Share Stories Any Way You Want With Smartr News For iPad
Smartr News for iPad (Free) by Factyle allows you to create and share your own personal newspaper.
This app is not only a personal newspaper, but also a blog, message board, and a way to share articles in ways that are only limited by your imagination. The content is divided into pages, which can feature your Facebook feed and Twitter timeline.
What’s really cool is that you can also add specific lists in Twitter as its own page. I noticed that my Facebook profile picture showed as my Twitter and Smartr profiles as well.
I was a little irked by that, considering Facebook is for my personal connections and Twitter is for my professional ones.
The Smartr feed allows you to follow other users who have similar interests. You can even message back and forth. Some of the other pages available are: celebrity gossip, technology, breaking news, movies, and music.
Articles that you like can either be saved to Instapaper or Read It Later, or shared through Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Posterous. Or you could even email it (to your grandparents or BlackBerry users).
As if there weren’t enough ways to share articles, you can even create a blog that will post articles you select. Others can then subscribe to your blog. I think by that point it becomes too much. Sharing through Facebook or Twitter is less involved.
You can view the pages in either landscape or portrait mode, though I recommend portrait. The interface gets too narrow otherwise. An even better option, though, is double tapping the article to make it full screen. This mode appears just fine either way you position your iPad.
This app isn’t the only personal newspaper out there. Flipboard is certainly a contender, but I would recommend Smartr if you’re looking for a more social way of consuming the news.
