Apps

[Discussion] Which is your favorite reading app?

69

I use my tablet almost exclusively for reading. While my primary content consumption is inside Flipboard (when I’m looking to come across something new), Pulse (when I just want to ready my favorite blogs) and Kindle. But I also spend quite some time trying out other apps out there to see if I find something interesting, such as Zite, which I once said was amongst my favorites, and Hacker News Reader. I’d love to know your favorites so I can try them out.

Mention them in the comments, with a short description if possible.

Raveesh Bhalla

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69 Comments

  1. On my phone, I use Feedly for reading Google Reader. On my Tablet, I use JustReader for reading Google Reader (best offline reader I’ve found, though I’m always looking to try something new). Pocket for long form content when I have the time. Nook app when I have eBooks.

  2. Feedly. And thé New bêta isvery nice

  3. I always end up using Greader. Although sometimes Reader HD is a nice change.

  4. pulse all the way its the best all my android news and news in general

    1. Agreed. Love Pulse.

      Also, I use Reddit Sync more than the web Reddit now.

  5. JustReaderfor me. I love it for Google Reader. Clean interface, works well.

  6. I use Cool reader on my Nook Tablet 16gb running cm7 for ebooks personally

  7. Google Reader: tags, folders, stars, & unread count widgets are all I need

  8. i got couple reading apps, but i always go back to the old old cnet one….

  9. Flipboard on my atrix 2, and comiXology on my Asus tf300.

  10. Minimal Reader Pro, has the best offline mode. Unlike other news app I can use it in the metro which is when I read most of my news (got 2h of metro every day to get to work) and the widgets are great

  11. flipboard

  12. Taptu it’s sort of like pulse

  13. Feedly – plugs directly into Google Reader. Newest beta is absolutely beautiful. I’m always a fan of apps that I can use seamlessly on my laptop, tablet, and phone. This is one.

  14. Currents

  15. gReader Pro for sure. It has the best widget, the best design, and it much faster and less battery intensive than any other option.

    I’m an Android dev and I spent two days sketching out and beginning to create my dream Google Reader client for Android. When I Googled the competition I found that gReader Pro had everything I wanted and more, so I never bothered to finish my app.

    1. Prefer JustReader myself.

  16. Greader and just reader.

  17. I prefer Aldiko for reading books. You can get a companion app to sync your books with dropbox and all of your android devices.

    I prefer Pulse as a newsreader/aggregator.

    1. Didn’t know about a sync companion for aldiko. Thanks for the heads-up :-) The lack of sync was the biggest reason I hadn’t been using Aldiko.

      The app is named appropriately enough, “Aldiko Sync”: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ucr.aldikosync&hl=en

      Back to the original question: I used to use flipboard and pulse, but I changed over to Taptu to get better customization. It tries to match future feed choices with the articles you click. However, I get lots of dead-end stubs there. The source parameters need a bit of refinement. Maybe a “don’t like” button would help.

  18. Currents for news; FBReader or Aldiko for books

  19. kindle

  20. Pulse is the most functional in my opinion

  21. Kindle. You can send your own eBooks to amazon and they sync it and your location/notes across all their platforms

  22. Wordoholic for ebooks. Lightweight, simple, Just Works.

  23. I’ve never been able to read on my phone. It’s not that I’m illiterate; it just doesn’t feel right.

  24. I use flipboard synced to my google reader account. best of both worlds.

  25. The latest update for Google Currents has really made that app fantastic. Its my go to reader for my phone and my tablet. I just wish there were more sources supporting it.

  26. Currents, if that counts.

  27. Taptu. I’ve tried others, like Pulse and Flipboard, but I keep coming back to Taptu

  28. I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds and Flipboard or Stumble Upon when I run out of articles in my feeds.

  29. I have tried them all, and I still love Pulse. It’s simple and elegant, not skittish and pompous like Flipboard.

  30. Since I need offline access to articles w/ images (for my subway commute), I use NewsRob a lot. Not the most elegant interface, but it caches images reliably.

  31. Kindle across all of the platforms I use. Wish I had it when I joined service in 89. Even multiple devices weight less than dozen books I would carry on overseas flights.

  32. Reader HD + Pocket + Google Play Books.

  33. i like kobo. moon reader is another, but kobo’s interface, etc is still best (compared to what i am and have used)…

    there’s flipboard too.

  34. I’m a fan of Google Reader and Zite.

  35. I’ve never found a better news reader than Pulse. I have a kindle e-reader so I use the kindle app to read books on my phone.

  36. I use IVONA Text to Speech with Aldiko

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ivona.tts

    I love Any.. Mmmm hehe

  37. I don’t use any if i read anything its on my pc i dont like to read books at all

  38. I find Feedly to be the most functional/usable, and also the fastest/lightest on data. For me, it’s the easiest way to quickly catch up on what’s going on. Google should have made the reader interface look like Feedly in the first place. I like Pulse too, but only on wifi – I’m still on 3G and find it laggy. Currents look nice but is even heavier and laggier than Pulse. It also lacks a good way to organize many sources, and the UI isn’t very intuitive.

    For reading books I like Google Books, but for finding new books to read I prefer Kindle.

    1. Feedly is the relly one that I could find that Is organized as GReader, and has nice gestures.
      I think is just great, but is not working that well con my Galaxy SIII.

  39. For books – FBReader
    For RSS – Google Reader
    For offline reading – Readability
    For papers and magazines – Press Reader and Zinio
    For comics – Perfect Viewer

    1. Does Perfect Viewer have X-Men or The Flash? I wanted to read those comics. Ima go check that one out.

      Anyone know a good one to read Manga’s? All I know is MangaWhat.

      1. Perfect viewer is just a file viewer. You’ll need to source your own .cbr or .cbz files which you can pretty much get any comic ever if you know where to look.

  40. Can I get a woot woot for Currents.

  41. Google currents

  42. Google Currents, Phandroid.

  43. I use Aldiko to read my illegally downloaded epub files.

    1. I use Aldiko because of the enormous public domain book selection, and the great customization you can do, like screen/font color changing and font adjustments.

      1. Might want to give Moon+ Reader a try. PD book selection, and can connect to Calibre’s library, as well as having great customization, frequent feature updates, and it has a helluva lot smaller footprint than Aldiko (which I used to love before 2.x).

  44. Mantano

  45. I like to use Kindle.

  46. Tweetcaster and Flipboard are what I use most. I prefer Google Books over Kindle, but i buy more books via Kindle.
    — edited because I spelled Flipboard wrong.

  47. Beside Flipboard, I use Feedly as well.

  48. Google Reader.

  49. I use Taptu, which is very similar to Pulse except it has an option to backup your feeds, and also has an html 5 website where you can check your feeds on a pc.

    1. What do you mean by backup your feeds? Pulse keeps your feed synced with their Pulse.me account, so you can use it on their other apps too.

      +Pulse just launched a web app, though I find their new UI in that far too busy.

  50. Chrome, all these news readers are is an aggregator for webpages, I’d rather just read the webpage as it was designed.

    Pulse is decent, if a bit fidgety and doesn’t typically include images or video.

    news 360 is a terrific layout, but slow and forces you to read through their browser.

    I don’t read magazines and I stick to real books.

  51. feedly is definitely my favorite. used it since the days when i had an iphone. it does a great job of making rss feeds look like a magazine. it also integrates with twitter and facebook for easy sharing, pocket and instapaper for saving content for later. lastly, it syncs to the desktop webapp, so i can read it from chrome on the desktop and then on the go with my phone. i’ve tried flipboard, pulse, google reader and currents. i always come back too feedly.

  52. I was using Pulse then Flud, but now I read all of my stuff in G+.

  53. would be nice if more of the reading apps mentioned in the comments were available on ipad etc or vice versa

  54. I love Google currents

  55. ChromeMarks. I have tried Google Reader and Flipboard, but find myself going back to ChromeMarks every time. The key is to set the long-press on the search button to open it up. Ironically, it does not work as well with the Chrome browser as Google has for some unknown reason blocked functionality of the long-press search from within the browser.

  56. still trying to decide between Flipboard and Currents… I tend to fall back to flipboard though because I like the way the interface moves. For books I use Kindle, but I have Nook & Play Books in case I run into a situation where Kindle doesn’t have the book I want (hasn’t happened so far)

  57. Is there anything but currents? Lol..jk.. but it is my favorite and only reading app.When you figure out how to link google reader to it. It makes it so sleak and easy to get the info I want.

  58. Pocket, then flipboard.

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