Add the Huffington Post to the growing list of free newsreader apps. The HuffingtonPost.com iPhone app is similar in many ways to the other news apps I’ve looked at including the New York Times, Mobile News Network Powered by AP and USA Today.

Launch the app, and you’ll immediately see a list of current opinion and news stories. The default categories are politics, blogs and media. Tap the More button in the lower right corner and you’ll be able to catch up with HuffPost stories in entertainment, living, business, style, green, world and comedy. If you prefer one category to another, you can put it (up to three) on your menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Again, that’s how all these apps work.

HuffingtonPost.com’s interface falls short in a couple of ways when compared to  the New York Times, Mobile News Network and USA Today. It’s not as polished. It appears as though the site decided to dump it’s content into the app, first stripping out the bits that might slow download times, without much regard for the iPhone or iPod touch’s technical capabilities.

Among its listings, you’ll see WATCH: alongside some headlines that purportedly include videos. Tap the headline that blares the recent dust up between Chris Matthews and Ari Fletcher, for example, and you’ll see a big block of white space in the middle of the story. That’s where a Flash video would go, if the iPhone and iPod touch could actually playback Flash. Further down, you’ll see another block, this one red, with instructions to download Flash Player from Adobe to watch the video.

HuffPost content downloads quickly, all in one shot, so you can read stories offline (again, a common feature).

Obviously, HuffPost differs in content compared to other news readers. It focuses mainly on politics and has a decidedly liberal bias. In addition to its original content, Huffington Post runs stories pulled from the AP, USA Today and other sources. If you’re a regular reader of the online version, then this app is the only way to get your fix while on the go.

Unlike Mobile News Network and USA Today, however, Huffington Post’s app is not ad-supported, at least not yet.

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app category: News, Worthwhile Apps