Image: Pulse.me
I’m a news junkie, who really enjoys reading newspapers. What I haven’t been able to find, until now, is a better way to organize what I want to read in one spot. Where my browser has fallen short, Pulse carries on and enhances my reading experience.
Pulse, available for iPhone and Android, is an excellent free app that organizes all your favourite news feeds into one convenient package for you to read. Visually, it’s very appealing to the eye, as each news feed is listed with images and users have the ability to browse through articles.
Pulse is not limited to newspapers, users can also find magazines and websites – like Toronto Standard – to include in your list of feeds. The outlets in Pulse’s directory are fairly extensive, but, if I have one minor criticism, are mostly American with a bit of European news thrown in to balance things out.
To its credit, you will find great publications like Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN, The New Yorker, even Al Jazeera and the BBC, along with a whole host of popular sources to get a full scope of international news, but it would be nice to see more Canadian content. Perhaps this is more of a sober reflection on how our national media is viewed outside of Canada.
To organize feeds, users create pages which list up to 12 publications. Browse through the directories and hit the checkmark beside each feed to automatically add it to your list(s). If you wanted to organize lists so that one page is all Canadian news, another is international news and the third is sports, users can go to page view and drag and drop feeds on other pages to better organize the layout and flow.
With an app like this, an internet connection is vital. Especially as some articles only offer a brief introduction and then direct you to go to their website for the full article. This can be a bit frustrating, especially when you don’t have a connection, or are stuck on the subway looking for something to read.
However, articles can be bookmarked for future reading when it is more convenient or, if you have an iPhone or iPad, added to Instapaper which is a similar feature. In addition, articles can be shared through Twitter and Facebook, email and other websites, such as LinkedIn.
Pulse is great if you are an avid reader, or news junkie. It’s a nice way to organize news and magazine feeds and information. I would highly recommend this app if you are looking for a more efficient way to access your news, and want a better way to organize the publications you enjoy reading. With Pulse, you can stay up-to-date on the news without missing a beat, or having to shuffle through browser tabs or surf multiple news sites.
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Rob Kirsic writes the App of the Week column for Toronto Standard. Follow him @robertkirsic.
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