NewsRunner Review

There's so much information to cram in and so little time in the day, right? Fellow news addicts will appreciate that problem. I hate to be away from the news for any length of time and love to keep on top of what's going on around the world. So, in theory, NewsRunner should be an ideal app for me. It's an app that allows one to listen to the major news stories going on, proving ideal when out and about and needing a hands and eyes free solution. In reality, NewsRunner doesn't quite work as well as intended.

Starting out, NewsRunner is a bit confusing, admittedly. It requires one to choose a voice (with voices such as US and UK accents available) before prompting one to enter their password, just like if they're buying an in-app purchase. Each of the voices is free but this doesn't become apparent until after one has entered their password.

Willing to let the user interface issue slide, I still had high hopes for NewsRunner. It offers a roulette wheel of information divided up by categories including business, entertainment, health, local, politics, science, sports, technology, culture, travel, and world news. It's possible to arrange these categories into an order that suits the user, before leaving NewsRunner to do all the hard work and play the headlines.

Problems arise with the voices, though. It's pretty robotic sounding and far from comfortable to listen to. The information gathered also has no indication as to where such news came from, plus there's no way to learn more by hitting a link or some such "more" button. NewsRunner really is just a brief insight into what's going on in the world. It's an attractive solution and scratches that news seeking itch, but it's not satisfying.

For those who want a selection of very brief headlines, NewsRunner might do the job despite the robotic voice explaining all, but those with a more enquiring mind will long to be able to learn more.