Free Wall Street Journal app easy to digest

The free iPhone app for the The Wall Street Journal is a treat because the online version of the financial newspaper still charges for much of its content.

The new 1.1 version, released in April, is an improvement on the 1.0 version with a cleaner design and option of reading articles in landscape format. The bottom of the screen features links to news, markets and investing sections of the newspaper. The app also publishes opinions and editorials. Articles in all other sections of the paper are just two taps away.

Although articles are made to fit the screen and are easy to navigate, the font size is standardized and cannot be enlarged.

iPhone users can listen to one-minute podcasts of WSJ Radio and watch videos that are clear and categorized by newspaper section. Videos can be zoomed in slightly.

Despite being easy to read and to forward via e-mail, The Wall Street Journal app does not allow iPhone users to post stories on Facebook and Twitter or send a text message with a link to the article. And unlike other iPhone news apps such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal app has no search function.

But for Wall Street Journal readers not wanting to pay a subscription to WSJ.com, or for anyone who wants business news on the go, The Wall Street Journal app is a great download.

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