Berkley Patch? There's an App for That

Do you want news about Berkley and Huntington Woods around the clock? There’s an app for that.

Now available through the App Store, Patch fans can download the Patch iPhone app for free and stay engaged with coverage of their neighborhood 24/7.

You'll want to search "Patch" in the App Store, but rest assured, you will be taken to your respective Patch page once the app is downloaded.

Here's how it works.

The first page you’ll access through the app is affectionately referred to as “The Front 5.” This page contains the most relevant local news about your town, calendar events and tweets from Berkley Patch editor Leslie Ellis.

So let’s assume you’ve opened the top story on The Front 5 and can’t believe what amazing prose you’re reading. You immediately decide to share it with all your friends.

Easy peasy.

In the upper right corner of the screen, you’ll see an icon with a box and arrow. Give it a quick tap and you have four options that allow you to not only share the story with friends, but to contribute, too.

The first two options, the quotes and camera icons, allow you to add your voice to the article by commenting or uploading a picture related to the topic.

The second two icons, the envelope and Facebook “f,” allow you to share the story either privately through email or publicly via the world’s largest social network.

Are you with me so far? Good, because here’s where we really knock your socks off.

Say you’re enjoying your morning macchiato and perusing Patch when Great Aunt Mary calls demanding you drive out to her cellular dead zone to take Squeaky the parrot to the vet.

We can’t help you with Great Aunt Mary, but we can provide reading material while you wait for Squeaky. Through a caching mechanism built into the feature itself, you can enjoy Patch content even when you’re offline.

By adding stories to your “Favorites,” you are saving this content into the app itself, so you can re-access it even without a wireless connection.

You can even save events found on the site directly to your iPhone’s calendar.

Neat, huh?

But, like any good infomercial would say, that’s not all!

If you’re not feeling The Front 5 on a particular day, tap into the fence icon at the top left of the screen to access the “Dashboard.” Here you’ll find the most recent weather reports for your area and links to the Patch directory, events calendar, news and feedback.

Clicking back to The Front 5 screen, you’ll see an icon resembling a target in the upper right. This icon transfers you to the “Find A Patch” page, which allows you to take a quick virtual trip to a neighboring Patch.

If you’re in a Patch town – and we have some 800 across the U.S. – you’ll be taken directly to that site’s app when you click in. However, if you’re not in a Patch town, we’ll provide a selection of surrounding towns you can access.

We do apologize to those whose loyalties lie with Android, but this app isn’t yet available for these devices. However, the powers that be promise such an app is not far off.