Google Currents, Pulse News, Flipboard

[StoneRyno]

Until now I've been using google reader for keeping up with my news/blog feeds. I more or less like it except for the fact I'm having to open the articles in the web browser on my phone to read the whole article a lot and on my netbook or PC open a new tab with the article. Which isn't as annoying as the experience on my phone. I should mention I rarely read them on my PC. I tend to use the down time when out on the go to read them so that I'm not wasting time being idle during moments like waiting in line etc.

I've been seeing these three apps mentioned a lot and see that they all integrate with google reader. So it got me to first check out google currents. The only thing I don't like about it is no indication of read or unread, no how many unread articles, and sorted newest to oldest instead of my preferred oldest to newest. All compounded by showing all articles and not just new unread ones. I'm not sure how the others compare to this but before I go into installing them and what not I figured I would post here and get some feedback on them from people here on the forums.

Thanks

 

[EvilMonkey]

I'm curious as well. I've been using Pulse (which does show you what you've read) but have been meaning to check out some alternatives such as Currents and Flipboard.

 

[nthnu]

Along with those, I've used Taptu. Similar to Pulse.

 

[DenverRalphy]

I use Pulse primarily.

Flipboard I can't stand to use, but I will occasionally test-drive it whenever there's an update. What I can't stand about it, is that there's basically no Table of Contents. Once you select a news source (ie The Verge, Android Central, etc..), you have to flip through every article until you find one that piques your interest. This to me is a serious design flaw. I want to be able to brows a list of articles/headlines, then go directly to those I wish to read.

Currents I like, but as mentioned above, there's no indication of read/unread articles. The layout and function is very nice though. Easy to read the articles.

Pulse is my default reader. They've nailed it with the UI as pertains to skimming news sources and articles. My only hangup is that interactions with links in articles is less than stellar. Interactions with links do work, but it's clunky, and is prone to hiccups if you're not paying attention (usually when a blog article has a Read More break in it). Overall though, because it's a breeze to quickly identify what you want to read, and go straight to it, this is my default reader.

 

[monkeyluis]

I like all of these. But flipboard & zite are my favorite. I'll briefly tell you why.

Flipboard - well it's absolutely beautiful. But what I like about it is that I can have specific topics to read, like android, & it aggregates alllll of the news for me from different sites. I don't have to pick a specific site and sift through all of its news. Now you can have specific sites & do that, but I like the aggregation feature. This is something I'm hoping they'll also bring to google currents. Of course with flipboard I can also have my google reader, Facebook, g+, twitter & then other specific sites like the verge or CNN. So the aggregation is a huge plus for me.

Zite - so zite is similar to flipboard in where I can read a certain category & the app aggregates all of the news sources for me. The biggest difference though is I can tell zite with a thumbs up or down if I like an article or not. Same for a specific news source. Then zite will continue to show me more news that is similar. Or if I didn't like an article it will show me less of that type. So it learns from you & what you like.

If those other apps could do something similar then I'd use them even more. Even though some of the news is redundant.

I'm attaching a couple of photos to show you what I mean.

These are the iPad apps. Unfortunately they don't have tablet versions for android yet. I hope they do soon though as I'm getting the nexus 7, already have the galaxy tab 2 7".

 

[monkeyluis]

I use Pulse primarily.

Flipboard I can't stand to use, but I will occasionally test-drive it whenever there's an update. What I can't stand about it, is that there's basically no Table of Contents. Once you select a news source (ie The Verge, Android Central, etc..), you have to flip through every article until you find one that piques your interest. This to me is a serious design flaw. I want to be able to brows a list of articles/headlines, then go directly to those I wish to read.

Currents I like, but as mentioned above, there's no indication of read/unread articles. The layout and function is very nice though. Easy to read the articles.

Pulse is my default reader. They've nailed it with the UI as pertains to skimming news sources and articles. My only hangup is that interactions with links in articles is less than stellar. Interactions with links do work, but it's clunky, and is prone to hiccups if you're not paying attention (usually when a blog article has a Read More break in it). Overall though, because it's a breeze to quickly identify what you want to read, and go straight to it, this is my default reader.

Re: Flipboard, see my comment. You can have specific topics on your front page & it aggregates content based on that topic. For instance, android. Give it a try & see if that works better for you. Zite as I mention also does this.

 

[DenverRalphy]

Re: Flipboard, see my comment. You can have specific topics on your front page & it aggregates content based on that topic. For instance, android. Give it a try & see if that works better for you. Zite as I mention also does this.

Yes, but you still have to flip through the articles until you find one you want to read. If it aggregates articles for say, android, I don't necessarily want to read every article about android.

[edit]I should note that I'm referring to the smartphone version of the app. Tablet versions may show multiple previews.

 

[monkeyluis]

Yes, but you still have to flip through the articles until you find one you want to read.

Well yeah, you have to do that with any of these readers. Pulse you have to scroll through, the article you want doesn't just pop up in front of the list. Same concept just different layout.

 

[Shadnic]

I've been using pulse for years, but I've been wondering this exact same thing recently. Pulse was the first super-visual news reader (that I was aware of) and over the years it's gotten just fantastic and I love it to death. It does everything I could want it to do.

Thing is, flipboard and currents are getting so much press lately that I keep wondering if I'm missing out on something by not using them. I guess pulse is kind of so well established that they have no need to make huge sweeping changes or anything, but seeing comparisons like this is nice.

 

[StoneRyno]

So based on the replies so far the only one that marks google reader articles as read and indicates what has been read is pulse?