Updated: Pulse News Reader for iOS now free
If you were intrigued by our former coverage of Pulse, a slick reimagining of how RSS feeds can work on the iPad and iPhone, but were put off by the modest asking price, here's a good way to start your week. As the New York Times reports, Alphonso Labs has secured $800k in venture capital funding and is moving to a different business model. It is now trying to "attract more users, and with them, paid partnerships with publishers and advertisers."
This sounds like we'll end up with in-app ads in the long run, but for the moment, none are present. It's also likely that it'll be doing more deals with content producers to spotlight their feeds in the "featured" section of the app, which is a less intrusive way for them to generate revenue.
If you've never used Pulse, it's more like Flipboard than traditional RSS readers, like Reeder. It arranges feed content into attractive, image-heavy scrolling areas that try to create the feel of a glossy personalized magazine. This is both a strength and a weakness -- it works better with some types of feeds than others -- but overall it provides a pleasant way to catch up with the news over your breakfast.
Update: following numerous commenters expressing concerns that, having paid for a previous version of Pulse, they would now be subjected to ads, we contacted Alphonso Labs for a statement. Click through to see what it said.
We would like to thank our early users, who have given us both time and money to help build the product to this stage. They have given us resources to build a company dedicated to improving their news reading experience. As reflected in its reviews and ratings, Pulse News has come a long way from its initial launch, and is hugely popular with users.Based on our user interviews and feedback emails, we realized that our readers get thrilled when they discover a news source they didn't know about, or a news story that they hadn't heard about. We've gotten a lot of emails thanking us for introducing them to TUAW (which is a featured source). Making the app free will enable more of user's friends to join Pulse thereby improving discovery of interesting content via traditional and social channels. We can assure our users that the user experience will never be compensated - and this applies to all our users, paid and free.
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If you were intrigued by our former coverage of Pulse, a slick reimagining of how RSS feeds can work on the iPad and iPhone, but were put...
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With Pulse’s announcement today, the news reader is category is clearly heating up. What is interesting to note are the different approaches:
-Pulse has put a nice front end on a traditional RSS reader. While the user experience is good, the user has to manage sources which can lead to information overload and the discoverability of great content outside of your usual RSS feeds is low.
-The other approach is my startup, YourVersion http://YourVersion.com which focuses on topic based discovery (vs. source specific like RSS). With YourVersion we bring you the latest, relevant content tailored to your specific interests. There is no need to manage sources -- YourVersion does all the heavy lifting to bring you the best of the web by your specific interest. In addition to the website we have free iPad, iPhone and Android apps to discover on-the-go.
Sylvanus
MobileRSS app FTW. Also, it's really really really hard to beat Google's mobile Reader. And yes, I've tried them all, Reeder included.
I feel the same as a few others here... I enjoy Pulse enough that I don't mind it's free now after having paid for it. But I might use start looking at Reeder or another app if I see any ads in my paid version of Pulse (I know they aren't saying there is going to be paid and 'lite' versions... yet). Having a clean, ad free interface is why I will happily pay for a useful app.
Also- thinking about how I use Pulse on both my iPad and iP4, I suppose ads on the iPad, i.e. big screen, version wouldn't be as bad as having ads taking up already precious little screen space on the iPhone. Eh, so maybe I keep Pulse on my 'Pad and go with another on it's lil brother
I don't really mind either even though I bought pulse when it was $4.99 if i remember correctly.
We all have had the experience of dying to have some McDonald's fires or a BigMac or any other of the cardiac creating death-wiches, only to finally get it and it taste like crap or the fries had been cooked in the old oil, the soda was flat or any of the other McD's screw ups. The Meal cost the same as the app or even a little more but when you've left the drive thru and you are late for an appointment you just blow off the bad meal and end up at McD's like a few days later.
For the overall price what's the big difference here? We are talking of less then $5.
In English it means:
"thanks to all those people/suckers who gave us enough money to have a great lifestyle out of this app; we're now going to get even more money by giving it FOC to all those that didn't originally support our product, stuff those who did, and in return for getting us where we are we're giving you ... well, nothing, we're gonna stuff you with adds. Ha ha'
Don't update to the next version...
November 15 2010 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"We can assure our users that the user experience will never be compensated - and this applies to all our users, paid and free."
Is compensated supposed to be compromised here? It makes no sense otherwise.
add me to the annoyed list. Dont mind its free, but I dont want to see ads!
November 15 2010 at 12:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'm very annoyed by this. I paid for mine. The first sign of an ad that I see on this app and it'll be gone for good from my iPad.
So what, they have your money now, do you think they'll give a damn!!!!
Just boycott all future products like I will ... App developers forget some users have principles and don't forget!
I've paid for it when it first came out. I don't want ads...
November 15 2010 at 10:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyStill sticking with Reeder.
November 15 2010 at 10:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI tried Pules upon reading this. I think it's very different from flipboard. Tried that last month and i couldn't even add my own feeds. With pulse i can, and it's all neatly organized! Right from google reader.
Yay!
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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