If you can't go about your day without quick access to everything your favorite celebrities are up to, Microsoft has you covered.
We're not quite sure why, but Microsoft decided to release a
brand-new app for iOS this weekend—and iOS only—that lets you
"subscribe" to celebrities. In doing so, you set yourself up to receive
personalized headlines, social media feeds, and all the other news you
can handle regarding what said celebrity is up to.
And, yes, just about anyone is considered a celebrity in Snipp3t—even Charles Manson himself, reports The Unofficial Apple Weblog."Tap on a celebrity to view their detailed profiles and explore a timeline of news stories surrounding them. You can also tap into a news story to get all relevant story content (news articles, photos, videos, and social mentions) in one place," reads Microsoft's description of the app on Apple's App Store.
Searching for celebrities (and news related to them) within the app is pretty similar to a standard Bing search, unless you associate your Facebook account with the app to enable its subscription features. Doing so also allows you to see which celebrities your Facebook friends happen to be following, in case you need to find more people to chat with about Anna Kendrick, The Rock, or whomever.
And if you really want to get heated, you can also share your thoughts about a particular celebrity with your friends or anyone else subscribing to said icon. Now's the time to let all those Justin Bieber fans know what you thought of his latest antics, whatever they happen to be.
The app currently works with iPads and iPhones, though it's been designed for the latter—sorry to those looking for a high-definition celebrity-watching experience on their tablets. It's unclear when, or if, Microsoft might launch Snipp3t for Android or Windows Phone; it's also unclear why Microsoft opted to make the app iOS-only at first rather than push an exclusive launch on its own mobile OS.
Then again, we're talking about a celebrity news app here. While its presentation is well-done and its purpose will surely fill the same niche that all those supermarket tabloids likely reach (only digitally), the app's relatively quiet launch seems to indicate that it's just a fun little offering from Microsoft—nothing all that serious.
