3 Non-Traditional News Apps I Check Every Morning
In my role as Social Media Strategist at Curator, I spend a good chunk of the day on social networks, and I pick up a lot of news and trending links just by looking at screens. I’m also a former journalist, and old habits die hard, so I spend a few minutes each morning looking over news and information to get ready for the day. Here are a few of my go-to apps (all iOS).
Yahoo News Digest
This has been my favorite mobile news app for the last few months, after I decided I needed a change from Circa. It spits out two “editions” every day (morning and evening) of about 10 stories each. Like Circa, those stories are distilled down into their essence.
Digest’s big draw is its look and feel, which is great. I also like that it offers U.S. and international editions. I go for the international because I like the alternate perspective, and I spend most of my day looking at U.S.-focused news anyway.
Feedly
Like many, I was crushed when Google Reader shut down, but Feedly’s proven to be a more-than-adequate replacement. One of the things I like best about it is how much social sharing power is baked into it. I subscribe to a lot of feeds on behalf of Curator, our clients, and myself, precisely because I need to do a lot of sharing.
Feedly talks to just about any social network you can think of, as well as IFTTT, Evernote and Pocket. Honestly, I could probably dedicate a blog post to all the networks I have it plugged into, but first I’ll have to go and re-figure out what they all are. It’s really so useful that I forget.
Alien Blue (Reddit)
Reddit is super helpful, especially on days when my calendar’s packed and I know I’m only going to have a few minutes to find interesting links to share. Alien Blue is simply the best iOS app for using Reddit.
What makes Reddit so great? Like Twitter or Facebook, it’s all about what/who you follow, but the front page is the source of a lot of material for link-surfacing sites like Mashable and Gawker. Spend a week checking Reddit before you check those two (or others like them) and you’ll feel a bit ahead of the game.
Others I Like
Those are three of my favorites, but there are a bunch of others I use regularly, too:
Tweetbot (the best Twitter app there is)