news reader

For those of you who have been around Windows Phone for a long time, you should know of Weave news reader as it’s been one of the hallmark apps on our platform since the beginning. Always fast and fluid, the app was an exceptional RSS reader and we always recommended it.

Starting with the last update and now version 8.0 just released today, Weave is now more than just RSS as it’s a professionally run service that goes beyond just ripping feeds from sites. That’s the reason for its seemingly high $9.99 price tag (don’t worry, there’s a free ad-supported version too). No doubt that is a lot of bread but the reason may be worth it if you’re a news feed junkie.

Weave doesn’t just pull RSS feeds but rather articles go through their servers first which reformat it, remove excess HTML coding, prep YouTube videos for viewing and make the article format universal and flawless. End result? You get low-bandwidth usage, fast loading articles with superb formatting for mobile use. You see a video image? Just tap and play. As far as we know, no other app on Windows Phone does all of that and its those server costs that result in a higher app price tag.

Weave is a popular news reader for your Windows Phone and it was recently updated to version 4.0. The update gives the news reader a re-design and a respectable amount of customizability.

The update also brings a few under the hood tweaks that gives the app faster performance. Weave is pre-loaded with thirty three categories including world, financial, deals, fashion, videogames, technology and more. From there you can edit and add to the Weave feeds to better match your needs.

The popular (and free) Pulse RSS news app just got a bump this morning to version 1.1 adding some background-updating and some Mango fast-app switching. It's also substantially less laggy now, no doubt due to the Magno-recompile.

Unfortunately, not too many other features were added as far as we can tell--still no Google Reader integration, nor ability to add custom feeds (just search). Nor are there any Live Tiles, so in that sense, the alternate Fuse app is still significantly out pacing it and may be a good choice for those who need more.

Edit: Ah yes, as some folks in comments remind us, this app has always been Mango-ized and has a uncustomizable Live Tile. So what's new? Perhaps just bug fixes and generic "performance enhancments". Enjoy! We're sticking with Fuse.

For those who like free, basic but still solid, you can pick up Pulse v1.1 here in the Marketplace.

For those of you using Fuse, the great looking news reader from Rudy Huyn, you'll want to check our v1.3 as it just went live in the Marketplace. The new update finally brings those much needed Mango features, joining our growing list. New additions include:

• Fast app resume
• Multiple live tiles (you can pin feeds or groups)
• Background agent to update live tiles
• A choice between 5 types of live tiles (seen below)

All in all it's performing great for us and looks to be a solid update to an already fantastic app. Pick it up here in the Marketplace for $1.29 with a free trial. And check our our early sneak peek video of Fuse in action.

USA Today has received an update to kick-start August into motion. The most notable feature added in this version is live tile support. You will now be able view latest headlines in a photo mash-up. The full list of changes/features added are as follows:

• Live Tile - A photo mash-up based on our latest headlines
• Latest news videos on a dedicated video panel
• Sub-section headlines: hold down any of the section tiles to bring up a list of sub-sections to choose from, i.e. Sports > MLB headlines. Tile will default to that subsection.
• Photo caption and credit for articles
• Recall last league viewed in Scores
• Major League Soccer scores added
• Celsius toggle for weather temps
• Support for international weather locations (limited maps)
• Weather alerts on current conditions screen
• Various bug fixes

Be sure to keep up-to-date with the latest news, sport headlines and weather forecasts. You can download USA Today (Zune link), for free, from the Marketplace.

Thanks goes out to David and everyone else who tipped us on this!

Microsoft's experimental news feed program, called Project Emporia, just received a nice upgrade to version 1.2--it's first update in three months. Hailing from Microsoft's Research FUSE labs, this is one of those apps where you are helping Microsoft "test" some new ideas out.

In essence, it's a news reader with the ability to choose by category e.g. technology, politics, etc. But then you can vote up or down stories to better refine your likes, giving you a more tailored user experience:

Every day we face an information overflow; data is coming at us through so many channels that it is difficult to weed out the gems that are important to us from all the noise. For those who are not social media mavens, the whole problem can be intimidating.

Project Emporia offers a solution to this. It sifts through ever-evolving news streams to identify hot news stories, categorizes them into topic areas and ranks them, and then presents them to you in a friendly and easy-to-use UI. With Project Emporia you get relevant stories on topics of YOUR choice.

You can influence how future stories are chosen for you, one vote at a time. Your votes will improve the relevance of your news story choices not just for you, but for every other user as well.

Previous versions were "meh", often being slow and not that fun. Version 1.2 though makes the app much better, in our opinion, since it's now more zippy, has more options available and is basically fun to experiment with. Here are some of the major 1.2 new features:

• Unified Web and WP7 accounts
• Facebook and Twitter integration
• Improved sharing via Twitter
• Social channels

You can grab Projecct Emporia right here in the Marketplace.

Samsung has updated its Windows Phone 7 application, Now, to includ Facebook and Twitter support. For added touches, a nifty audio jingle has also been added to accompany the opening animations of the news reader.

Top news stories, pulled from Rueters, can now be shared through your Facebook or Twitter account as well as via SMS or email. Weather information is still pulled from Accuweather.com and your stock information is provided through Yahoo Finance. While the Facebook and Twitter support are the obvious new additions, the app seems to have a little more zip to it suggesting that overall performance tweaks were also part of the update.

The Now Hub is a free application exclusive to Samsung Windows Phones and the update should be listed in your Marketplace app under "updates". If for some reason you don't have the Now Hub on your Samsung phone, you can find the full app in the Samsung Zone in the Marketplace.

Thanks goes out to David M. for the tip!