Pulse News Mini Is Back On Par With Its iPad Counterpart
March 24, 2011
Earlier today, Alphonso Labs released a major update to Pulse News Mini, the company's iPhone and iPod touch-optimized version of their hit multi-source news and social network reader. The update contains performance enhancements and expansions on source, organizing, and search features.
One of the biggest changes involves the ability to group sources into five customizable pages, requiring only a single tap on a page name to navigate amongst the lists. Tapping on the page name a second time will hide the page titles, then tap again to bring them back. Quickly add sources to pages by tapping on the settings icon in the top-left corner. Tap the Edit button in the top-right to allow page name modifications, plus delete and move sources within or even amongst the page lists.
When viewing an empty page in the edit mode, you'll notice an option to pick a category: technology, finance, entertainment, etc. Tapping on a category will offer to fill that page with the most popular sources of the selected topic, including a top stories feed. You should find this option very useful since Pulse News Mini now has 60 pre-defined sources included, up from the previous 20.
Pulse News Mini v2.0 has more social-networking integration than ever before. View top videos on YouTube, top photos posted to Flickr, photos and videos posted by your Facebook friends, plus top articles from Digg, Reddit, and more. There is also the ability to "like," comment about, and share Facebook media via email without ever needing to leave Pulse News Mini.
Further improvements to Pulse News Mini include:
• Three Times the Speed: Improved performance means sources update and images load faster, and scrolling is smoother and more fluid.
• Enhanced Search: Search results now include our most added news feeds with images and more relevant titles.
• Improved Google Reader: We now save stories read offline on Pulse and sync them to Google Reader when the app is online later.
For those with both an iPhone or iPod touch and iPad, you'll be happy to know that Pulse News Mini is now much closer to the iPad-optimized Pulse News Reader experience.
Despite the stated compatibility requirements in the App Store, Alphonso Labs must have noticed a bug with iOS 3.1.3 use after submission because they note that only those running iOS 4 should update to Pulse News Mini v2.0.
IMPORTANT: This update should only be downloaded on iOS 4.0 and above. We will release a version compatible with older versions shortly.Pulse News Mini is designed for iPhone and iPod touch, and available as a free download in the App Store. [gallery link="file" columns="4"]