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Any App Like Pulse?

P

perezr10

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 12, 2014
2,018
1,489
Monroe, Louisiana
I used to really like the news aggregator app called Pulse. But ever since it was taken over by LinkedIn it has gone downhill. They lost landscape mode, made the boxes bigger, etc. The last straw for me was this week when they made opening up a LinkedIn in account mandatory to use the app.

So, does anyone know of an app like Pulse that allows you to select various news sources and scrolls the little boxes of stories? If there isn't one, it would be an excellent opportunity for an enterprising developer to take advantage of Pulse's missteps.
 
Thanks. I like Flipboard too but the Pulse interface of being able to scroll through all the squares was hard to beat. It made sifting through all the articles you don't want to read a little faster.
 
I just posted a similar thread over in iPhone forum regarding this very issue. I did a clean install on my new 6+ and when I manually loaded Pulse, I find it now requires the Linkedin signin - not going there.:mad: I'm looking too. I have always preferred the format of Pulse to all other news aggregators and hope a developer comes up with a similar format that is a standalone app. Getting a little sick of all the required Facebook and now Linked In sign-ins!
 
I switched from Pulse to 'Feedly' and i also like 'Newsify'. You can also use Feedly via their website on a desktop/laptop.
Both great free apps for all your RSS feeds.

I also tried Zite and Flipboard but didn't like those.
 
I'm confused, I'm still using Pulse just fine without LinkedIn. This is even after an iCloud restore onto my new IPhone.
 
It will require you to register with LinkedIn if you'll ever do a clean install...

I switched to a combination of Feed Wrangler and Reeder. I know it has to thumbnails, but I found this setup much more customisable.

P.S. And for various graphical websites ;) I use Flipboard.
 
Check out out 'Newsify' if you like getting feeds like Pulse.

'Circa' is also convenient for straight to the point news and top headlines.
 
Futurix said:
It will require you to register with LinkedIn if you'll ever do a clean install...

.
Click to expand...

That would explain it. Well, I hope the 6/6 Plus updates don't kill it for me. I don't like any of the alternatives. Newsify is close, but not quite.
 
I gave in and created a separate dummy LinkedIn account just to use Pulse. As much as LinkedIn has degraded/ruined the app, I have yet to find a better app to quickly check the news from my favorite websites.

One of my favorite aspects of the app is that it keeps each site separate, and doesn't jumble them all together. I want to see all the news on Macrumors; I want to see all the news at BGR; and I want to see all new Anandtech articles, etc. I don't want to see random articles from different sites scattered all over a page.
 
KenAFSPC said:
I gave in and created a separate dummy LinkedIn account just to use Pulse. As much as LinkedIn has degraded/ruined the app, I have yet to find a better app to quickly check the news from my favorite websites.

One of my favorite aspects of the app is that it keeps each site separate, and doesn't jumble them all together. I want to see all the news on Macrumors; I want to see all the news at BGR; and I want to see all new Anandtech articles, etc. I don't want to see random articles from different sites scattered all over a page.
Click to expand...
There's Tech News Tube, which can show everything all together in chronological order, or you can go to each site's section separately just to see what's in there.
 
KenAFSPC said:
I gave in and created a separate dummy LinkedIn account just to use Pulse. As much as LinkedIn has degraded/ruined the app, I have yet to find a better app to quickly check the news from my favorite websites.

One of my favorite aspects of the app is that it keeps each site separate, and doesn't jumble them all together. I want to see all the news on Macrumors; I want to see all the news at BGR; and I want to see all new Anandtech articles, etc. I don't want to see random articles from different sites scattered all over a page.
Click to expand...
It's funny you'd say that because as I was using Newsify I was thinking it would be nice to know the source.
 
News bulletin! Pulse capitulated and REMOVED the LinkedIn requirement. However, you still have to do an unsuccessful LinkedIn Login before you see the option to use your Pulse account.

The damage has been done though, because I'm now really liking Newsify.
 
Digging this up because Linkedin has now come out with a completely redesigned app and completely ruined it (for me), and they are apparently going to discontinue the old Pulse app, thus it looks like I am going to be forced to find a replacement. I've looked at all of the apps mentioned here, but none of them have the key ribbon style navigation where I can quickly scan a hundred articles from my known sources to find the stuff I actually want to read about. Has anyone found anything like this out there? I had previously found "TapTu" but that has also been shutdown.
 
Last edited:
Cougarcat said:
Yuck. Got a source for this?

I was hoping Apple's news app would have a view like Pulse but it looks like it's more similar to Flipboard.
Click to expand...


It was actually in an email Linkedin sent out to Pulse users announcing the new app. Here is a quote of the relevant text:

Today, we're excited to announce a brand new Pulse app, designed and developed from the ground up. The reimagined Pulse will provide truly customized, daily news, powered by your professional world. It's personalized just for you – based on who you are and who you know. If you are a marketer in a technology company, we'll tell you what other marketers are reading and sharing, and what's trending inside your company. In order to focus on continual innovation, we will be retiring the existing Pulse app by the end of the year, but you can keep using it until then. We will remind you about the transition as the time approaches.
​
 
Well, I'll take the silence as: "There's nothing else like pulse out there".
I've been trying Feedly and Newsify, and either will probably work (and are both certainly better than the new pulse app), but neither is anywhere near as good as the old Pulse app.
 
Ok the guy behind the new moronic pulse app is a genius called Akshay Kothari who decided to buy Pulse for LinkedIn just so he could redesign it into the hopeless app it is now. If you truly miss the old app let him know via Twitter- his account is @akothari
 
Yea, LinkedIn screwed Pulse, it was the best RSS reader. This new redesign is ridiculous, prefer the familiar boxes UI of stories of the old Pulse. Gonna try out some of the apps recommended here.
 
SmartNews is my current favorite news app. Tip: doubleclick articles to have them automatically open up in the 'clean' view.

iOS9 News app seems pretty nice, you can view articles by source. Will check out Newsify per recommendations, although $30 for yearly premium?
 
Dukat said:
iOS9 News app seems pretty nice, you can view articles by source. Will check out Newsify per recommendations, although $30 for yearly premium?
Click to expand...

I'm a pretty heavy Newsify user with it synced through Feedly and have never felt the need for the premium features. To me the big thing it does is pull down full feeds from RSS articles that only dimply a truncated article, and you can easily pull that down from within the individual articles. I think you would be happy with just the standard version.
 
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