INTRODUCTION

It is not difficult to get access to news in today's world; the internet and the intertwining of social media with significant events happening around the world have made it almost impossible to live under a rock without being aware of what's going on in the world. However, discovering a trustworthy one-stop centre where you can manage and engage with all of your news can be somewhat difficult.

The avalanche of news that breaks each and every day can be intimidating, but with the right apps on hand, it doesn't have to be. You can get the news you want, in the way you want it, and keep up to speed with what's happening all over the world if you have the right apps on hand.

I'll go over the following topics in this section:

free newsreaders that I personally find most useful.
setting up customer Google Search
book summary apps
creating YouTube playlist for book summaries
apps to organise your reading.

CATEGORY: NEWSREADER

Feedly

Imagine having the most recent news and articles from your favourite websites and blogs aggregated in one location. It is a time-saver and a highly effective method for keeping up with your reading. The RSS feed aggregator will perform this task for you.

Feedly is a news reader and an aggregator of RSS feeds, and it is by far the best free option users have at their disposal.

Feedly lets you subscribe to content feeds from websites covering a wide range of topics, from sports to politics to entertainment, and add all of the websites you currently follow to the list. Using artificial intelligence, Feedly recommends additional sites based on the content of the source sites. Thus, you can continually discover new information sources and great articles that you may have previously overlooked.

Best of all, its cloud-syncing feature lets you save and read articles across devices or share them on social media, so you'll never be without something to read whether you're at home or on the go.

The following video demonstrates how to set up and use Feedly as a news reader.

Your Task (1)

Sign up for Feedly.
Download the Feedly app (available for iOS and Android). Feedly is also available in the browser version.
Create categories (e.g., news, general and favourite topics, favourite websites, etc)
Add your preferred news sources and websites.

Flipboard

Flipboard is a popular news aggregator known for its lovely magazine-style layout (its magazine-style format is beautiful to look at, especially on the phone or tablet screen). Available via web browsers or on iOS and Android, it takes content from news sources and social media, presents it as a personalized digital magazine, and lets users "flip" through it. The social news reading app is offering people more control over what news shows up in their feeds.

With Flipboard, you can:

easily create your dream magazine
watch videos and listen to music, as well as read text and view images
connect it to your social accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn.
choose what content category you are interested in: business, design, technology, politics.
subscribe to individual blogs and sources
save the articles you want to read later
share articles with your friends (through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr)

The following videos demonstrate how to set up and use Flipboard as a newsreader and your personalised digital magazine.

A demo on how to create magazines and take advantage of all the functionalities that come with the latest release of Flipboard on Android.

Your Task (2)

Install the Flipboard Chrome extension.
Sign up for Flipboard.
Download the Flipboard app (available for iOS and Android). Flipboard is also available in the browser version.
Choose your preferred category from the list.
Add (or flip) your preferred news sources.

Google News

Google News pulls thousands of articles from credible online news organizations, blogs, and magazines, and presents them in a polished format.

Google News gives you the option to set up a personal briefing that updates throughout the day with relevant stories, or you can choose to get full coverage about a topic, including different perspectives, a timeline of key events, and more.

Additionally, Google makes it easy to subscribe to newspapers and magazines with a single tap, so you can support the publications you love.

The following video demonstrates how to set up and use Google News as a newsreader.

Your Task (3)

Download the Google News app (available for iOS and Android). Google News is also available in the browser version.
Bookmark the Google News website on your Chrome bar for quick access.
You might be asked to sign in to your Gmail account.
Choose your preferred category from the list.
Add (or flip) your preferred news sources.

News360

News360 has been around for over a decade and does a fantastic job of pulling together news from multiple sources, based on your interests and preferences. News360 is an app that learns what you enjoy and finds stories you’ll like around the web. It is simple to connect to and simple to operate, with like and dislike features and an option to listen to your news.

The app comes with a handy tutorial option and has so many categories there is enough material for anyone. This personalized news feed app is designed to make finding news about your interests easy. The layout of the app has been thoroughly thought-out, and has a self-learning ability, meaning that the app will get smarter the more you use it.

The following video demonstrates how to set up and use News360 as a newsreader.

Your Task (4)

Download the News360 app (available for iOS and Android). News360 is also available in the browser version.
Bookmark the News360 website on your Chrome bar for quick access.
Sign up for a News360 account.
Choose your preferred category from the list.
Start reading.

Add to Home Screen

A quick way to access your favourite news websites is by adding the websites to your phone or tablet Home Screen.

Here are the steps:

Open the web browser and head to a website you want to pin to the Home Screen.
Tap the Share icon at the bottom.
Tap Add to Home Screen from the menu.
Type in a name for your shortcut and then tap the Add button.

Your Task (5)

Identify your favourite news website.
Follow the steps outlined above to create a group of favourite news websites on your phone or tablet Home Screen.

Custom Google Search

You can create your own Google Search engine to search multiple news websites you've identified. This will narrow your search's scope and make it more focused.

Watch this video to learn how to create your own Google Search engine.

Your Task (5)

Make a list of several Malaysian (NST, The Star Online, Berita Harian) and international (BBC News, AP News, Reuters) news websites.
Create two Google custom search engines: Malaysia News and World News, respectively.
Create a bookmark for the public link to your custom search engine.
Try searching for specific keywords to see what comes up.

CATEGORY: BOOKS

Read or Listen to Book Summary

Blinkist (paid app)

What’s the fastest way to learn the essence or gist of a book?

What if you're just getting started on a completely new subject? The situation is not straightforward. How do you decide which books to concentrate on? The best-selling books? Perhaps look into some suggestions? What if you start reading and discover that you've been wasting your time with an old book?

Blinkist attempts to resolve these issues. It is a service that provides condensed versions of the market's most popular nonfiction books. They are divided into easily digestible information chunks. The entire book-in-blinks (as they are referred to) should not take more than fifteen minutes to read. Or to listen, as the majority of them are also available in audio format.

Check out the website.

The following video provides a concise explanation of the Blinkist concept.

Storyshots (paid app but more affordable than Blinkist)

Blinkist is perhaps the best book summary app currently available, but it's quite pricey.

A more affordable alternative to Blinkist is Storyshots.

StoryShots condenses many of the same non-fiction best-sellers as Blinkist into concise audio or written formats. The primary distinction is that you must download the app to view them (and see how the platform works). StoryShots contains animated book summaries that users can watch and understand. In addition, the app offers the options to "read the summary" and "listen to the audio."

Check out the website.

Book Summary on YouTube

You can still find excellent book summaries on YouTube even if you are not ready to subscribe to paid apps at this time. Simply conduct a search using the terms "book summary" or "summary of [book title]." You might get a good summary from some book enthusiasts if you're lucky. There are some book summaries that are done very well, and some of them even include animation.

Your Task (6)

Create a playlist of book summaries on your YouTube channel.
Alternatively, you can make a Discord playlist or a website dedicated to book summaries.

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