Skimr, The Next Thing for News Reading

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This week will have a slightly different focus. Instead of reviewing a mobile app, I would like to introduce a new news reading format that has been gaining ground for a while now without any attention. This, as of now, is only available online, however marking it as a bookmark and opening it on your phone’s browser would be easy. Most phones have the option to set a bookmark on the home screen so the lack of the app is not a huge deal yet. So to get down to it, this is skimr.co:

Skimr is what I believe, to be the next thing in mobile news reading. As today’s world becomes more fast pace and on the go, news reading has to find a way to remain relevant and keep up. Skimr allows users to do what they do anyways, skim. Skimr has the simplest most bare bones layout of any news reader, you can add websites, rss feeds, or anything else that you please. It is optimized for mobile phone browsers and it’s idea is as simple as its layout: Delivers snippets of news with or without a featured image. Then the user can read the snippet, which consists of a few lines of the story, and decide if they wanna read the rest now, or read it later. It’s news reading on the go and it allows for a lot more consumption as a fraction of the time. I’m completely loving the idea and layout and soon enough other news readers are going to have to keep up. The only way I would say to improve on this is to have a curated stories page that is updated daily. This way an even better snippet can be arranged for multiple trending stories and the user can leave behind the idea of reading a whole story if they so choose. This is a great way to explore simpler news reporting, though I do enjoy reading whole stories. Skimr is definitely worth the look over and it’s completely free. Check it out at Skimr.co

 

-AJ

Google Reader Lives?

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Not quite. The app in today’s focus is cleverly names gReader. This will be a quick post for today. gReader is a cool concept is basically keeping Google Reader alive after it’s slow death. gReader has all the functionality of Reader that people know and love. So far it is only available for Android, no online support or iPhone/iPad. This could spell a huge issue for most users. But for what it is, it’s not a bad package. Personally, this is not my favorite of clients, as I’ve previously stated it’s too much text. I like the visually driven interfaces. However, it’s worth the second look if you’re a die hard Reader user and just are reluctant to changes. Check out the video below and grab it from the Play Store. There is a free ad supported version, and a 4.99 ad free pro version.

Check out their website too at greader.co

Also if anyone has a particular app that they’d like to recommend please let me know in the comments.

-AJ

Taptu: DJ’ing Your News On Your Time

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Taptu is the app of the week. Their slogan is “DJ Your News” which is appropriate for their feature list. First and foremost, upon downloading the app you are given the option to log in with Facebook, Twitter, or your Google account. Logging in with Google would begin the sync from Reader. So anybody looking for that functionality, Taptu has it. Taptu’s user interface is pretty good. It has a mosaic look that I personally love about Pulse. Once you click a story it is expanded full screen for better reading. Once a story is open there are multiple sharing options including the standard Facebook, Twitter, and email. Probably the coolest part about Taptu is the “DJ” feature. Taptu can handle multiple RSS feeds, and searchable sources from their databases but the “DJ” feature allows for categories. The user can select multiple predefined categories such as “Android or Technology and Gadgets”  and they are added to the “DJ” feature. Once the DJ button is used Taptu becomes a virtual newspaper allowing the user to receive news stories under certain categories from thousands of sources. This allows for discovery of new news sources and areas of interest. Overall Taptu is on the right track. It has one of my must have features of a companion website that syncs with the app. Taptu is absolutely worth the try and it’s available for so many different platforms. Check it out, you may just leave behind every other app. Visually and functionality, yeah, Taptu has it all.

Pick it up from the Play Store for Android, or App Store for iOS devices. It is also available online at taptu.com

Check out this video by the developer using Taptu on the iPad.

 

-AJ

Feedly: The Google Reader Savior

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So now that the plug has officially been pulled on Google Reader the world is looking for a replacement to keep all of their feeds in one convenient place. The front runner, and also the app that has seen membership increase ten fold since the reader announcement, Feedly. Feedly is by far superior in so many ways to reader how we it keeps things just as organized and similar to reader for the die hard fans. Right off the bat when launching the app for the first time,  the user is able to log in using your Google account which will then sync all of your feeds to Feedly. All folders and data transfer over as well. Feedly has what I love about pulse as well, a companion website. Not only can it be accessed from your you one or tablet, but online as well, just like reader. Feedly also has multiple different views, one like reader, and one that is mosaic (similar to the pulse layout). Overall Feedly has gone above and beyond to make the loss of reader a little easier. Interface is great and always improving. Syncing with Google is easy and stories are super easy to find. Social media integration is equipped as well. I could talk for awhile about it but try it this weekend and see for yourself if it’s the app you’ve been searching for. I would ultimately have to agree that it is the best replacement for stock Google Reader. It’s almost enough to persuade me to leave Pulse, my favorite, not quite. It’s a great app and it is available cross platform at the whopping price of absolutely nothing. It’s a free app, so why not give it a go? Feedly is great and it is an overall great alternative to Google Reader. I would even go as far as to stretch and say that Feedly goes above and beyond the Google Reader Experience.

Check out the video back when Feedly was released in 2011.

 

Grab it on the Play Store or Apple App Store, also check it out online at feedly.com

Feed your mind with Feedly, you won’t be disappointed.

-AJ

Death to Google Reader-End of an Era

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Yes it is true unfortunately. Announced on the Official Google Blog a few days ago and further explained in the Official Google Reader Blog with the simple caption of “powering down.” Google Reader has been around since 2005. It offered an easy way to sort through RSS feeds and simply put any other online resource that updated itself. Google provided a short explanation on why they have decided to pull the plug on Reader:

“There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

Google has assured users that it will give subscribers to Reader what they’re calling a three month sunset period. In that time users can download their information from Reader using Google Takeout or simply find an alternative to Reader and sync their stories with that. Many alternatives are out there, if you haven’t caught that drift yet from my writings. The good people at LifeHacker have posted the five best user submitted alternatives to Google Reader. Being that Google Reader was the immediate starting point of this blog I thought providing a solid farewell was due. It’s been a great run Reader, but Google is telling users that it’s time to let go. Next week I will be posting a review of what is being talked about as the best replacement for Google Reader. It’s an app called Feedly and Reader users might be impressed to find out the functionality. The Google Reader mobile app has already been pulled from the Google Play Store as well as the iPhone App Store. Stay tuned. In the mean time check out this CNET Update on Google Reader’s departure:

Good bye Google Reader, you will be thoroughly missed.

Update:

The end to Google Reader has more than just bothered some people. A change.org petition as well as a strongly worded letter has launched to attempt to keep Google Reader alive. Many are reporting that this effort is futile but we shall see what comes of it. As of this posting there are a total of 138,545 signatures with a total of 150,000 set as the goal.

-AJ

Flipboard: Difference of Opinion

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This week the app in focus is called Flipboard. Flipboard originally launched only for iPad but has not spread to iPhone and Android smartphones. Flipboard, like the rest of the apps I have previously reviewed, is really good with news reading and takes it’s own intuitive approach to the user interface. I’ll keep this review short and sweet and point the difference that make Flipboard standout from the rest. First and foremost, no scrolling is need for this app. It’s take on reading is like a magazine, you flip through pages to continue reading stories, similar to Google Currents, but with a cool little transition effect. As usual, RSS feeds as well as most other websites and things can be added to your feed to make your news reading experiences more personalized. One of the biggest things that separates Flipboard from the rest of the apps previously mentioned is that it has heavy integration with social media. For instance, by adding the Twitter or Facebook source options, Flipboard will automatically find what stories, websites, and videos your friends are sharing and place them front and center for you to see. You can basically flip through your friends recent shared stories like a big magazine of your life. It’s a cool idea and it’s definitely caught on. It’s a great interface, and if you’re digging it’s comes at the whopping price of totally free. There’s integration with Google Reader, as well as with social networks, however there is no desktop companion site at the moment. There is a website that explains information on the app and development. Overall I like Flipboard, and it’s definitely a winner among users looking for a quick news reading fix with the ability to interact with friends across their social media life. Flipboard is worth the tour and worth the time to try it out.

Grab it from the Play Store for Android, or App Store for iOS

Also check out this video the developers made to introduce the app back in 2010.


-AJ

Pocket: Essential Organization Among Mobile News Reading

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This week I’m going to slightly deviate from the typical news app reviews. However the app in today’s focus, in my opinion, is essential to reading news on the go. Today i’m talking about Pocket, formerly known as Read it Later. The idea of Pocket is extremely simple: Save stories to pocket and read them later whenever and wherever you want. Most news apps have a plugin for Pocket (such as aforementioned Pulse) or the share button which you can link to Pocket. Most news apps offers a saving feature but it is specific to that app. Pocket allows you to save stories,websites, images, YouTube videos all in the same place. Making an account takes ten seconds. Organization within Pocket is great. It’s available for  iOS, Android, and there’s a website to access everything in your “Pocket.” Get the reference of the name now? Overall I love pocket and I use it on a regular basis to save stories that sound interesting. The basic use of Pocket can be described this way: Say before class you’re browsing through stories on Pulse/Reader/Currents/Online and class is about to start. You stumble onto a story you’d like to read but don’t have the time at the moment. Simply place that story in Pocket and it’s saved for later. You can recall stories online or through the app. It links back to the original website the item is hosted on and you can delete old items from pocket with one click. Pocket makes staying up to date with your news even easier and I highly recommend using it. The interface is clean and simple. Pocket even applies filters to the things you save so it’s easy to separate videos, stories, and pictures with a click. Even if you save a lot of stories within Pocket, not to worry, there is a search feature by both title and URL so you never lose a thing. Those familiar with tagging will be right at home as well. Pocket supports adding tags to everything saved within Pocket for easier access later. Other cool functions include the Archive and Favorite options. Say you found a list of recipes you want to recall later but you don’t want them to appear on the home page of your Pocket. Simply archive them and they’re automatically saved but backdated and filed in a different area. Favorites work similar to bookmarks only with Pocket. Another great aspect of Pocket is that it can download the stories you save directly onto your mobile device for offline reading. So before you get on the plain and lose network connectivity not to worry, you can save plenty of reading material. The functionality is so easy almost any person can figure it out in seconds. Pocket serves a very good purpose to the mobile community. From standing in line at the store, waiting for class to start, waiting for food to cook, or just generally anywhere, Pocket has your back.

Check out the video from the developer:

Grab it for Android from the Play Store, iOS App Store, or online at getpocket.com

-AJ

Pulse News: The Best of the Best

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Next up in the round of news reader apps is one of my personal favorites for many reasons. I use it on a daily basis and I dare to say at the moment it has some advantages over Google Currents. The app i’m referring to is called Pulse. Now Pulse is an extremely powerful news reader with exceptional user interface, extremely easy setup, and really good connections to social media networks. To begin with Pulse is available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) as well as Android, both phone and tablet.  It is also available for the Kindle Fire and the Nook. The view of stories can be arranged by categories much like how folder act in Reader. However Pulse provides a graphical interface much like Currents. Squares are dedicated to each story and typically display a featured image if one is available for the particular story. As said before, not unread counts, and locating stories from your favorites sources is easy. Pulse even provides the option to add their own trending sources from various topics such as fashion, technology, and others. With these, top stories from multiple sources will display as your discretion. If you’re a Google Reader user and you want to transfer over all of your currents feeds, no problem. Pulse can do that too. Currently it can only sync any feeds you have in Reader now, it will not sync read stories, or add or delete stories you have in Google Reader. My favorite part about Pulse (besides how pretty it looks) is that Pulse is so far the only news reader i’ve found with a companion website. That’s right, sign into your account via the Pulse website and you’re instantly connected to all of your news sources currently syncing with your smart phone and tablet. Update are always being pushed out and new features are always being added. I’ve tried using other news reader apps before and I continually return to Pulse. Pulse takes the beautiful graphical interface, improves social connection through Pulse.me, syncs from just about anything, and on top of all that contains a companion site just in case you’re on your PC and want to check what’s trending. Hands down Pulse has got it all. Take it for a test spin, I guarantee you’ll love it. Oh yeah, best part about this app, it’s free. Completely, one hundred percent free to you. Just download and enjoy. I firmly stand behind Pulse and its developers. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

Grab it for Android from the Play Store, iOS App Store, Amazon App Store for Kindle, or visit pulse.me to sign up.

Check out the video by the developer:

-AJ

Google Currents: The New Mobile News Standard

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Currents Tablet ViewGoogle’s response to the users who liked the functionality of RSS in Reader but wanted a better user interface came in the form of Google Currents. Currents is available for both Google’s Android OS and iOS for iPhones and iPads. Google Currents presents itself as an easy to use on and offline reader of everything from RSS to individual websites searchable from within the app. Both apps are available for free and functionality of the app is pretty easy to setup and use. Within the description the app touts, “Google Currents delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet and smartphone for high speed and offline reading” which I would have to say is appropriate. Adding sources is very easy. There’s a search feature to locate any additional source you’d like as well as any website given they have an RSS feed. If you’re a Google Reader user, you’ll be happy to note that Currents automatically lists all of you current Reader subscriptions in a tab labeled “Feeds.” Google Currents has come leaps since it beta release in 2011. Sharing to Social Media is as easy as it’s always been with Google Products. Simply press the share button at the top and pick your favored medium, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and so on, Currents has support for them all. The biggest positive of Currents is it’s graphical interface. No more heavy text reading and no more annoying unread counts next to every source. News reading is done on your time and Currents keeps up with trending stories for you whether you subscribe to the source or not, you’ll be informed as much as you choose to be. The only draw back that I have found is unlike Reader, there is no companion site for PC. Meaning you cannot view your Currents account through a website, only through your phone. However that’s what Currents is meant for in the first place. This new standard is simple. Provide a clean, easy to use interface while keeping the information front and center. Google Currents makes news reading much more enjoyable from a tablet to a smart phone. Almost every part of the app is full color and some even include videos. This is the basis that all other mobile news reading apps should base themselves. However there are others that truly enjoy the bare bones text heavy Reader, and that just comes down to preference.

Check the original introduction video from Google back in 2011 and download Google Currents through the Play Store or the iOS App Store

-AJ

Google Reader- Grandfather of Mobile News Reading

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Showing the beginning of these mobile apps is the beginning of showing what else is capable for those wanting to get the most out of their few minutes of free time a day used to catch up on things. The first app I will examine is the official Google Reader app. Now I know I previously stated that Reader is not really my favorite but I want to show almost the bare minimum before moving on to better alternatives. Here is the home screen of the Google Reader app on the Android OS. This app is not specifically cross compatible with the iPhone, but Reader is easily available through a browser window. If using Reader on the computer it’s easy to sync your Google account with the Reader mobile app and begin reading all the stories you’ve missed. Now to go into some pros and cons of this baseline performer. Some positives are the mobile accessibility on Android app and iPhone browser.  Syncing is a breeze and adding new sources and feeds is made simple. Integration with sharing stories, i.e. Facebook and Twitter, is made relatively easy. Some not so positive features would have to be its looks and ability to expand. The reader mobile app looks almost exactly like the desktop browser site. This is a good, clean looking app but it could look better. Sources include only small favicons, and scrolling through stories can be difficult because they all look similar, just a bunch of text. Granted this is the important aspect of the news reading but many feeds contain updates with images and video. This app is good for the Google Reader fanatic with plenty of exceptions. But don’t let the stories build up because Reader will always have that unread count just taunting you with how many stories you’re behind on. Overall I would give the Google Reader app a solid B-. It integrates okay with social media and presents stories at a very baseline simplistic approach. As far as professionalism go it’s hard to match. However, many (like myself), are using these apps sporadically throughout the day like say when waiting for lunch to arrive. There are plenty of alternatives to meet everyone’s interface and news reading needs. Now that news comes to the user it’s all a matter of packaging it into something that looks good and works well. Google Reader began something good, other apps have simply taken it a little further.

Find the Google Reader mobile app through the Google Play Store for Android or reader.google.com for iOS devices.

-AJ

The Age of the User

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I have found that it is increasingly difficult to keep up with breaking news and updates about things that most interest me. I am an avid skateboarder of eleven years and a die hard Windows user. As of the past few years I have also taken a huge liking to the Android platform. The biggest thing that I use my technology for is to keep up with the things that I want to keep up with. Now, I could watch the local news; scour every website for information about the things I want to know. But that would take way too long. I have used RSS readers, and they’re neat. Applications like Google Reader  offer a great service to the people that choose to have their news brought to them. However, at times, Reader can be a bit overwhelming when feeds build up. It’s almost as if you’re drowning in the local television news show at six o’clock.

What I plan on presenting and talking about over the coming weeks are different mobile application that bring the news to the user, as RSS readers do, but with different variations that are visually more appealing, functionality is way better, and news is however long or short as you want it to be. There is a myriad of applications that allow great ways to stay connected to the news that the user chooses. Organization levels on these mobile apps is top notch and social media integration is a huge step forward for discovering new sources for information and new feeds to subscribe to. Once set up, these apps are powerful in helping people stay updated on important news in their interests. I can also imagine that people in the professional world could benefit from these apps as well. The news presented is tailored to fit the needs of the user.

I believe we are in the age of the user. The user controls the content and the buzz. RSS made a great leap in bringing in the idea of instant news with a click. These mobile applications have utilized RSS in a way that makes sense and that drastically improves on the way people get their news. A big reason why these new web 2.0 applications are so abundant and successful is because of their integration with today’s social media. Every story, every feed, every source can be shared to almost every platform with a single click. Facebook can be your library, Twitter can be your newspaper, Instagram can be your magazine. These app developers have realized this and aimed at creating applications that tie everything together. I think almost all of these applications are very useful in everyday experience and it makes news reading enjoyable again. It gives the people waiting in line for coffee, the lunch breakers, the students and teachers an alternative to reading their news in less than a minute. Staying behind the current news is no longer an option and with the ease of learning new information it’s no wonder why mobile platforms are doing so well. Overall, I hope my reviews and recommendations are insightful and helpful, and even if you disagree with the use of these apps, learning about new technology is never a bad thing. These apps are not something that will change the news world, solve climate change, or fix the economy. But that’s not their goal. What they will do is provide the user with insight to any topic or subject they want at their command.

-AJ