In the age of curation and aggregation, getting news from one source is passé. But there is still a good feeling when you pick up your favorite newspaper. You feel like you have completed a task. With the aggregators and the digital consumption you are never complete and you can never tick off the news task from your mind.
How do you get the feeling of completeness with just the digital consumption? Through iPad, of course. iPad is an amazing device for content consumption, more so for reading.
These 5 India news apps will give you a wholesome feeling of getting your daily dose of news bytes.
IBNLive
A neatly done app which feels a little crowded at times, IBN Live is a must have iPad app. Browsing is a breeze in both landscape and portrait modes. Home screen is sprinkled with top stories from various sections. Each section gets its own colored banner which upon touching takes to the section.
Each story has options of images and videos. Most stories come with a video attached. It’s like getting your daily fix without the usual grind of “Breaking News" moniker.
Best part about IBN Live is its Live TV option. You can watch IBN Live on your iPad. It is only limited by your broadband speeds. Another best part is there are no ads anywhere. IBN Live has utilized the screen real estate very well. You can share stories on Twitter and Facebook. (iTunes link)
NDTV HD
NDTV HD’s iPad app is a straightforward two pane app with the sections on the left and the news bits on the right. NDTV app will not get an award for its design, but will get one for usefulness and being straight forward.
There is no learning curve to get used to the app.Everything you want to know is right on the home screen.
Top right strip is reserved for breaking news ticker, cricket score ticker and the stock market ticker. Bottom right strip is for a banner ad. The rest is for browsing through.
Just like IBN Live, NDTV has a Live TV and Radio option. You can actually watch 5 channels – NDTV 24×7, NDTV India, NDTV Profit, NDTV Goodtimes and NDTV Hindu. (iTunes link)
Times of India
Times of India (TOI)’s iPad app is crowded but neatly done with no excessive use of colors. It’s like your newspaper with interactive features built in. There’s news, speed news, a way to browse through Videos and Photos and a big ad at the footer.
TOI app has used the screen real estate very well. If IBN Live has used colors to stand out, TOI took the contrarian approach of using just Black and White.
There’s a Cricket ticker which gets your attention immediately. It’s a ticker with white fonts on a black background.
You can browse through various sections through the Sections tap placed prominently at the top left corner. TOI iPad app renders well in both portrait and landscape modes.
TOI iPad app is highly recommended for your daily news fix. (iTunes link)
Deccan Chronicle
Deccan Chronicle (DC) iPad app has a no-nonsense interface with just the news and a big ad for Asian Age.
It’s all text which is dense without any indentation of paragraphs. The app takes its time to load, it takes its time to shift from portrait to landscape and vice versa. Traversing through various sections is painfully slow.
DC iPad app needs to improve. It can start with speeding up the app.
If you are into getting your news from DC, then you can download this app for the content. Rest can ignore. (iTunes link)
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times (HT) iPad app starts with a black and white picture with no way of knowing what the picture is about. The picture than phases into the home page. HT’s app home page is neatly done with a mix of text and images.
Browsing through various sections is provided through a ticker on the sidebar which is scrollable. with various colors. Other apps have provided a drop-down list for browsing through various sections.
HT’s iPad app provides way to browse through all the news stories in a particular section, without going back to the main page.
Hindustan Times iPad app is a must have app for your India news needs. The app has a clean interface, real estate is well used, browsing through sections is intuitive and most importantly it doesn’t hurry on you. (iTunes link)
FirstPost
Firstpost’s iPad app derives much of its clean looks from its online site. Firstpost, which is an online only news site has shot to the top of the pile in a very less time.
FirstPost iPad app provides a three pane browsing which scroll independently of each other. This is the most notable feature of the app. There’s is the Featured Voice in the left most pane, top news in the central pane and Editor’s pick in the right most pane.
Browsing through various sections is through a button provided at the bottom of the screen. Firstpost features a banner ad the bottom which is house ad for IBN Live app. (iTunes link)
Finally
Hindustan Times is a must-have app for its clean interface and intuitive browsing controls.
Deccan Chronicle probably shouldn’t be on this list and don’t worry it’s not counted in the 5 apps.
Between IBN Live and NDTV HD, both having Live TV options, I like the IBN Live interface.