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The Android Realm App Review NPR One
If you're like me, sometimes you want a simple news show that provides the latest news with minimal commercials. Additionally, I want news that is more current and relevant than what I see on TV.
That is where the NPR One app comes in to play. It provides hourly news updates along with engaging stories and local content all merged based on your location. Local content can be customized but that is about all the work that needs to be done. The app stores a few of the articles on your device for offline listening so the latest episodes can be heard in the go. They can get rated as interesting which I figure factors into future similarly styled news episodes. Also, there are no commercials in the traditional sense. Rather, every so often they provide a reminder that NPR is a free and public service that runs on donations so those are always welcome.
Overall the app is lightweight and easy to use and worth trying out for regular news on the go. The only thing I can't tell is if it downloads audio on WiFi and mobile or just one so I'm a bit wary still unless a toggle is added. This would probably be the only change/addition I would make to an otherwise great app.
The Android Realm App Review Yahoo News Digest
Do you like the idea of curated news but don't want to or don't have time to setup the feeds to do that. Want a digest of morning and evening news delivere automatically to your device. Then Yahoo News Digest is the app for you. After a brief tutorial and no sign-in required, the app will present the latest digest for your locality (currently United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and International).
The menu in the app provides two key settings. The first is the 'More Digests' setting. This allows the user to see when the next default digest will be available along with the ability to open past digests for the week. The second is in the settings area. Here, the user can set which digest locality to load when the app is launched along with toggling the ability to be notified when a new digest is available.
Reading articles is as simple as selecting the article to read. A share button is nicely located at top right of the screen to send via social networks, e-amil, SMS, etc. An interesting feature of the app is that it features an easy to read reference area at the end of the article that can be clicked on to load the source in the user's default browser.
At the end of each digest is a circle of the total number of articles in the digest. Once an article is read, the related article number is filled in to let the user know which article was read along with the total number of articles read in the digest. If the user wants more news, there is a read more news button at the end of the digest to get more articles.
The app does come with a 2x3 widget to easily get articles loaded on the homescreen. It looks very similar to the YouTube widget so it fits in very well as a semi-3D way to see new articles.