Top news-reading apps for the iOS touch screen

The iPad is great for many things, but one of the best uses for me is relaxing on a Saturday and flipping through the latest news. There are plenty of basic news apps that grab all the latest headlines for you, but some offer a sleek layout that lets you browse the news using an elegant interface.

I recently reviewed Trapit for iPad, a fairly new newsreader you can train to give you the latest stories about any subject. You simply search for a keyword and Trapit makes a "Trap" of the latest news stories on that subject … Read more

Pulse leaps from app to Web, at last

iPhone? Check. Android? Check. For most mobile apps, that's enough. Popular news reader Pulse, however, has decided that its next frontier is something you may have heard of before called the World Wide Web.

Pulse's Web app at Pulse.me is built entirely from HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, and indicates that the future-Web technologies are rapidly approaching a state where they can easily re-create native app experiences in the browser. The site is accessible from most major browsers on traditional PCs and mobile devices. With the touch-focused Windows 8 and its associated touch screen hardware coming at the … Read more

Flipboard arrives on Android

Popular news-reader app Flipboard has officially landed on Android.

In a blog post, Flipboard said the app is available for Android phones as well as for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet and Barnes and Noble's Nook slate.

The Android version of Flipboard will come preinstalled on Samsung's Galaxy S3 phone from any of the leading carriers, Flipboard said.

The company also announced new services and editions:

We're also expanding Flipboard's utility today by adding two new major services: Google+ and YouTube. Now you can connect your Google+ account to Flipboard and see all the activity in … Read more

Instapaper vs. Pocket: Battle of the bookmarkers

When you're on the go, it might not always make sense to dive into that lengthy article or start watching that 6-minute video, all on your mobile device. That's when a short-term bookmarking app comes in handy.

A bookmarker lets you put lengthy articles or videos away with just a couple of taps, so you can easily queue them up for reading and watching later, from any of your devices, including your desktop. On Android, the longtime fan favorite has been Pocket (formerly Read It Later). But with iOS-darling Instapaper entering the fold, the stage has been set … Read more

Instapaper now on Android

To the delight of many an avid reader, fan-favorite iOS bookmarking app Instapaper has finally made its way to the Android platform. Built by mobile-app developer Mobelux, the official Instapaper app brings its dead-simple interface and monochromatic design to a swath of new users.

If you're not familiar with Instapaper, it's a tool that lets you quickly and easily save articles for reading later. So, if you don't have time to dive into that lengthy blog post or interview, you can simply use Instapaper to create a short-term (or long-term) bookmark, and easily pull it up at … Read more

Flipboard Beta for Android impresses on phones, not tablets (first take)

Making its unofficial debut earlier this month on Samsung Galaxy S III demo units, Flipboard for Android has finally opened itself up...a little bit. No, the app isn't widely available on Google Play yet, but perhaps just as good, you can now download the official beta version of Flipboard through a public download link.

If you're not familiar with Flipboard on iOS, it's a magazine-style news reader app that has reached an amazing level of popularity. What gives the app extra cool points is its ability to handle social media. See, Flipboard can integrate your social … Read more

Flipboard adds SoundCloud support for new audio features

Flipboard (free) is already many people's go-to app for flipping through the latest news and social network updates. But today, a new update lets you connect Flipboard with SoundCloud to offer audio clips created by major news services like NPR, and audio clips created by your friends and people you follow.

You can sign into the new SoundCloud component by using a previously created SoundCloud account, by starting a new account, or by using your Facebook account. Once connected, Facebook and Twitter posts, and any story that includes audio, can be listened to with a handy player that resides … Read more