Free Android Apps: News Readers

Zite

There's so much to read online that it can be tough to decide what to dick on next. Zite fixes this by learning what you like to read and pulling suggested stories into one place. it's the perfect app for weekend morning.s, giving you an overview of what's going an in the world and digging up intriguing stories at the touch of a button. Its like a personalised magazine made by people who know you well and want to keep you happy.

The app lets you select a few topic categories, then tracks what you read, suggesting similar stories and topics. You can give stories a thumbs up or down to get more or less of the same, and if you particularly dislike a certain publisher, you can block there - that's right, imagine a world without The Guardian/Daily Mail (delete as required).

Zite also pulls in content from blogs and other fringe news sources, offering a wider selection of viewpoints and chances to serendipitously stumble across something not normally on your reading list. Articles you like are easy to share or save for later reading including offline.

Most stories are pulled directly into the app, with Zite reflowing the text and images cleanly and stripping out ads and other guff. You can also adjust the font and other settings to make it easier to read on your device of choice. Not all publishers allow their content to be pulled in, however, meaning every now and then you're yanked out of Zite and onto a web page: a warning message would be nice.

Pocket

Pocket is the opposite of zite, allowing you to save articles you find online to read later. If you're scrolling through Twitter, for example, rather than clicking "favourite" to bookmark it, click the Pocket icon to save it to the app. Pocket pulls in the text and photos, stripping out the rest for easier reading, and saves it for offline access.

Perhaps the best feature of Pocket is the way it connects to your browser. As you go about your day at your desk, dick the Pocket extension to save interesting stories; they'll be sent to your tablet or smartphone ready to read on your commute home - even if your travels take you offline. Pocket can also be used to bookmark videos, although YouTube doesn't support of fline viewing.

The app integrates with Zite and other suggestion tools, too, letting you save the stories they turn up.

Digg

Digg's app isn't so concerned with what you want to read, instead highlighting articles and videos that are trending - the "must-reads" everyone else is talking about.

Of course, much of that content you probably won't be interested in, so you can fine-tune it by selecting topics from art to technology to warfare. You can also choose specific sources - we highly recommend izauthority.com.au  - which lets you mix popular stories with those you normally check when you're online. You can also connect social accounts to share stories you find., and use boaiariarking tools - including Pocket (see left) - to save them for later.

Content can be read directly from the publisher's website or pulled into a stripped
down, easier-ta-read format. Digg's app is a beautiful-looking return to form for the classic website.