News Republic 4.4.2
While it’s certainly not the simplest news app on iTunes, it also doesn’t put too much pressure on you to set it up. You can go ahead and use it without an account, but you’ll need to perform a few taps before you start reading the latest trending stories.
A beautiful, personalized news app
A news app doesn’t need much of an interface, mainly because the focus in this case is the content. And that’s one test that News Republic (the developer) passes with flying colors. The menu bar at the top holds only a few controls, and it’s all you need, as you’ll discover for yourselves.
Unlike BuzzFeed, which starts off by displaying the latest stores front and center, News Republic begins with a brief guide, followed by the prompt to “select your interests.”
In our BuzzFeed review we mentioned that some people love to just delve right into the reading bit, making it a great choice for those kinds of people. However, some prefer to arrange things in a manner that suits their needs before jumping in. For them, News Republic is a much better choice.
You’re only given a handful of options at first, and you can expand on them as you continue to use the app.
News Republic account and its perks
If you decide to sign in, you’ll get news tailored to your tastes based on your browsing habits, likes, and so on and so forth. In every category there’s a tag cloud that looks like a spinning sphere of keywords, which is a really awesome way to get to the stuff that interests you the most. It’s called the TagNav explorer, and apparently News Republic has even trademarked the thing.
Home screen, offline reading
The tile-based browser is really nice and fluent. The app feels ventilated and spaced out, despite packing copious amounts of content, including videos and image galleries. You can add topics to your home screen, to always stay on top of a particular thing that interests you, and sharing is available in every corner of the app.
News Republic also offers a number of handy options in the settings panel over to the right hand side. For example, this menu holds an offline browsing mode, a night-reading mode, and even more tweaks.
The app comes with a “My news digest” corner which you can access by swiping to the right on your homescreen. This is where you’ll find an overview of the most important news of the day, based on the topics added to your homescreen.
There’s even a special notification that will remind you to check the area every morning.
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News reader/RSSPortable version:
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0/5
Hits & Misses
hits
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misses
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Bottom Line
Design / UI9
A great design that facilitates easy navigation through the topics that interest you. |
Function9
BuzzFeed learns about your tastes and delivers, or you can use it privately (without an account) and even offline. |
Security8
Doesn’t force you to sign in, but once you do it records your habits. Also, the 4+ age requirement is probably not accurate. |
Battery8
Normal consumption levels. |
Price10
No price to pay whatsoever. App’s free of charge. |
Compatibility9
Only requires iOS 6 and works with every iDevice model out there. |
A truly personal news reading experience, with tons of options to benefit from
Specifications
- price:
- 100% Free
- current version:
- 4.4.2
- reviewed version:
- 4.3.1
- developer:
- News Republic
- category:
- INTERNET & NETWORK
- os version req.:
- 6.0
- age rating:
- 12+
- in-app purchases:
- Yes.
- hits:
- 479