Politico Rachel Maddow already had a presence in the App Store with her app Rachel Maddow, for iPhone and iPod Touch, but the powers that be at MSNBC have now released an official iPad app spotlighting the talk maven, MSNBC featuring Rachel Maddow.
The app should really just be called Rachel Maddow, because the presence of other MSNBC personalities and content hardly exists. Instead, the network’s other shows are relegated to an MSNBC drop-down menu at the top right corner, which opens in-line weblinks to each show’s site.
The app’s interface makes it easy to view the Maddow show’s video, but beyond the clip content, everything else has to be accessed through the Maddow blog, which is presented exactly the same as the Safari-version of the site. Videos can be viewed in landscape mode, but the other sections of the app are only available in portrait mode. I do like that while watching video in the screen’s top panel you can read links in the bottom frame.
When it comes to Maddow’s own content, MSNBC featuring Rachel Maddow is simply a repackaged version of the existing MSNBC website and Maddow’s blog. Granted, this app is free so it’s not as if MSNBC is taking viewers for a ride, but, by the same token, there’s little reason to download this app if it doesn’t offer much supplementary content.
