Hitpad for iPad: The latest news, fast. [Video]

The past year has seen a number of iPad apps aimed at transforming news discovery. Flipboard and Pulse are two of the best known, and aiming to join them is Hitpad, a new release from an Israeli team.

Launching at the Techonomy conference in Tel Aviv today, the app is designed to give users way to stay up to date with the latest news quickly and with minimal effort. Analysing trending topics across the web on trusted news sources as well as social platforms such as Twitter, Hitpad displays the current top news stories across a range of categories, from current affairs, to technology, to entertainment.

You get a single-sentence description of why each story is popular, and you can then drill down to news reports and related multimedia content to get a better understanding if you wish. The app learns about your interests as you use it, helping to display more relevant stories.

At present, Hitpad is firmly ‘pre-revenue’, although monetisation ideas for the future include the possibility of allowing brands to sponsor special trending topics or news categories.

The app is set to hit the app store later today.

UPDATE: The app is now live here. In the video below, CEO Jay Meydad demos the app.