If you’re a news junkie, or really if you just rely on multiple sources to get the day’s headlines in sports, entertainment, and other news, then News Addict could be the news app you’ve been looking for. News Addict combines over 20 different news sources in one easy to view application. Linking directly to mobile news sites like CNBC, USA Today, TIME, Wall Street Journal, AP News, Washington Post, ESPN, The New York Times, and more, News Addict gives users fairly quick access to the day in news in a full-screen browser format.

News Addict is quite comprehensive in its selection of news sites, though a few, like Digg, Google News and Yahoo! may not meet some users’ requirements as news sources and others, like ESPN may not even be on their radar. Since many news junkies have their personal news preferences, the inability to rearrange the News Addict home screen icons in order of preference or even delete the ones that are never used may seem a bit inconvenient. It’s possible that this ability will be enabled in a future update though, and in the mean time there are plenty of credible sources regardless of your personal leanings.

As comprehensive as News Addict is and as nice as it is to have all your major news sources tied up neatly in one app, there are a few minor draw backs to News Addict that should be addressed. The first is the inconsistency of text size between the different sites. Some sites, such as The New York Times, loads very small text that is impossible to read without zooming in. This helps, but creates the need to pan left and right to read an article or to switch to landscape mode.

The other minor annoyance I found was in navigation. Tapping the bottom left corner acts very much like the back button of any browser, however, to view the full navigation bar, you have to tap the tiny tab in the lower right. I appreciate the full-screen viewing, but often find myself tediously trying to hit the tiny little tab just right to get the tool bar response. I don’t appreciate having to cajole the little button when I’m casually catching up on news.

Aside from these small flaws, which you really can work around if you try, I found News Addict to be user-friendly in most other aspects. Some features, such as the pictures and videos available from some sites load slowly, but for the most part the individual sites and the text therein loads quick enough. The biggest advantage I see with News Addict is to eliminate screen clutter on your iPhone by having access to nearly all the major news sites under one icon.

News Addict is only a buck as an introductory price and for obtaining quick, comprehensive access to mobile news, it’s pretty much ideal. It’s not the most sexy app ever, but it is well-designed – enough so that I didn’t mind the few ads that appeared atop some of the news sites and I definitely appreciate more news, less clutter. Even though I kind of prefer some of the individual site’s apps, like USA Today and there a few minor adjusments that could stand to be made,  in my opinion once News Addict is downloaded it’s still a keeper.

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category: General News, News, Worthwhile Apps