RefreshingApps.com

Fox News Channel in the USA have launched a new AIR application that gives desktop access to live video streams. With the Election in full swing, many US eyes are fixed on the news for the latest updates.

Being in the UK, I only had a choice of two streams one was audio only. I’m guessing this is mainly due to the time zone difference or broadcast restrictions outside of the USA. The video stream was just a loop of a weather stream tracking Hurricane Hanna.

I also read that the streams are live and uncut or edited which could lead to some interesting visuals being screened.

So content aside, the application is clean and with simple functionality. You can share the video stream with others by sending an email link. The Fox News AIR app also has an alert facility to bring new video streams to your attention.

There is a fullscreen option that shows the navigation bar at the bottom.

Design eye

Simple design with a horizontally scrolling stream selection that fades away on mouse out. It’s strange that they have chosen to hide the stream selector away while making the share and alerts navigation always available at the bottom.

Would it have worked better if the other streams were thumbnailed or slowly scrolling across the top of bottom of the screen?

Technical eye

Looking at the AIR package content’s it appears to have been built using Adobe Flex