For those who love getting all the news they like on a platter, the first generation RSS (really simple syndication) aggregators was a good bet. There was the entire gamut of RSS readers, be it desktop-based or web-based that looked the same and did pretty much the same. While they were functional, they were not cool. They were bland and boring.
But thanks to the iPad and the smartphone wave that shows no signs of abating, a new generation of free news and magazine applications has hit the online market. Not only are these Apps updated with new functionalities — such as one press touch to access social networks like Facebook and Twitter — they are also way cooler in terms of design that makes them addictive. And news addiction is not such a bad thing.
We feature three Apps that make the cut, from the iPad and the Android universe.
Pulse: One of the big favourites is Pulse, an App developed by two Indian students from Stanford University. Their big moment of fame came at an Apple event last year when Steve Jobs, while explaining the functionalities of the iPad, spoke about the “wonderful RSS reader”.
And before they knew it, Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta, saw their App spiral to the top of the itunes chart as one of the most preferred news aggregators. There was more good news for their company, Alphonso Labs, as they raised over U.S. $80,000 through venture capital and moved to their own office in Palo Alto, the buzz town of Silicon Valley.
Pulse has an exciting new design that makes RSS syndication more visual and more fun. And what’s more interesting is they have made it easier to gather news links that circulate on your Facebook and Twitter networks.
On Pulse, users can choose up to 60 news sources, ranging from top sites such as CNN, Wall Street Journal and New Yorker to slightly unorthodox sources such as top blogs, including Engadget, Techcrunch and Huffington Post, and get them served on movable tiles. It is both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional.
Pulse news readers are available as free downloads on the Android market.
Learn more at www.alphonsolabs.com
Flud: Another App that closely resembles the Pulse but is available at this point just for the iPad is Flud. It is pretty much similar to the Pulse news App, save one difference. It aggregates stories based on categories rather than news sources. Otherwise, the tiling and the “feel” of the App is pretty much similar to the Pulse. Readers get to choose from various sources, and individual articles open in panes. Aesthetically pleasing, Flud is another App that makes news consumption a joy. Learn more at www.theflud.com
Flipboard: The Flipboard focusses more on a personalised social magazine, drawing from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and creating a mash of recommended links and articles. The design is pretty modern as users sign into a slideshow of all the various news sources that are active on their networks. From there on, they visually scan the stories and click and pick the articles they want to read. There are also seamless integrations of friends’ feeds from Facebook. If you consider what your friends do as “news” meant for consumption and don’t mind the intrusion, then the Flipboard is pretty handy to have. The Flipboard is available now just for the iPad.
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