The First Must have application for iPad

Whilst the new wired application is getting a lot of plaudits( and why shouldn’t it- it’s a fantastic app) I have been seeing ever more mentions of an app called pulse. Pulse is a iPad specific RSS reader application that makes use of the iPad large touch screen interface to combine rss feeds into what I can only describe as a custom news paper. The app is a small download, and in the UK app store costs only £2.39. The setup is like that of pretty much any RSS reader I have used, except with a great search functionality which you can enter a keyword to search on. For example I wanted to add a local newspaper from back home -”The Press and Journal” but for the life of me I wasn’t sure the exact URL let alone the rss location for the site. Rather than having to exit the app to go into safari, I simply entered the name of the article, and upon clicking search was instantly shown a whole list of feeds that might be the one I was looking for.

The method of browsing the article is intuitive, think of the way that lists of apps are placed in side to side scrolling windows in iTunes and you’ll get the idea. Each different feed you add gets it’s own row with articles from it’s feed arranged left to right in order of age. Entering a feed drops the picture strip to the bottom, and you can then navigate through each article by flicking left to right. Clicking an entry poems it in the main viewing window, and you have the option of reading the summary in plain text or choose the “web” option for access to the original page.

The app is a work in progress, but the two graduate students that are developing it promise a steady stream of updates. As a first try Pulse is exceptional, and a definite must have, even in it’s unfinished state.

Pulses site can be found here http://www.alphonsolabs.com/pulse