The Rachel Maddow Show iPad app is now available for free in the iTunes app store.
The app consists of two main parts. The first is a video archive featuring all of the latest show clips archived by date, including Web extras like Bill Wolff's daily videos.
The second part of the app is a gateway to our collective viewing through Twitter (sorry I don't have a screen grab of that yet. I'll update here when I get one). So it includes the #Maddow channel as well as a more distilled version that is a channel of featured tweeters and also a highlights channel that includes the related links tweeted by @MaddowApp and tweets favorited during the show.
The app is also the launchpad for future MSNBC show apps, so eventually from the Maddow app you'll be able to access videos for Countdown, Ed, everything from Willie Geist in the wee hours to Lawrence's last word.
A bit more explanation of the @MaddowApp Twitter account after the jump...
The content on the Twitter side of the iPad app is largely controlled through the @MaddowApp account. If MaddowApp favorites your tweet, it'll show up in the highlights tab of the iPad app. The idea is that if you're watching the show after it has aired live on TV, like the next morning, you might not find the most relevant tweets in the #Maddow channel but you can at least look at the highlights to get a general sense of the audience reaction to the live broadcast.
On the subject of relevant tweets, we had a notion to feature the most avid Maddow tweeters in a separate channel. The problem we ran into is that Maddow tweeters talk about any number of other things when TRMS isn't on, which made the channel pretty noisy in the off hours. So instead we are growing a list of political tweeters who also tweet on the #Maddow hashtag during the show. If @MaddowApp is following you, your tweets are being featured in that list. I don't have a formal means of building the list, I just add one or two a day as I run into them and when I think of it, so if you're not in there, don't take it personally. If you don't want to be followed by MaddowApp or you have a recommendation for who isn't already being followed by MaddowApp but would be good to include in the list of featured tweeters, let me know in the comments below, or by mail (Will at msnbc.com) or on Twitter to @WillAtWork.
And of course, if you have any other questions, let me know.
UPDATE: Now available in the Canada app store. No Australia yet but don't give up hope.
UPDATE 2: Hey Android users...
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I searched the iPad app store as soon as I got one for Christmas to see if there was a Maddow app. It's great and it just made my day.
Posting from my iPad, I must saying don't like typing from portrait orientation.
Good point. That browser window should rotate. I'll submit that one.
ditto, Link us up!
Just a small correction: there is no more Countdown.
I watch Rachel every morning on my iPad while I'm riding the exercise bike. Happy to have the app!
How about those of us, who are from non-English speaking countries? Let's say... Germany. Please?
I ain't got no smart phone.
Saw some questions about international iPad app but no answer. Can't Dow load from New Zealand. Any idea when that will be available?
We got as far as Canada then we started to run into copyright concerns. We've had a lot of requests from Germany as well. Hopefully we can grow the range soon.
FLASH video. Since you CAN make the video WITHOUT flash why not switch the main Maddow site to another video standard? Most of the time it is impossible to watch the news show because of crashes and screen locks caused by Flash. Getting rid of flash content for a more stable standard should be job one, in my view.
@maddowapp
Thanks for following @WiselinePRT!
How do I contact the developers of this iPad app to report bugs? I
have seen bugs in this app. They are legion:
1) Several days ago (November 30th) the show segments started
appearing in reverse order. This makes it extremely painful to watch
the entire show in order, since I have to start with the last segment
in the list, then select the one prior to that, etc.
2) If I ever watch the video at full-screen size, there's no way to
go back to the menu page. Typically in apps like this there is a blue
"done" button in the upper-left hand corner, but there is none in this
app when I run it. There appears to be room allocated to place this
button, but that space is blank.
3) When I first got this app, I was able to use AirPlay to display
the show on my AppleTV over my wireless network. It was awesome.
Sometime around the release of iOS 5, however, this stopped working.
Only this app seems to be effected. I can use Airplay with other apps
just fine, so it's definitely a bug in this app.
Despite these problems, I'm addicted to using this app to catch up on
Maddow every morning. The more I use it, however, the more it's
clear that nobody who is responsible for this app can possibly be
using it. If someone in charge were actually using this app, they
would have seen how incredibly broken it is.
Please someone put me in direct contact with the programmer. I am an
iOS developer myself, and I will help work these problems out. This
app needs to be rock solid as we're heading into the Republican
primary.
Do they make apps for phones other than iphones? I didn't realize...
I am including an article that was in Louisiana newspaper....please follow-up
HOT TOPICS
NEWS
LOUISIANA'S WAR AGAINST LGBT STUDENTS
BY: CHRISTOPHER DONALDSON
4.5.2012
As if adolescence wasn't already hard enough, LGBT students in Louisiana have a new reason to fear for their existence.
In a 5-1 vote on Thursday, a state Senate committee overwhelmingly approved bill 217, which if passed into law would give publically funded charter schools the right to refuse to admit students based on sexual orientation, among other irrational and vile reasons such as English language skills.
The Advocate (not the LGBT publication of the same name) reports:
"State Sen. A.G. Crowe [pictured left], R-Slidell, said his bill is designed to ensure that executive branch agencies and local governments stop including bans on discrimination against characteristics not listed in state law as a condition for private companies to do business with their agencies. . . On the other side, state Sen. Ed Murray, the only "no" in the 5-1 vote by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations committee, said the possibility of SB217 becoming law and negating the anti-discriminatory prohibitions in charter school contracts is "really scary."
Though Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal refused to comment on the matter, his press secretary, Frank Collins, wrote in an email (or rather, his Tea Party propaganda machine): "We're against discrimination, but we don't believe in special protections or rights."
Read more on Louisiana's Senate Bill 217 here.
Hey all, well, I finally threw the switch and purchased an iPad. Wowzers, what a cool machine.. Your new app was really great, for about three minutes. Lol ... For some reason, it freezes up when asking it to "play all" , after the first video. It's just a dark video screen, as if it's loading/buffering the data. But it never comes and there's no way to get back to the main page.. I'm on an ipad3-64gig. Sure do love the show. Thanks for all you do. Looking forward to bug fixes......l Peace
Hi, Will the app be available in Europe? Please?!