It is available globally free of charge, and we hope that it will provide you with an immersive and exploratory way to experience the news.

Some of the notable features of the CNN App are:

• Three viewing options: Broadsheet (a grid format featuring powerful imagery and headlines); List View and Slide Show
• Ability to toggle between U.S. and International News Preferences, both of which serve live video of breaking news and selected events as they happen.
• Hourly audio news updates from CNN Radio in the U.S. News Preference
• Easily accessible user commenting that runs alongside content on the screen

As you may already know, we currently offer the CNN App for iPhone and iPod Touch.  Connected to the launch of CNN on iPad, we’re making the CNN App for iPhone free in the U.S. and adding live video to the CNN App for users outside the U.S.

We hope that you like our new app because we strive to keep you informed and entertained wherever you may be.  As you have the opportunity to use the app, we also welcome feedback so we can make it even better.

Here's more on CNN's launch of its "immersive" iPad app, and Michael Holmes shows you some highlights:

Post by Louis Gump, VP of CNN Mobile

CNN is pleased to announce that we will be a launch partner with Google. It is our desire to make our CNN.com articles, videos, and photos available to all users on all platforms and all products, whether you're on the web, phone, web-enabled TV, or any other device.

At the launch, you will be able to access CNN.com optimized for a 10 feet experience, meant to be enjoyed on your large screen TV. You can find story highlights, videos, and highlights from CNN TV. And of course, you'll be able to access the full CNN.com. As the Google TV platform continues to evolve, CNN's experience on the device will also evolve.

So fire up your Google TV, search for CNN, and kick back and consume the news.

As you may already know, last year we launched CNN’s first-ever iPhone app in the United States. We also knew that consumer demand existed in other countries, so we wanted to develop an international news app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’m happy to report that the international version of the CNN App for the iPhone and iPod Touch launched last week in App Stores across the globe, AND is available for free.

Also, we’ve received lots of great feedback about the app. In addition to many strong ratings, we’ve seen some specific suggestions. We're listening to your comments and have some changes planned. In particular, we’ve heard from users in Australia, New Zealand and Canada about a desire to see more regional coverage in these areas. We’re looking at options to deliver just that, and I plan to provide a progress update on this topic within a few weeks. To all who will use this information, we’ve heard you and are making it a top priority to find a solution with content that is consistent with the world-class quality you expect from CNN.

Now, for more on the app itself: Like its U.S.-based cousin, the CNN App gives you valuable news and information anytime, anywhere and enables you to stay up to speed while on the go.

Though the international version of the CNN App does not come with live video streaming as the U.S. app does, the product is chock-full of great features to take your mobile news experience to the next level. So what IS in it? Tons of stuff:

• Read all the latest news most important to you. It’s easy to navigate by flicking or scrolling through stories and news objects just like album artwork on your iPod. It’s also easy to consume, with both snack-size highlights and full stories. Sharing via Facebook, Twitter and SMS also is easy.
• Follow topics most important to you, and receive alerts when developments in those areas are published.
• iReport directly from the app! For all you iReporters, the CNN App provides a direct gateway to iReport, allowing you to browse content or instantly upload your photos and videos if you have the iPhone 3GS or 4. (Soon after launch, our first vetted submission from the app was about a lifeboat demonstration in the UK.)
• Watch on-demand video clips across all news categories.
• Save text and video stories to dive into later - and even for viewing without a connection (on flights, etc.).

OK, but enough about us. What do YOU think about the app? What kind of features are you hoping to get from CNN on your mobile device - any mobile device? Please post your comments!

Post by Louis Gump, VP of CNN Mobile

I was going to the Deepwater Horizon site with CNN anchorwoman Kyra Phillips and CNN photojournalist Rich Brooks to see ground zero of one of the United States' worst ecological disasters. Through Kyra's long-time friendship and working relationship with U.S Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, we had managed to get exclusive access to the crippled well site. Getting an "exclusive" like that is what all journalists live for. A chance to report something you know your competitors can't.

Not only were we going to get this unprecedented access, but we were going to try to "beam" back a live shot. To do that we had to rely on a piece of equipment, that up to that point, had not worked properly for any of my coworkers. And that minor detail was disturbing my night's sleep. It is one thing to have a glitch on a more mundane story, but this was big news and a big payoff for the network if we could pull it off.

The equipment in question, called a tracking BGAN, is designed to lock onto a satellite even if the platform you are on is moving. While we knew the rig we were going to, Transocean's Development Driller III, was fairly stable, it would still be a gamble. What if it doesn't work? What if after a few minutes of trying, we were asked nicely to get back on the helicopter and go back to where we came from?

Rich Brooks brought the BGAN from Atlanta and had gotten it to work properly during a test there. So on the day we were to fly out, I felt pretty good about our chances. We had some back up plans if it didn't. So contingencies, CHECK.

The hour-long helicopter flight was loud, scenic and crowded. Seven people filled the back of the Coast Guard helicopter along with our four bags of gear. TV crews never really travel light.

After spending an hour-and-a-half on the rig interviewing rig workers and listening to Adm. Allen explain the processes going on around us, it was time for the "live shot". So Rich and I grabbed all the antennas, computers, wires and cables needed, hauled them out on the helicopter deck, and started plugging things in.

In fairness, Rich did most of the plugging, and I repeatedly annoyed him by asking over and over again, "What can I do to help?" After a few minutes of punching buttons and clicking on the computer, we had our picture and it was going to Atlanta. BINGO.

We did it ... What? Kyra can't hear the anchor in Atlanta? Well, I can't repeat the words I used at that point. The satellite phone CNN gave me kept dropping the call, so I borrowed the rig's satellite phone. After some frantic debate, it was decided that Kyra would just go live without hearing the show in her ear. I would just give her a visual cue when to start talking. CUE! GO!

Talk she did, interviewing the admiral and some Transocean employees, and giving a worldwide audience the chance to see something that they hadn't seen until that point.

Then I heard the thunder. Uh, oh. Off to our left, a very big and rather unfriendly looking storm moved closer and closer to us. Eventually the thick dark clouds made it impossible to send or receive a signal on our equipment. And just like that, we were done.

Suddenly it was a mass of scrambling CNN, Transocean and Coast Guard personnel trying to get our gear scooped up and off the deck before the rain ruined thousands of dollars of equipment. We managed to scramble indoors without getting too wet. High fives and congratulatory fist bumps.

That's how we got CNN live from one of the most desirable, journalistically speaking, spots in the world; at least on that day. No sweat. Another walk in the park. What was I worried about again?

Post by Tristan Smith, CNN Senior Producer

"In the eleventh hour, it occurred to someone that they needed a logo," said Toni Dwyer of Communication Trends, Inc, and the ad firm that worked with CNN before it got off the ground in 1980. "We had about 24 or 48 hours to turn around and present a logo."

The logo was designed by the late Anthony Guy Bost, who had also been a professor at the University of Auburn. Dwyer distinctly remembered presenting the designs to the powers that be. "There were several forms of the logo they weren't exactly wild about, there was one we thought would play the best, we tried to keep it simple," said Dwyer. "It was designed with money in mind, so we tried to keep it one color."

Terry McGuirk, currently the chairman of the Atlanta Braves, was first to see the logo. "They gave us 4 or 5 different looks, and one sort of stood out, a cable running through the letters C-N-N," said McGuirk, who in 1980 was vice president of Turner Broadcasting and very involved in the startup of CNN.

CNN founder Ted Turner liked the logo, and the choice was made. It finally came time to talk money. "For the price of the logo, we wanted something like $5,000," said Dwyer of Communication Trends. "They  (CNN) all threw a fit, and the final bill for the logo was $2,800 or $2,400."

The logo was not without its critics. Canadian National Railway believed it closely resembled its logo and raised some concern about the matter. "I didn't know anything about railroads or the Canadian National Railroad," Dwyer said. "When I looked at the logos, it wasn't even close."

Part of the reason the CNN logo became such a strong symbol might have to do with the fact that it was almost always placed on the television screen, now commonly known as a "bug" in broadcast lingo. This idea was the brainchild of Burt Reinhardt, who served as CNN's president from 1982 to 1990, after which he became vice chairman.  McGuirk distinctly remembered the reasoning of placing the logo on screen. "People weren't used to getting their news from a 24-hour network," he said. "We didn't want them to mistake it for a different network."

Thirty years later, that logo designed in less than 48 hours is still on the screen, although it's been slightly changed and sometimes animated.  According to Dwyer, when some suggested changing the logo years later, Turner wouldn't hear of it. "He put his foot down and said 'absolutely not,' " said Dwyer. "That gave me a lot of gratification."

Post by Cody Sigel Combs

CNN.com's pages listing the casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq began as we prepared a special report to cover the invasion of Iraq. One of the elements of the special report had to be a page listing the names - and when possible - the photos of the men and women who died while serving in the conflict. I did not update the page at the start of the war but once "major combat" ended, the responsibility of adding names to the list returned to me.

See the Home and Away casualties interactive

I remember thinking then that the war was not over and as the months went by, the number of fatalities began to climb. In 2004, we added another page listing the names of those who died serving in Afghanistan and other countries.

I don't think anyone ever thought that the list of casualties from both wars would eventually encompass more than 6,000 names from 32 countries. It includes six recipients of the Medal of Honor, all posthumous, and one posthumous recipient of the British Victoria Cross.

It is also a list that, unfortunately, keeps growing, just like the civilian toll, which is even higher. Unfortunately, it would be close to impossible to create a similar page to list the names of the civilians who have died in these conflicts.

It's been a privilege to work on this project for seven years but it's a privilege that I wish didn't exist. No matter your feelings about the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, this list is a vivid reminder of the sacrifices made by these troops, and a glimpse of the grief of the family and friends they leave behind. With the redesign of the list into a searchable database, it is our hope that it continues to be a way to honor the memory of those who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "gave the last full measure of devotion."

We hope those readers who knew these men and women will share their memories and add more information to the bare details that we've provided. And we appreciate the corrections that have flowed in as we know this data isn't all perfect, despite our best efforts. To all the family members who have kindly shared photos of their loves ones, we are deeply grateful.

Share your memories and messages

A number of people worked hard on this database to make it happen and we appreciate all their efforts:

Editorial: Manav Tanneeru and Douglas Wood

User experience: Toni Pashley

Flash programming: Ken Uzquiano

Web development: Steve Breeser, Steve Brunton, Miguel Garcia and Mark Walker

Design: Katherine Chase

iReport: Katie Hawkins-Gaar and Lila King

iReport Developers: Kyle Rogers, Mike Imamura and Pete Bethany

CNN Library: Lizzie Jury, Lindsey Knight, Julie In, Tom Rabeno, Sarah C. Smith, Caitlin Stark, Lisa Tinsley and Kimberly Wine.

Public Relations and Marketing: Erica Puntel and Christina Blaisdell

Project managers: Melissa Miske and Peter van der Reyden

The mission was fairly simple: shoot video of John Leguizamo while he rides his bike through Manhattan.

I mean, how hard could it be? New York is only a city of 8 million people, many of whom would be driving large, man-crushing cars with little to no regard for anyone outside the 1-foot personal hula hoop of their own middle finger.

Our chances of being killed in the process were only a mere 100 percent.

Thus ended my first idea of pedaling a lead bike while hauling my photographer colleague, Nick Scott, in a Radio Flyer.

So, step one was hiring a professional pedicab to usher us around town while we shot video from the carriage. Of course, this meant we needed a pedicab man as unconventional as this idea, and that led us to Central Park, where we began some rather un-PC profiling for someone with multiple tattoos and a faux-hawk. This was non-negotiable.

Almost right away, we found both of these traits in a Turkish nursing student named Tarkan.

“Tarkan, are you prepared to be completely reckless tomorrow, sacrificing life and limb for a three-minute package that you’ll probably never see? Really? You’re hired.”

The next day, with Tarkan a part of our crew, we found ourselves in the foyer of John Leguizamo’s house, being greeted by his surprisingly large poodle. John’s first words were not to us but, rather, to this giant mound of fur. Those words were, “Kill! Kill!”

It didn’t.

And soon we were on the road, dangerously hanging off the back of our pedicab, attempting to use a Steadicam device that, as it turned out, was anything but steady – this due to the fact that it weighed more than, presumably, Leguizamo’s poodle.

Our mission had gone from simple recklessness to being legitimately suicidal. In a strange bit of irony, we were quickly becoming our own tragic iReport.

Needless to say, we ditched the Steadicam for our backup stabilizer, a giant steering wheel-like mount known as a Fig Rig. This allowed us to enjoy a renewed sense of balance, so long as we agree that by “balance” we mean “possible survival.”

Amazingly, the shoot ended without any major bloodshed. Tarkan received his hard-earned money, and we finished the shoot back inside Leguizamo’s house, where, again, he instructed his dog to murder us.

It didn’t.

Read the full story and see more video

You may remember that CNN and Facebook joined forces for the inauguration of President Obama last year, setting a record for the largest live video event in internet history. While that was a remarkable live event, we believe it is just as important to enhance your news experience every day with any news story, as well as enable you to more personally connect with the news. So, it's my pleasure to welcome you to Facebook Connect on CNN.com.

Click to watch video

You'll find multiple ways to seamlessly recommend, share or comment on our content with your friends on Facebook, as well as see when your friends have recommended, shared or commented on CNN.com content. Here are the highlights:

Global Facebook Connect login: This allows you to use Facebook Connect to log in to our site, integrating with your existing CNN.com profile. Now it will be easier than ever for you to jump in and start participating.

Homepage activity feed: On the homepage of CNN.com, you'll see a module that features the content your friends are recommending. If your friends haven't been active yet, we'll show you what the larger Facebook community is recommending.

Profile page activity module: On your CNN.com profile page, you'll have access to an expanded view of your friends' activity plus the aggregate activity of all CNN.com users.

Recommending content: All article pages, videos, blog posts and iReports include a module that shows your friends and total number of CNN.com users who have recommended that story. Additionally, if you click the "recommend" button, it will publish in the CNN.com homepage activity feed, as well as the news feed of your Facebook profile. If you decide to add a comment while recommending or sharing, the news feed item will be more prominently displayed on your Facebook wall.

NewsPulse: Now when you visit NewsPulse, you'll see a column displaying the total number of times a particular story has been shared on Facebook. You can then drill down into the story items and see which of your friends have recommended the story – and, of course, recommend it yourself if you want.

We really hope you like the experience of sharing the news you're most interested in with your friends and vice versa. Please let us know what you think, and as always, thank you for coming to the site.

You'll find the news of the day there – a stream of stories big and small, from earthquakes and elections to celebrity news.

There will be posts from our blog editors and the staff of CNN at large to give you the latest from the CNN Wire, plus the scoops and interviews and insight that make this a really fun and interesting place to be.

You’ll know when we have live streams of events and videos of news can be posted within minutes of them coming in. Whatever confirmed information we're hearing and reporting is what you'll be reading and watching. Our goal is to give you a chance to see the latest news as we get it and watch stories develop from the point they break and as reaction comes pouring in, to the time our experts begin analyzing them.

We aim to look far and wide at what you and the rest of the Web community are interested in and talking about with features like Web Pulse - which takes a look at the collective conversation of the internet according to Google trends, Twitter, etc. This is also the place to find out who the day’s Most Intriguing People are and there’s easy access to our Twitter account @cnnbrk.

We hope you'll turn to the blog as a regular destination for what's happening right now - no need to scour the web or look any further. We'll start by bringing you the best coverage of stories around the globe from the moment they happen and as they continue to develop and hope you'll jump in with us and join the conversation. Head over to www.cnn.com/ThisJustIn and check it out.

– Mallory Simon and Manav Tanneeru, CNN news blog editors

 I was a volunteer at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, working as a language agent (a fancy way of saying “unpaid interpreter”) at the Georgia World Congress Center.  This was the site for events like fencing, weight lifting and table tennis. I got to see many amazing athletes in action and behind the scenes.

 But I also spent lots of time talking with other volunteers, and that’s how I found out that some travel the world just to be a part of the Olympics. They love the atmosphere, the thrill of the competition and the chance to be right there close to the action.

 I pitched the idea for our Vancouver coverage and set out to find these super volunteers.  It wasn’t easy! 

 Ernie Peterson came up during a Google search, but I had trouble getting in touch with anybody else.  Then a few days ago, Dr. Brian Krabak was mentioned in a newspaper article, and he fit the profile perfectly. We talked the day before he set out for his post in Whistler. Finally, a colleague who is covering the Vancouver Games for CNN.com passed along Sandy Suffoletta’s name.

 Chatting with them felt like being part of a club.  I still have my Olympic volunteer uniform, and they have kept theirs.  Meeting lots of interesting people was the highlight of my experience, and they said it was theirs, as well.

 Hurray for volunteers!