shown.
These interests are easily customizable. There are different categories that you can follow such as automotive, technology, sport and many more, or you can type in an interest. This is great for keeping up to date on a specific item. If you want to catch the latest news on the Surface Book from around the web it’s easy to follow (though I would also direct you to WinBeta’s own Surface Book area).
The News app also has local news (you can select any area you’d like) and videos and slideshows. All in all the News app is a solid news collector that for many could be the first place they’d go for news. It allows you to easily share articles or open them in a browser (depending on the original site a story is from) and on top of that looks pretty good.
The Sports app has a similar layout to the that of News though in my opinion it is even more comprehensive. Your favorite teams recent scores and records appear on the home screen and there are sections for more full scoreboards. Sport also has slideshows and videos though they’re in a different location than the News app.
The app does a good job of showing current scores, recap and breakdown stories, and a lot more. Though nothing replaces watching a game, the in game stats are solid and the stories are updated quickly. If you’re a multi screen or multitask sports watcher the Sports app is worth looking into adding to your rotation. In addition to Twitter and the game itself, having stats available can add depth to your viewing experience.
While a lot of my photos are of American football and basketball, the Sports app has a plethora of different leagues you can easily follow. From Euro football to rugby to racing to cricket almost all of the major sports are represented. Unfortunately the icons on the left aren’t customization so to get to those leagues or teams within them you’ll have to go through your home screen or favorites.
As said in the video, these aren’t the only apps that do things like this but in my opinion they are two of the best in this category. As expected from Microsoft made apps they feel at home in Windows 10 and provide a lot of functionality and information. They aren’t perfect as stories from different sites respond differently within the app and some parts of it aren’t customizable but they are strong first outings of default apps that ship with Microsoft’s latest operating system.
We do a Windows 10 in depth video each week and to help them have some variety we’ll be changing up the background on the desktop each week. If you’d like your wallpaper featured please place it in this OneDrive folder.
