Softonic’s App of the Week highlights some of the most unique, coolest, and most interesting mobile apps for iOS and Android. This week, it’s all about staying informed. If you’re looking for a quick way to get your news, try Newsbeat, a personalized news reader available for iOS and Android.
Launched last month by Tribune Digital Venutres, Newsbeat takes written news stories and transforms them into audio in the form of news radio. You choose from a pool of over 400 local, national, and global news publications, specifying sections and topics to get exactly the news you want to hear about. Then, you’ll get a personalized list of news stories, which will stream in succession, read aloud by either a human voice, or using sound to speech technology which, surprisingly, doesn’t sound too bad (although there are some options to change the voice if you’re not a fan).
You can skip news stories you’re not interested in, or share ones you do like with friends. They’ve got a lot of the big metro newspapers and national news outlets like The New York Post, LA Times, NBC News and CNN, as well as online news sources like TechCrunch, but they’re still missing some heavy hitters like the New York Times and BBC News. Overall, however, this innovative way to get personally curated news stands out from some of the other popular news aggregators currently on the market.
Check out some of our past App of the Week features:
