I’ve been using the Pulse reader for as long as I’ve had my Nook tablets. I installed it on my original Tablet and now my HD. For the reading I do, it’s better than a browser since all those sites already have RSS feeds that I can hook into. Overall, I’ve been very pleased with it.
But the recent update leaves something to be desired. For one, I don’t like the extra manipulations to switch between RSS categories. The previous version had a menu up top where a simple touch took me to whatever category I’d wanted. Now, I have to either push the button up top, which launches a side menu with a list of my categories for me to select from. Alternatively, I can swipe from the left edge to bring up this menu. That extra action is not appreciated. Also, the edge-swipe version is annoying because it can get confused with either refreshing a feed or scrolling through a feed’s articles.
The bigger problem, though, is that app is not stable. It constantly bails on me and the only reason I put up with it is because there isn’t any other option available to me. In particular, switching to and from a web view seems to be particularly difficult for it to manage.
A couple of other issues:
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When tapping on an article to read, it will frequently bring up an empty screen, causing me to go back to the tile view where I’ll have to reselect the article again and hope for the best.
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When bring up an article, there is a Read on Web button which, upon tapping, provides no feedback as to whether the press has registered. It’s annoying behavior since it will not infrequently result in nothing happening, so I’ll tap it again. And again. And again. There is no usual resolution to this “feature”: sometimes the app crashes, sometimes a press registers, sometimes I just give up.
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I like to use the Twitter functionality, but the tweet dialog box has a horrible font color which is only a shade darker than the background, meaning I have to strain my eyes, squint and use smoke and mirrors to compose a tweet.
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Tapping on web links frequently results in nothing happening or an app crash.
I’ve used the updated version on both my Tablet and my HD, with the same problems apparent in both so I don’t think this is a Android version issue per say. Looking at the reviews at the app site, I can see I’m not the only one. Hopefully they get some kind of improved version in the pipeline soon.