This app could become your first point of call for catching up with what’s going on in the world.
News doesn’t just break through the traditional media any longer. Increasingly, people witnessing world-changing events first-hand tell the story using Twitter, even posting their own photos and videos. But if you’re not following the Joe Bloggs who’s tweeting about said event, how will you know it’s happening?
That’s where Hitpad comes in. It looks at what’s trending across the web and presents you with all you need to know about each term. News articles, tweets on the topic, videos, photos and websites are all presented in a TweetDeck-esque column layout.
We like this concept because it’s such a good way to get a snapshot of what’s happening in the world at any given time, regardless of who you’re following on Twitter or what RSS feeds you subscribe to.
Hitpad will tailor the trending terms by category (sport, business, entertainment and so on) and to where you live, though this is currently limited to World, US, UK and Canada. The trends alter accordingly, and the news sources aren’t solely the local ones to your area. We know the developers are working on localisation for more international areas, and it’d be great to be able to then narrow results by category, so you could see UK sports stories, for example.
You can, however, search for your own terms to find where they’ve been in the news lately. This is a nice touch that would be further improved by the ability to save the searches, meaning you could quickly check in on all the latest news about your favourite rugby team or celebrity.
When you open a story, Hitpad also shows you related articles from other sources, providing further depth on the topic. We even discovered a couple of unbeknown-to-us news outlets in this way. One little complaint is that not all news articles are equally relevant – some of the trending terms were only mentioned in passing, while not all tweets were in English.
Regardless, it’s a fantastic app, and even in the weeks we’ve been using it, the UK localisation has improved, despite there being no update to the app itself.
Download this app: Hitpad for iPad review
Best iPad apps | Apple iPad 2 review
Review courtest of Tap!
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