There is a list of news readers developing for those who have an iPad. The world’s most popular tablet just added another news reader from AOL.
From Pulse, to Reeder, to Zite, to Flipboad and more, the iPad user has had their choice of news readers to use. Now there is one more from AOL. It is created like other news apps, in a magazine style called Editions. This is an app that goes out and gets all kinds of information from the web and displays it on the iPad for digital information consumption. It is designed to be somewhat “light” and able to be fully read in one sitting. The idea behind the app is that the iPad user can use it and go away with the feeling that they got something accomplished.
The AOL app is able to be customized. Users can pick and choose what they want to read or not. The “magic” of the machine comes alive during this time because it watches what the user likes and give them more of the same. Editions tries to give the best news based on algorithms ( formulas ) that are embedded in the iPad app. The magazine craftsmanship looks like glossy paper, the same as a paper magazine. It comes loaded with a fake mailing label on the leading page. The “back page” is replete with a horoscope. Some people find it odd that AOL would craft their digital app after an analog design.
The Editions iPad app is one that refreshes once a day. Reading it in the morning is obviously recommended. This continues the analog “magazine” feel, as many people buy a newspaper or magazine in “editions”, especially newspapers. The ability to add sections of selected news topics is easier than terminating one. The AOL app seems to be a bit stubborn in deleting topics from the past. Users are already complaining how hard it is to get rid of news they are no longer interested in. Other users say the iPad app needs constant internet access to work correctly, since much of the news is in the form of a complete web page. Choosing another news topic is prohibitive if there is no connection to the web and a new page needs to be loaded.
Comments on the Editions iPad app are that it “looks like a magazine and talks like a magazine”. This is an option for other iPad news app competitors as well, such as Flipboard. Others, such as Pulse, are updated when the web is updated, using RSS. The Editions app is available today with an amicable price. It is free.
