The Guardian has launched a new version of its iPhone/iPod touch app. The original version launched in December 2009 and was downloaded 214,000 times. The Guardian says the original app will still work for users, “although not indefinitely”, a nod to the fact that the new one runs on a subscription model, with six month access charged at £2.99, and 12 months at £3.99, except in the US, where the app will be free and ad-funded.

The new app features a revamped homepage design, including a multimedia carousel; live football scores and goal alerts by team or match; automatic updates for live blogs, including minute-by-minute sport coverage; integrated reader comments; and an enhanced trending topics and most-viewed stories view. There’s also a new search facility, across the guardian.co.uk archive.

Designed and developed by an in-house team using The Guardian’s content API, the new Guardian app for iPhone and iPod touch showcases news, comment, features, photo galleries and multimedia, including guardian.co.uk’s award-winning video for the first time.

“It’s been just over a year since we launched our first app, and since then the expectations of users have understandably grown, alongside the technology itself,” says guardian.co.uk editor, Janine Gibson. “We were thrilled with the success of the original app, and over the last 12 months, we’ve listened very carefully to user suggestions in order to consider how their Guardian experience on iPhone and iPod Touch can be improved.