App Review: Android News Feed
#1
Posted 03 March 2013 - 01:51 PM
I am a very avid Google Reader user and use the service on a daily basis to get my various technology and Android news. I know that sometimes, I would like to just focus on one topic. For example, Android. There are many news sites that host Android-related content, and it can be hard to keep track of them all and I know that Google Reader can get kind of overwhelming and cluttered if you have too many sources.
This is where Android News Feed comes in. It allows you to view many Android-related sites and their content. It focuses on one thing and one thing only, getting you Android news.
DESIGN
Android News Feed presents the information from these various sites in a simplistic, straightforward UI. You tap on a news site, and you get the feed of articles. Just like that, no fuss, no lag, no wait. You can tap on an article and be brought into an optimized version of the article that shuns the ads and other content that would show up on the site. This allows you to focus on the article content itself, and not the ads that surround it.
Unfortunately, Android News Feed is hindered by one missing feature: the option to move to the next article from the article you are currently viewing. To switch to the next article, you have to go back to the list and then tap on the next article. It may not sound like a big issue, but if you're used to Google Reader apps that have this feature, you'll find it hard to adjust.
As you can see in the list view, the only thumbnails you see are a generic RSS logo. I would love to see these thumbnails put to use by putting a preview of a photo or video in the article. The way they sit now, they basically take up screen space. The developer is currently working on this issue.
PERFORMANCE
The app is very fast all around. Refreshing feeds is very quick, articles come up instantly, and the app starts up fast. Very fluid to use and no issues with performance.
FUNCTIONALITY
The app is very simplistic, and does lack any sort of settings to configure. I'm sure the developer will continue to add features and functionality as the app gets developed, which will raise the need for a dedicated settings panel. Android News Feed does its job without all the extra fluff. It does what it needs to do and does it with no fuss.
CONCLUSION
If you want to read all the latest and greatest news in the Android world, this app should serve you well. It is an unobtrusive, uncluttered, and fast way to get your news. You no longer have to worry about jamming your Google Reader account full of Android news sites that seem to have never-ending unread counts. This app is simple and lacks many features that could prove to be important for readers like article navigation and article thumbnails.
Another minor problem that I didn't outline above is the fact that most of the articles in the app are shortened. To get to the full story, you have to load up the site itself, which can be a pain if you are on a slow data connection and you have to load the desktop site.
All of that aside, Android News Feed should serve you very well and has a lot of potential for future features and functionality.
Grab it on the PlayStore here ($1.00) :
- mattlgroff, Narffran, papi92 and 3 others like this
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#2
Posted 03 March 2013 - 05:22 PM
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#3
Posted 03 March 2013 - 05:54 PM
I am working on the RSS images should be done soon. Let me know what you guys think.
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So Papi, where's the DR exclusive freebie download link?
- BytecodeMe and tmyinc like this
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#4
Posted 03 March 2013 - 07:55 PM
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#5
Posted 03 March 2013 - 08:43 PM
I'll throw out some free copies. You have my gtalk lol
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Nicccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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#6
Posted 03 March 2013 - 09:10 PM
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#7
Posted 03 March 2013 - 09:35 PM
If anyone wants a copy I'll give away 5 links. PM me
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Well my PM's aren't going through so I guess I'm out of luck lol. Does anyone else have problems with PM's?
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#8
Posted 03 March 2013 - 09:43 PM
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#9
Posted 04 March 2013 - 03:23 AM
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#10
Posted 04 March 2013 - 06:29 AM
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#11
Posted 04 March 2013 - 07:27 AM
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#12
Posted 04 March 2013 - 07:31 AM
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#13
Posted 04 March 2013 - 07:44 AM
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#14
Posted 04 March 2013 - 07:58 AM
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#15
Posted 04 March 2013 - 08:00 AM
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#16
Posted 04 March 2013 - 02:58 PM
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#17
Posted 04 March 2013 - 03:26 PM
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#18
Posted 04 March 2013 - 04:19 PM
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#19
Posted 04 March 2013 - 04:34 PM
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#20
Posted 04 March 2013 - 04:36 PM
I like supporting good devs
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