CNN, finally truly live on iPhone/iPad

CNN went live today with the mobile experience some of us had been hoping for when it first unveiled its iPhone/iPad app — true live streaming, not of selected "events," but of the 24-hour news network's actual shows.

Also included in the package, which is also available online at CNN.com: HLN. Which means, you could, if you choose, carry Nancy Grace with you wherever you go.

(Hey, there's no accounting for taste.)

If you already have the CNN app, you'll need to update it through Apple's app store and then — because this offer is only available to subscribers to "a multi-channel video service," says CNN — you'll need to remember your authentication information for that service.

This last step only took me about 15 minutes today — it would have taken under a minute if I could only keep track of the 10,000 passwords in my life — and now I have both apps working.

Playing the iPad side by side with my office TV shows the stream's a little behind, just as streams from my Slingbox usually are. But the picture quality's excellent on our sometimes balky office wifi and not terrible on my iPhone's 3G.

The 3G stream's probably going to be more important in the long run, since like most people, I usually only turn to the news network when something's actually happening — and that doesn't always coincide with my being near a TV.

CNN, by the way, says 10 million people have downloaded its mobile apps already.