A great looking newspaper for Windows 8

The LA Times Metro app is a slick newspaper experience that fits perfectly into the Windows 8 Metro experience, although it feels a bit limited overall.

Featuring the same tiled design as Metro, the LA Times is well integrated, and works like all Metro apps. The tiles in the Times drop off screen, and each set of tiles shows a different section, like news or entertainment. These can be entered for more stories, or you can red specific articles.

It’s fast, and every article is formatted in the same way, with a single image, and then the columned article. It’s very readable, and is a good simulation of reading a real newspaper.

This newspaper feel has its drawbacks: There are no links, no multimedia except photos, and no comments. Despite its attractive design, it feels strange to read on your PC without any internet integration. The LA Times Metro even lacks a search tool, making a very casual read. iOS newspapers like The Guardian have managed to balance giving a great reading experience with modern features much better.

The LA Times Metro app looks great, but needs to be more modern to compete even against its own website, which looks really good in Windows 8’s excellent Internet Explorer 9!