News360 brings tablet news aggregation to your Android smartphone

So many times when I’m browsing for new Android apps, I come across one that I really like. It sounds good, it looks good, and then bam: it’s for tablets only. Not that it’s a problem, but we clearly focus on the smartphone product here at AndGeeks, and since I don’t have an Android tablet I’m not sure my take on any apps is going to mean much. I had seen the News360 app previously, and thought it would be a cool add to my Android phone. Thankfully I, and you, can now get it. The developer has released a smartphone version, and it’s definitely worth the grab. The hook is that News360 gathers stories from over 4,000 sources and somehow delivers that to you in an easy to navigate manner. That’s certainly a feat worth seeing. I love my Google Reader and all, but sometimes it can be too much. You get every post from every site, and it adds up quickly. Even if I empty my reader around dinner time, I can still have 500 to 700 items when I wake up in the morning. News360 can take some of the headline scanning out of the picture by delivering a customized listing of news stories. The idea is pretty basic: you create sections, adding various searchable aspects. The screenshot to the right kind of puts that in perspective. If you have an Android section you can add the main Android news, but you can also go into other details. If you’re an HTC fan, you can add news about them, and so on. It helps create a comprehensive section. The application apparently uses “linguistic algorithms” to deliver stories that you’ll enjoy. What I like is that you can dig deeper into various aspects of stories. Say there’s a technology story you’re reading, and you want to know more about a CEO that gets a mention. Just click on him, and you’ll get a profile. This can work for the company itself as well. These are often things I want to know when reading a story, and when on my smartphone it means going back to the home screen, opening the browser, and searching there. I like that News360 keeps it all in one place. There are other features, too, such as a local news aggregator that delivers based on your current location. Apparently you can connect it to TripIt and get stories that are local to a future destination. That can work when you’re traveling for the week on business. I’d been hoping that this app would come to Android smartphones, and so I’m quite gleeful that I get the chance to play around with this. You can grab News360 for free from the Market. You’ll need Android 2.2 or better. Via Android Police.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.