“This is CNN.”

I remember hearing those words uttered by James Earl Jones whenever I switched the station to CNN. At first I thought “Oh my gosh, the Empire has taken over the network!” I guess that meant the Rebels were on Fox. But seriously, CNN has always been one of the best sources for the latest in business, financial and world news. More specifically, CNNMoney.com is the world’s largest business website, as well as a solid source of personal finance, business and general financial news. Visitors could take a look at the Market Tracker, retirement information and special reports.

While I wasn’t able to attend WES this year, I was able to keep on top of the newest applications to hit the scene. One of these apps is the CNNMoney application. It was good to see this application finally make its way to the BlackBerry smartphone, especially when iPhone users saw this application back in July of 2009. Now, I’m hoping that having this application on my BlackBerry will help me manage my finances and future investments. Let’s take a look at CNN Money and see if money really talks.

About CNNMoney

The CNNMoney application is powered by Polar Mobile; the same company behind apps for Food Network Canada, Sportsnet, Sports Illustrated, TIME and many others. The application is currently in version 3.0.4 and has a file size of 579kb.

The UI of the application presents quite a bit of information to users, without causing them to feel overwhelmed with all of the data. At the very top of the menu, you will see updated stock information, very similar to the Market Tracker on CNNMoney.com. This includes today’s change and today’s % change.

Essentially there are two tabs you can switch between:

News

This table offers a wide array of information at your fingertips. Initially, you can take a look at the Market Index, stock quotes, latest news, company news and the economy. These are separated into sections. The sections can be removed and new ones can be added. New section options include: Personal Finance, Auto, Jobs and Technology. Breaking news updates can also be sent to your inbox. Retrieving articles from any of these sections is nearly instantaneous and the articles are easy to read. You also have the ability to save the article for future reference or share it via email or twitter. There is also an option to view a new update icon on the home screen ribbon.


main news page

share or save

Below each section is a More button. By clicking this button, the News view changes and focuses on the particular section that was selected. In other words, I can see a page focussed on Personal Finance, with an expanded list of articles to read. In any view, the title of articles is greyed out once read.

My Stocks

This tab is where you can keep an eye on your stocks, or at the very least, stocks of interest. Here you can add and remove stocks and view changes. By selecting a specific stock, you are then presented with a page offering a more in depth analysis. You will see information that includes Market Cap, P/E Ratio and Volume. Below these values the application also presents a daily graph.


stocks

stock details

Conclusion

With the multiple options for customization, you can easily get as much or as little information that you need. I could really see how users can get rapid access to stock quotes and financial news. CNNMoney and Polar Mobile have done an excellent job with this application. I would like to see if they could provide various graph options. With CNNMoney.com, I could navigate through the graph to get specific values at specific times. CNNMoney application is available, for free, at BlackBerry App World.

Pros

  • Customizable access to information
  • Quick look at stocks
  • Home screen notification<

Cons

  • More options needed in the daily graph

More Info

  • Pick up CNNMoney for BlackBerry Smartphones >>

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