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I’ll admit it: the App Store is home to so many nifty and inventive news readers (Blogshelf, Early Edition, and TheScore, to name just a few), I never got around to Pulse News Reader.
My mistake. It’s not just the coolest blog/feed reader for the iPhone and iPad alike, it’s also one of the coolest iOS apps, period. And where it once cost $1.99, Pulse News is now free. (Same goes for the Android version.)
I spent some time fiddling with Pulse News for iPad. (If you’re interested in Pulse News Mini for iPhone, which, true to its name, is just a smaller version of the app, check out Jason Parker’s write-up.) Like Blogshelf and Early Edition, it serves up popular blogs in a slick, easily digestible format.
Right out of the box, Pulse News Reader gives you everything from Fast Company to Mashable to Serious Eats. Of course, you can add, remove, and reorganize sources to your liking.
The app lists about 10 “featured” sources, dozens more divided into categories, a search option for sites and keywords, and support for Google Reader–meaning you can import any feeds you’ve already subscribed to in your account.
The iPad edition supports up to 60 sources arranged across five tabbed pages (which, thankfully, you can rename from the default “PAGE2,” “PAGE3,” and so on.) You scroll up and down to find the feed you want, across to peruse the stories from within that feed, and tap any story to see the full text (and/or the actual Web page, depending on your preference).
As with other readers, Pulse News lets you tag items as favorites (which it calls “creating your own pulse”), share with friends via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, and even send to Instapaper (another essential app).
It may take a little doing to get Pulse News set up with just the blogs and feeds you want. But once you do, you’ll never look at another reader. (Or will you? If there’s an app you like better, by all means shout it out in the comments!)
