Still One Of The Top News Readers In The App Store, Pulse Steps Into The Local News Scene
March 9, 2012
Alphonso Labs launched Pulse for iPad back in the spring of 2010. The app has evolved since then and gained plenty of news partners for users to discover. From tech sites to fashion magazines, most of the current partners are national news providers. While that's fine, Alphonso has added Pulse Local, a way to stay up-to-date on the neighborhood stories.
Silently added to the list of categories, Local is propagated with CBS Local, AOL Patch, plus actual local only news providers. Adding one of the new offerings is the same process as always; tap on the Settings button (gear) in the top-left, then the "+" at the bottom of any of the news pages, choose Local, and finally browse the listings and select your desired news provider.
Speaking of selection, the current lineup of local news providers seems to be fairly thin. In fact, the sports section was the only one that listed more than a dozen, whereas the food and Patch listings were completely blank. Such a lack of choices seems a little disappointing because I live in a metropolitan area, a suburb of Phoenix, but I'm certain more will be added in a timely fashion. Nevertheless, Alphonso suggests submitting your own source interests using the Pulse Connect form.
In related topics, Alphonso is looking to add "branded-content advertising" to help bring in a little revenue and expand abroad content. As of now, about 33 percent of Pulse users live outside of the U.S., but very few of the included news partners originate in other countries or otherwise publish significant amounts of international news.
Pulse News for iPhone is compatible with iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store as a free download. Pulse News for iPad is compatible with iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store as a free download.
[via Bloomberg Businessweek]
