Probably the thing I use my tablet for more than any other purpose is consuming the news. There are countless apps to assist you in doing this. Many will gather up news from a pile of sources which gives a better spectrum than if you were just on one site or app such as CNN. These apps require a range of setup on your part so you can determine what subjects get priority.
After trying around a dozen news apps, I've determined that there isn't a single solution for the way I read the news. I've got it narrowed down to three main apps. If you use an Android tablet or smart phone, and you want to read the news, then these are my recommendations. These aren't the only three apps I use for getting news, but they are the principle ones I use.
News360 - this is my first stop when I'm looking for headlines. First off, this app looks great and is easy to navigate. This one takes no setup on your part. Just load it up and you'll see the categories listed to the side. Two features pushed this app my list of favorites. First is Twitter integration. While reading a story you can hit a button and see what people on Twitter are saying about the story. You can also add your tweet about the story, including a link if you choose, from within this app. Second, while reading a story, the top of the page shows you what site the content came from and also other news sources that have the story. Meaning you can read the same story from two or more sources. Think one is biased? Then read another. I have used this multiple times on stories. Especially if some sources are more local to the story. Usually that local source will have more detailed info than the national sources.
Pulse - Pulse takes a few minutes to get up and going. From a list, choose the sites where you want your content to come from. You can also add your own favorite sites if you don't see the one you are looking for. There are also options in Pulse to add your Facebook feed. After setting up your content sources and organizing them on pages, you are ready to go. In the app, you have horizontal strips of boxes. Each horizontal line is a source (ex. Time magazine), and each box in the line is a story that you can click on. You decide which order the sources are stacked and can create multiple pages to organize your view. The resulting grid of boxes makes it very easy to quickly scan and read multiple news sites and their headlines.
Currents - This is a new one by Google for their tablets. Currents reads like a magazine. I tend not to use it as much for head lines, but for reading and viewing longer articles like you may do in a magazine. The layout is great and is easy to use. Again, you are choosing your sources, but this is very easy to use and doesn't take much time or effort to get up and running.
And now I know why newspapers are dying. Besides having coupons folded into their pages, the need for them is fading away. Most of my local news uses Twitter nowadays and I can quickly find out about headlines happening around town on my smart phone and without buying a paper.
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