There’s something to be said about the old fashioned way to get news. The newspaper makes it easy to scan pages, find an interesting headline, and dig into a few details with a quick glance.
Alas, killing trees to deliver daily news is so yesteryear. Nearly everything I read these days is online. Mac, iPhone, iPad. Multiple screen sizes and shapes, and the wide variance between apps make for as much discomfort as new media makes for variety.
RSS readers deliver the headlines and a summary in typical form. You still need to click or touch to get the details, but scanning is anything but similar to a newspaper.
Check out the screen of Glance News, a popular Mac App Store app for news reading.
Yes, everything on the screen is a glance, but ohmygawd– what’s with all the screen clutter.
Contrast that with my favorite news devouring app, Flipboard on the iPad.
This is the way to get your news, but it’s iPad only. What prevents a similar interface from being utilized in a Mac app?
Obviously, the iPhone brings viewing restrictions so most news apps provide a headline, a matching graphic, and a brief summary. A tap gets you the details (or, more details and link to the original and even more details).
Just because someone can put 60 or 70 headlines on a Mac’s screen doesn’t mean they should. Show me a better interface than Flipboard for viewing the news and I’ll buy it.
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