idio Platform

Pulse is the anti-newspaper; a news aggregation creation of two youngster graduates. You could go to the loo, fire up the content grids, which are like prettier, pictorial RSS feeds and within seconds your fingers have swiped 20 or so grids of news from multiple sources and maybe delved into a few. Content bursts at a pulse-like speed with the user in complete control of navigation as you flick in and out of what interests. You can hover over one source in detail in portrait, or skim up and down through up to 20 sources in landscape. The usable interface suits all reading habits.

1. Usefulness/ Value to user

We knew this news aggregating app. would be a winner when it featured in Steve Jobs’ Keynote speech. Although, its public collation of RSS feeds caused a spot of  trouble recently with the New York Times. But hurrah, the issue was quickly sorted, pictures were changed and now the fast moving app is back on track. So why does Pulse deserve our vote? Because it makes reading mass amounts of content incredibly easy.. and pretty; it is a step-up from the RSS reader.  Not only can you can jump between bite-size snippets and deeper articles, the sources are also laid out in a pretty, agreeable  interface..(yes, I am female).

2. useability/interface

The interface is as neat as a 1950s show-kitchen.  The application displays a magical grid of news sources where websites are listed vertically and individual stories for that site are displayed horizontally. The visual and textual experience of news has been merged here as each source includes photos as well. Portrait is good for focusing on one source; landscape is better for browsing. The transition from portrait to landscape is so slick and you can amuse yourself for hours flipping the iPad. Although the user is in control of the aggregation, there is a sense that you don’t have to do the work by managing RSS feeds. It updates in a matter of seconds to keep you up-to-date with the top news stories.

3. Price/Business model

Pulse is not free. It costs $3.99. But it needs that revenue as there are no ads blocking up the content. But the app has been downloaded over 35,000 times, so it is doing pretty well for itself.

4. Additional functionality

There are lots of additional functions for the Pulse Reader including Google Reader support, sharing news on twitter and facebook, easy searching- through source name, web ir feed URL, or any custom keyword and feed renaming. There is promise of in-line videos to come as well as extending the current limit of twenty RSS feeds.

Summary

The accusations of the New York Times are ironic because this app. gives great publicity to the newspaper apps. that it links to. It aggregates news sources into a neat, easy-to-read format, where the user then taps through to the original article.