While I have a habit of reading the newspaper daily, there’s nothing that beats the web and it’s world of news aggregators when it comes to news consumption and keeping track of breaking news as well as features.
There are a limitless number of technology blogs and websites on the WWW, each attempting to carve their niche in the media space, but visiting them daily is surely a painful job to do. That’s where news aggregators come in, helping you source news from dozens of online media properties of the topic of your choices, even in the form of an app to fix your daily does of technology kn0w-how.
Appy Geek, based on the same interface as the parent app NewsRepublic, is one such app that will find a permanent place in your Android/iOS/Amazon smartphone/tablet’s home screen folder. Yes, this app is a tech geek’s dream come true: a news aggregator focusing on technology news, right at your fingertips.
The Review
[wp-review]You will be forgiven if you feel a tinge of excitement while launching the app for the first time, because hell yeah, the app’s concept is worth of just that. You’re led to a clearly-laid out user interface, comprising of three sections- My News, My Topics, and Digest.
Appy Geek accesses news from over 110 media partners and pulls in thousands of posts straight to you, as per your specifications. You can personalize your ‘Home’ by selecting news channels or topics that interest you. You can set alerts on your favorite topics.
As is the case with most news apps, it comes with a built in share feature that allows to you to share articles that you like straight to Facebook or Twitter or even email. Thankfully, it doesn’t pull in your pals’ social media updates, something which is quite bothersome on competitor Flipboard.
The tile-like structure will remind you of Windows 8, but I can assure you it works great for this app. Navigating the app has little or negligible learning curve, and is pretty straightforward.
You can set criteria for articles that are to be saved offline pertaining to a particular category. Discovering your interests is quite simple as the app offers bifurcation into apps, companies, operating systems and mobile devices.
The default text setting is black text on white wallpaper, whereas you ca get white text on black background by choosing the ‘night mode.’ Customisation too is adequate and simple. and not befuddling as is the case with most Android news apps.
Stuff I Like
I haven’t yet spoken about the crown of all features- the TagNav feature. The 3D world cloud based system allows you to find related stories easily. When you are on any story just press TagNav button placed on the top right side of the page, and once you do this you will see all related tags floating on the screen. The app, with our usage, got smarter in it’s recommendations too.
Stuff I Dislike
I have to admit, the app doesn’t come without its flaws. Initial boot up time can get annoying at times. Also, after a while, the recommendation engine throws up issues, and stories suggested by it are mainly generic in nature.
Another minor issue I faced during my prolonged usage was that if I delete a particular topic, the space occupied by it remains empty and I have to actually move all the topics below it one step up to accommodate that blank space, which obviously is cumbersome in itself.
They’ve stopped supporting the Windows version, which could be a deal-breaker for a few.
The Verdict
News Republic’s Appy Geek provides a slick and smooth interface for tech enthusiasts to catch up on their news, and it’s the best app out there hands-down, when it comes to tech news aggregation. You can download the Android app from here. Do share your experience with us in the comments section below.
P.S. Don’t forget to add The Tech Portal to your news sources.
Now you too can tell us your review ! We’ve just incorporated User Reviews. Tell us what you think about Appy Geek. Just click on number of star you wish to add to Appy Geek, and it gets automatically recorded. Post a review down below, RIGHT NOW !!!
