PressReader – A Newsstand for your Phone/Tablet [Review]
One of the best things I used my old Palm Pilots for, and have continued with my phone and tablet is to use it to read. Comics, Google Reader, lots and lots of books, not to mention web… one thing I haven’t had to do a lot of is read the newspaper.
Tho’, lately, finding a paper has gotten harder as the paper at work disappears pretty quickly. I figure reading the twitter / Google+ / Reader feeds should be enough, but there’s something about the layout that I miss.
Well, I wont’ have to miss out much more with PressReader. This is a service which has been popular on the iOS devices for a while now, but now available for Android. With it you can download (for a fee) newsstand copies of newspapers.
Now there is a fee… I know what you’re going to say. But it’s much less than buying the paper version. And, if you go for the subscription, even better. [the pay per go is $0.99/download, cheaper that many many newspapers, and the unlimited is $30/month — that’s about a dollar more than just the National Post alone]
So, you decide if you think it’s worth it. For me, not quite. I’ll enjoy the pay-per-go version, as they don’t carry my local paper, but it’s nice to get the odd National Post, Toronto Sun or Star and Calgary Herald (got relatives around the country who fill me in).
How does it work?
Well, you first browse through the HUGE catalogue of papers and you can click on one to download it singly, or choose to set it up to download as new ones come in (best to check with subscription service you’re on).
Once you set them up they’ll be in your ‘library’, and from there just click away to read an edition of your choice.
Reading is just as you would expect reading a digital newspaper. Easy. Pan around, zoom, fling to switch pages. It can be a little tricky understanding when you’re in ‘zoom’ or pane mode (you can’t fling to the next page if you’re zoomed in), but you pick it up right away.
When reading you also have the option to put it into a page preview, which is good if you want to quickly jump sections (I’ll admit, I’m not much of a sports guy — nor finance… give me the editorials… and the funnies).
There’s also the option when you’re panning a page to hit the title of an article to jump to a screen with just the text. Honestly, I see how it’d be easier to read, but I LOVE how papers do their layout, so I’ve not used that feature.
Another feature available is to have the program read to you the article. Great for accessibility options, or if you’re on a particularly bumpy train/bus ride to work. Plop the headphones on and listen.
So, not much more to it than that. What I best recommend is users to just download it — it’s free to try (i.e. install the app), and then just download a couple of articles at only a $1 each. If you like reading papers, you’ll most likely start to subscribe to the unlimited. Market links are just below the gallery of screen shots.
[which should I install on 4.0+ phones?]