New Republic is a news app for several mobile platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet, blackberry, Nokia and more. It fetch news from around the Web and display them in a clean and easy-to-use interface. Note: News Republic is available for a variety of mobile platform. The version reviewed in this article is based on the Android tablet version. There are a few things that I like about News Republic. Firstly, it has a beautiful and easy to use interface. On the left column is the news strip where you can see the various news in brief. Tapping on any of the news headline will load its content on the right column. While reading the news on the right column, you can also increase/decrease the font size and share the content to various social networks.
Secondly, there are plenty of news from different sections (Business, Sports, Celebrities, Entertainment, Technology, World News and more) and you can select those that you are interested in to appear in the Home screen (of the app).
In the Topics selection window, all the topics are arranged in three tabs: Featured, Most Popular, Newly Added. You can scroll through the tabs to find the topics that you are interested in. A tap on the topic (with filled star beside it) means that it has been added to your home screen.
There is a Home icon at the center of the screen. At any point of time, tapping on the Home icon will bring you back to the Home screen (of the app) where you can select the section that you want to read. There is also a Globe icon, which when tapped, will show a globe with the various tags around the world. Tapping on any of the tag will load all the news for that tag.
Thirdly, there is a Save Article feature where you can save article to read it later. Your Saved Article can be found at the “SAVED ARTICLES” section in the Home screen. Fourthly, for the Android version, you can add a “Breaking News” widget on your phone home screen so you can get notified of the breaking news without having to open the app.
If there is any thing that needs improvement, that has to be the content curation. At the moment, all the content that shows up in the app are curated by News Republic. You won’t be able to add your favourite RSS feed from any other site. It would be great if they can include this feature. What other news apps do you use for your smartphone? News Republic for Tablet (Android market link) News Republic website (for all platform download link)
