PressReader for Android Brings the World’s Newspapers Into One Neat App [Video]
We were given the ability to check out an unlimited account for an application and service called PressReader. It’s a newspaper portal that allows you to download the top papers from many of the world’s countries.
The service itself intrigued us – digital editions of hundreds of newspapers delivered daily to our cell phones? That’s a gold mine for news buffs. We weren’t sure how the application itself would rub us, though.
I came away with a very good taste in my mouth, thankfully. Newspaper content is presented as if they were fresh off the presses. You can zoom in on a section to start reading its text, but if that isn’t working out too well for you (on devices with smaller screens) you can jump into an individual article by clicking its title. A table of content viewer lets you jump from page to page or section to section with ease.
The best feature is its ability to play an article back using text-to-speech. Although I’m physically able to read, this is good for disabled and enabled folks alike. I’m sure there are more than a few of you lazy readers or busy bees out there who can’t sit down and read a paper every day, so this feature would be a godsend for anyone.
I didn’t like that you couldn’t specify download times for papers – 30 minutes or an hour after they’ve been released, for instance – but at least they give you the option to only pull papers down over WiFi. And you do have the option to disable automatic downloads for each invidivual paper you download.
On my Samsung Epic 4G, the application didn’t acknowledge my keyboard or the search button. It’s not too big of a deal as software-implemented input options are now standard on every Android device, but it was still a bit annoying.
Their all-you-can-eat plan starts at $29.99 per month that’ll let you get any newspaper, any time, any where. If you already read weekly editions of several popular titles, that already pays for itself.
You can also get a pay as you go plan for $.99 per download if you’re a more casual reader. Take a look at some of their other options at their website now. The application itself is free, so be sure to find it in the Android market if you do decide to take the plunge.