This article was published on August 20, 2010

River of News. My new favorite iPad news reader.


River of News. My new favorite iPad news reader.

TNW Quick Hit

River of News is a full-featured iPad RSS reader that makes reading all of your feeds extremely enjoyable.

Love It: Easy to setup, simple, yet elegant, user interface.

Hate It: I had to wait so long for something like River of News to arrive.

Overall: 5/5

The Details:

Life is a series of quests.  For some it was a quest to discover the 7 cities of Cibola.  For some it is a quest to find that special someone.  For some it is a quest to become wealthy beyond one’s wildest dreams.  For me, since the launch of the iPad, I have been on a quest to find the perfect news reader.  Do I know how to party or what?

Thankfully my life as news reader-seeking dork has led me to what is now my new favorite news reader, River of News ($2.99).

What makes River of News so great?  First it is only $2.99.  A fair price for an iPad app.  Second, it is easy to set up.  If you have a Google Reader account, enter your information and your news stream (pun intended) populates.  If you don’t have a Google Reader account, you can set one up at reader.google.com, and begin letting your news feeds trickle in (again, pun intended), as you add them.

That said, the most grand thing about River of News is the elegantly, simple, user interface.  River of News allows one to really dig in and enjoy the full text of your news stories.  There’s no jumping between header and article. It’s natural like browsing web sites, except you get the power of aggregating hundreds of sites into one efficient and beautiful interface.

But wait, there’s more.  Other features include:

  • Always in sync with Google Reader
  • Unlimited feeds, folders and articles
  • Infinite scroll
  • Mark as read while you scroll
  • 2 fonts and 3 sizes. Choose what is comfortable for your eyes.
  • Share and store articles in many ways: Facebook, Twitter, Email, Instapaper, Read it Later, Delicious and Tumblr!

To say I like River of News is putting it mildly.  There are other news readers, and I will keep two other ones I really enjoy on my iPad, but this review isn’t about them, it’s about River of News.  Try it and I guarantee, without providing a legally binding guarantee, that you’ll truly enjoy it.

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