On iPad Newspapers

This was supposed to be a long post on a couple of things but decided to make it easier for me and whoever will be reading. Now having gained access to the mythical iPad I got to going and checking out some ways to consume media and the internet (mostly) on it. What has been a good and awesome experience is the iPad newspaper applications. I was not willing to pay for any of them at the moment so will only be writing about two of them: Zite and Editions by Aol. Lets start with Zite.\

Zite

I tried using paper.li (http://paper.li/vukosi) previously in order to catch the news I normally see on my Twitter timeline. I thought it was a brilliant idea when I started using it. It made my timeline not look cumbersome and daunting and really got the news to me in a good way. Soon enough though, I got tired of it and stopped using it unconsciously. I don't know why, it just happened. I was happy then to see that Zite uses Twitter timelines as one of its methods of gathering content.

The way it presents the content is the key here. It, simply in my mind, is awesome. I have never had this much fun reading blogs. Really, reaaaalllyyy. Checkout the front page on my blog timeline.

I have become less of a consumer of specific news website but more of the timeline on my Twitter. That is how I see Twitter. I allows for a conversation to go on about data. Turning the data provided by the news sites into information. I can comment on that information, share it and also have conversations with others about it. The problem is that there is noise that is created in that I dont really want go through all of the links being shared on my timeline. I have even come up with a limit of 200 follows for my Twitter. Meaning I will reassess the people I follow when I want to add someone else. There is just too much to go through when your timeline can update every 10 seconds. Zite shuts all the noise out and gives me the links and I can make a choice if I want to read from the summary. Now what would be even better is Zite now allowing me to see what conversation has gone on about a news story after I have read it and want to join what people on my timeline are saying about it. This could be a script that checks replies in my timeline between people I follow from the story link onwards. Yes I am giving the solution right to you Zite. It might be more complicated than that but this is a start, try it, might add a whole new dimension. All the other websites just try to do checks on hashtags or keywords, that misses all the conversation of ideas that happens without the hashtags. Yes you will also catch other crap the people are talking about, but I am willing to bet it will be small.

Zite is clean, I like that. It's minimalist, I like that less. I have no control on frequency of the updates to my "Newspaper". I am guessing they are using a server to go through all the links and then populate my app and dont want to tax their own systems. Computer cycles = money right and I am not paying in this case. But still, I would like to do at leas (most) two pulls a day on it. In the morning and in the evening. For my Kindle I use a really complicated script system that sends my news on different days and times with different content. I will say of the bat, I like the Zite setup better. The only big things I will not sacrifice on the Kindle though is DeliverReads. Overall this App deserves all of the stars it has and more, they just will need to keep stepping up the game as there are a billion other apps that will be flooding the market with these type of solutions. Thus, we move on to Editions.

Editions

Well off the bat, I read Huffington post so I know AOL media somewhat. Again Editions also uses Twitter as one of its ways to get content. Editions also updates only once a day (again no control over that). But the look here is more magazine than newspaper form the outside. Editions has nice touches all over the place. It really has a luxurious feel. Now lets get to the things I dont like because most of it I like, just like Zite. It opens web pages when I go to the articles. This is a no no for me. It now brings back all the other noise I didnt want. Yes this is probably AOL caving in to the other news people as they all want to show me their ads and get paid. I dont want to fight that fight. I just wanted a clean way of reading my news not now having to go to the website that is not even optimized for the iPad or iPhone or Tablets or Android. Why? (Yes I know I answered my question, but it still hurts). The interface is more busy than Zite, lots of things to click on and setup and it will result probably in less complaints for micro managers and those who want to tweak everything. I used to be like that, now I have not time to tweak every little thing. I like things that just work with less of my time invested. Editions still is good in this respect as the default is still good.

I, in this case, chose Zite. Its simple and its clean. My Twitter has never looked better.

Anyway this has been another 1000 word post.  Feedback is awesome, leave it below and let me know!