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Timeline for iPhone is a fantastic app that puts the news in context, unlike main stream media

By Daniel P.

Updated: Jan 23, 2015, 7:42 AM

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Every once in a while, a breathtaking new app comes along, filling a gaping market niche, and restoring our faith in humanity in general, as well as developers' ingenuity in particular.

Timeline, just released for your iPhone or iPad, is one such app, and it offers a much needed extra these days - putting the news you read in context. We are so overflooded with information, and news outlets are focusing so much on getting out the story, any story, as fast as they can so that they don't fall behind in the 24/7 news cycle, that context and analysis are very often lost.

The Timeline app shows, well, a timeline about the developments around the story you are reading at the moment, arranged chronologically. These can often stretch back decades, or even centuries, putting everything into a much better perspective than just reading about the crisis du jour. Not only that, but Timeline presents you with carefully curated and beautifully presented current topics of the week from real journalists, leaving you with a timeline to explore them in depth, if you are so inclined.

Yesterday's Yemeni coup, for instance, can start you off way back in 1962 with the "Death of a king" article, and reach to the Houthi victory from three days ago, so in the end you'd feel like a State Department aide accommodating themselves with the background info while flying for a working visit to the country. Check it out, if you are into quality, perspective and analysis-driven journalism. The app will soon be arriving for the iPad, and on your Android device, too, so stay tuned and informed.