VOA Chinese iPhone App Unveiled
Voice of America’s new Chinese language iPhone app delivers the latest VOA news programs – plus, it enables citizen journalists to upload news tips and photos from their phones.
The app uses both simplified and traditional Chinese characters and is now available for free at the iTunes store. It works with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad, for users that have iOS 4.0 or later.
With the new app, users can access VOA Chinese video, text and audio content, including podcasts and blogs. The app also lets users bookmark VOA articles or create video and audio playlists.
VOA’s East Asia and Pacific Division Director William Baum describes the app as a “true multimedia tool, which makes VOA Mandarin and Cantonese language programs available on a platform that is growing in popularity.”
Smartphone use in China has exploded in recent years and the new iPhone app is one of many tools Voice of America has developed for its Chinese speaking audience.
Earlier this year, VOA rolled out another iPhone app for Chinese speakers who want to learn American English. The “goEnglish.me” app lets users practice to improve their English speaking skills, become more familiar with American culture, and interact with other native speakers of Chinese who want to improve their American English conversation skills.
VOA’s Chinese Services are broadcast on radio, television, mobile devices and through the Internet to Mandarin and Cantonese speaking audiences in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and other Mandarin speaking areas of East and Southeast Asia. VOA Chinese programs are also available through proxies and portal sites to circumvent Chinese government censorship.
For more information about VOA Chinese programs visit www.voanews.com/chinese/news. For more information about VOA in English visit www.voanews.com.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 123 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.
For more information, please call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail us at askvoa@voanews.com. Follow us on Twitter @VOABuzz and Facebook at InsideVOA.