It is common understanding that the iPad is the perfect reading device. Whether it’s about long reading sessions (iBooks, Kindle app) or news reading (Pulse, Instapaper, the upcoming Reeder for iPad) the iPad is proving itself to be just great when it comes to sit down and read. Books and iBookstore aside, what we’re seeing today is a slow shift away from typical RSS applications, and even if some great software is coming our way in the future weeks, developers are focusing on finding new solutions to let users catch up with the latest news. Pulse, which we reviewed here, is a good example: a customizable visual news reading app that lets you pick up your own sources and browse news in a visual way that no one has ever accomplished before, not on the iPhone OS platform at least.
The idea of enabling readers to choose their own way to stay updated with what’s going on isn’t new, but sure the iPad is helping in implementing this idea and turn it into great software. The Early Edition from Glasshouse Apps has just been updated to 1.1 version, and it’s about time to talk about this app, which allows you to create your personalized daily newspaper within a great looking interface.
The concept behind The Early Edition is simple and effective: it’s up to you to build your personal newspaper, which unlike every RSS application out there doesn’t just give you a list of the latest news on the Internet. It really resembles a real newspaper, with titles, subtitles, summaries, pages and the layout you’d expect from a paper edition. The app comes with a set of built-in sources (ranging from Politics and Business to Technology and Apple) but you can specify the websites you want to read by importing feeds from Google Reader, single sources and OPML files. You can create News Sections, move sources around and import the default ones again in case you deleted them (I did).
The interface design uses paper and wood elements to convey the feeling of reading a real newspaper on a table, and while I’d like it to be more polished and minimal, I quite like it. Text formatting is ok, but I suggest the developers to implement settings to let users pick up custom fonts and sizes. Overall, The Early Edition looks very good, the icon is great but some refinements would be much welcome.
When it comes to actual reading, everything is kept simple and user friendly. There’s a sidebar on the left (or a popover, if you use the app in portrait mode) which lists all your current sections and sources, and you can tap around to change sections and collapse / expand them. Basing on the news section you choose the newspaper changes on the right, just as you can in the screenshots. You can have a newspaper about Technology and one about MacStories, for instance. What I like most about the app is the layout of news: the app successfully manages to display the most important news on top, and minor ones down in the front page or following pages. It works really good, and it’s quite a pleasure to sit down on the couch, fire up The Early Edition and enjoy a good reading session with a morning cup of coffee.
The Early Edition is a great app which needs a couple of refinements here and there (fonts, faster animations) and some sort of Google Reader syncing. No big deal, anyway. I’m finding myself using it a lot more every day, and at only $4.99 in the App Store you should consider buying it as well.
But wait, you have the chance to win one of the 3 promo codes Glasshouse Apps offered to MacStories readers! To enter the contest, just leave a comment below and we’ll pick the winners on Thursday, June 3rd.
Good luck!
