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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-AJ

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