If you’re a regular denizen of Slashdot.org, Freshmeat.net and other SourceForge Network sites, you can now get your geek on with SourceForge Network News for the iPhone and iPod touch.

SourceForge is a collection of popular sites for technology pros and enthusiasts. It includes Slashdot.org, SourceForge.net, Linux.com, freshmeat.net, ITManagersJournal, ThinkGeek and SourceForge.net.

SourceForge Network News grabs news from five of the Web network’s most popular sites:  Slashdot, a community of avid (some might say rabid) and opinionated tech followers; ThinkGeek, an e-commerce site that sells t-shirts, toys and other goods for techno-enthusiasts; SourceForge.net, an open-source software and news site; Freshmeat; and Linux.com. The last two cover what’s happening in the Linux OS world.

SourceForge Network News is a no-nonsense, bland-looking app with icons along the bottom menu bar representing each site. Tap any of the Slashdot, Freshmeat, Linux.com or SF.net icons and you’ll get a list of recent news stories, and in the case of Thinkgeek, an offering of the latest tech-styles and goods.

Tapping a news items will pop up brief — a paragraph or two — news piece. For longer stories, you’ll have to follow a link to the Web site to read the rest of the story.

SourceForge Network News compares poorly to every other news-oriented app that I’ve looked at such as Mobile News Network and USA Today.

SourceForge Network news is more of an RSS feeder than a true news app. SouceForge Network News lacks a polished interface and what little copy you see is dense and often hard to read (there’s no pinch and zoom). It’s main value is that you can get short bits of info about the day’s hot topics, but you’ll still have to go to the Web site to get the full story.

About the best thing you can say about SourceForge Network News is that it’s free. Otherwise, I’d tell you to save your money.

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category: News, Utilities