AsiaOne's iPad app and ST SoShiok app win more international awards

SINGAPORE - Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has picked up two more international accolades for its mobile offerings. AsiaOne's iPad app and The Straits Times SoShiok app each picked up a Silver award at this year's Davey Awards.

AsiaOne won the accolade in the News category of the US-based international award which seeks to honour firms for their creative ideas.

This is the second time this year the news and lifestyle content aggregator app has gained international recognition. Earlier in May, the AsiaOne iPad app was the recipient of Communicator Award's top recognition - the Award of Excellence in its News category.

The AsiaOne iPad app was launched in Dec 2013 to complement the website's smartphone offerings.

Mr Adrian Tay, Editor, AsiaOne, said: "Mobile readers are very important to us, and we are constantly improving our mobile and tablet offerings to cater to them. Getting such recognition for our iPad app shows that our products are on the right track and keeping up with the best international standards. This also shows that the AsiaOne team behind these products are a world-class act."

SPH also took home another honour at the Davey Awards for The Straits Times SoShiok app, which received a Silver award under the Food & Beverage category.

The app is a joint effort by AsiaOne and The Straits Times . It provides food lovers a one-stop mobile dining guide to find information on the latest restaurants, read food reviews, learn recipes and other cooking tips.

Ms Karen Lim, mobile editor at AsiaOne, said: "We are honoured and delighted to know that our apps are receiving recognition beyond Singapore. We are working at refining our mobile content and working with various content partners for this, so do keep a look out for more exciting developments in the near future."

Ms Helen Chia, The Straits Times' Associate Editor and Life! Editor, added: "This is a lovely early Christmas present for the team, who worked very hard to create an easy-to-use app for foodies. The award will spur us to improve the app and enhance the user experience.''

The Davey Awards is an international creative award that honours the best in Web, Design, Video, Advertising & Mobile from firms worldwide.

Over 4,000 entries were judged this year and the winners were determined by a panel comprising of Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) members from advertising and marketing firms such as Disney, Microsoft and MTV.

The AsiaOne iPad App is available free from the Apple App Store, aggregating news and lifestyle features from SPH publications such as The Straits Times, The Business Times, The New Paper and My Paper, as well as from websites such as sgCarMart. The app's intuitive user experience allows readers to customise the way they get their news updates.

The Straits Times SoShiok food app offers a comprehensive range of content from the popular Taste pages in The Sunday Times, as well as food news and reviews from the other English newspapers published by SPH.

Users who want to figure out where to eat can also search under Restaurant Listings for everything ranging from zi char places to hawker stalls to high-end dining. The app allows users to look for eateries near where they are.

In addition to getting the latest stories, users can also register a user profile and get rewarded for using the SoShiok app.