Newsstand folder

One of the new features in iOS 5 is Newsstand: an app that lets you subscribe to digital newspapers and magazines. The Newsstand icon looks like a little bookshelf… or news stand, and as you subscribe to more content, tiny icons will populate it.

But if you don’t subscribe to any periodicals in the App Store, you still can’t get rid of the Newsstand icon on your home screen. You can’t uninstall the app, and you can’t even tuck it away into a folder where you won’t have to look at it.

Wait… actually you can. This is probably a bug and not a feature, but it turns out that there is a way to shove Newsstand into a folder. But once you do this you won’t actually be able to use the app — loading it will cause your device to crash. So you’ll only want to do this if you’re tired of looking at the icon and don’t plan to use it.

  1. Create a new folder by dragging two apps together.
  2. Quickly, before the folder has finished forming, tap on the Newsstand app and drag it into the same folder.

That’s it. Newstand is now hidden. Just don’t try to use it without removing it from the folder first.

via The Coding Massacre and ReadWriteWeb

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

3 replies on “How to hide the iOS 5 Newsstand icon in a folder”

  1. FWIW, when you open iTunes after doing this procedure, Newsstand is INVISIBLE within the folder where you’ve put it.  DEFINITELY a bug.

  2. Awesome thanks. I can’t believe the don’t let you drop it in a folder or move it off the home screen. Incredibly lame! Steve will roll over in his grave when hears the backlash from this one. Is this, dare I say it, the beginning of a Microsoft like Apple world?

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