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Taptu 1.5 adds Instapaper saving, search option
We first looked at the newsviewer app Taptu a couple of months ago when the iPad version launched. Its combination of social streams and curated news feeds makes it a strong contender in the crowded news reader space of iOS apps. The latest version, 1.5, launches today and adds a few key features to the product on both iPhone and iPad. Search capabilities have been souped up to include searching keywords within feed content along with feed topics. This helps with story discovery, especially with far-ranging/eclectic sites like Boing Boing. Readers can also save stories to Instapaper for offline reading. On the iPhone, several of the UI improvements from the iPad version have made their way over, including stream resizing and color-coding. iPhone users also now get the Related Stories feature, allowing them to spot trends or see other coverage of a single topic. Taptu is a universal app for iPad/iPhone and is a free download in the App Store.
Taptu for iPad brings blended feeds to newsreader app lineup
Considering how eerily the 2001: A Space Odyssey version of a tablet newsreader matches the 2011 reality of the iPad, it's no surprise that the App Store landscape is getting crowded with newsreader options. Beyond the standalone startups and the gray standards, a whole bunch of RSS-centric tools have made the scene: Flipboard, Early Edition, Pulse, Zite and more. Now we can add another reader to the master list: Taptu, a company with a heritage in search technology, has built out the free iPad version of its app to accompany the existing iPhone and Android versions. The app launches today in the App Store. Taptu's CEO Mitch Lazar, a veteran of CNN and Yahoo!'s mobile efforts, told me that the experience of building the company's consumer search product (now discontinued) has informed and supported the newsreader platform that Taptu is aiming to create. Given a serious search infrastructure, it's much easier to tackle the problems of story duplication and "what should I read now?" than it would be without that underlying intelligence. Taptu's recommendation engine will recommend related stories as you read, and it will find feeds and collections that match your interests over time.
