In Review

NewsRoom (Android)

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5 stars - 'Right on the Money'
Android Market
Price: $4.99 (a trial is available)
Review by Clinton Stark

News Room HomeNewsRoom is one of the best RSS newsreaders available for Android. Rightfully rated 4.5 stars on Android Market its interface is simple and slick, employing swipe action to full advantage. I appreciate that it comes loaded with over 25 available feeds to choose from including major news sources (CNN, New York Times), popular tech blogs (Gizmodo, Mashable, Crunchgear), and, of course, Android sites (Android and Me, Android Central, Android Phone Fans). Any of these can be added by touching the add button at top.

Any RSS feed can also be added by entering its address.

The main screen looks iPhone-ish with small square, colorful icons in a grid like fashion, 12 per screen. I like that I can swipe across four pages, and a red maker shows me the number of unread new items for each, much like an inbox.

Stories themselves are ideally formatted, with a graphic where appropriate at the top, followed by the article.

Swiping up reveals the full feed with formatting, links, photos intact. Note that I could not find a way to adjust the font size which would be a useful option.

It’s one of the best RSS readers for Android and I use it everyday on my trusty Droid. It costs $4.99.

Another good pick is NewsRob. It’s free, and while not as sexy, it does aggregate all feeds from your Google Reader account. Give it a go. Between the two, you’ll be up-to-date.

It comes in handy too when Loni’s iPhone runs out of battery…she can borrow my Droid to stay productive.