Although it’s been around for a little while now, I only stumbled across Appy Geek in the past week or so. We’ve actually reviewed this app before, though not for iOS devices. Our own Brendan reviewed the Android version of the app back in November. In his review, he noted that the core functionality of the app was excellent, but that “one major downfall about the sources is the fact that you cannot add a specific site to your news channel. This lacking of such a necessary feature really hurts the overall appeal.”

So, how does the iOS version of Appy Geek stack up to the Android version? And how has the app evolved over the past few months? Let’s see, shall we?

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Most recently updated in December, the latest version of Appy Geek collects tech news sources from all kinds of respected tech sites, and displays them in a cleverly laid-out user interface. Unlike a lot of other news aggregating apps out there, Appy Geek lets you set news alerts: you don’t need to open the app to know when something big and newsworthy is going on with Facebook, Apple, Droid, or any other big names in the tech industry.

Pros

• Uses your current location to determine both the language and country of origin for tech articles to show you
• News alerts let you customize what news comes to you
• TagNav™, an innovative news navigation system, lets users explore various news resources through a tag cloud with three different layouts. Tags relate to one of over 120,000 available topics.
• Express your mood on any article with an emoticon-based “like” system, and then sort articles by which have the most responses.
• Get a global perspective with lists of what articles are trending now in the UK, Germany, France, and more
• Optimal night mode makes reading for long periods of time in poor lighting much more comfortable (and less annoying for the people around you)

Cons

• “Top Stories” lists only appear to be available for certain European countries, with no such curated list for Asian countries
• There stil does not appear to be a way to manually add your favorite sites to your home screen
• Too easy to click on banner ads, no way to upgrade to an ad-free experience

Discussion

I think Brendan really hit the nail on the head in his review of Appy Geek for Android. He wrote, “This app is great for tech addicts who can’t stand to be away from current events for so long. It also great for those who hate stumbling through stories and they don’t care about just to get to ones that are interesting to them.” The iOS version of Appy Geek is just as solid.

I read a LOT of tech sites, both for work and for pleasure. So it was pretty amazing to me that I was able to find news and news sources that were previously unknown to me. Using Appy Geek for even just a few minutes made me feel like I was getting a more well-rounded appraisal of tech news events.

I was really impressed with the balance between the variety of different news sources, and the uncluttered feel that the app still manages to sustain. I also love the tactile feel of exploring news stories using the 3D TagNav system.

Conclusion and download link

Appy Geek bills itself as “THE definitive & top rated tech news app.” They set the bar pretty high, but I was not disappointed. While the interface is a little cramped at times, the array of cool news and ability to “react” to stories makes this app worth checking out.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 2.4.1

Requires iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, iOS version 5.0 or later

Download size: 11.6 MB

Appy Geek on Apple App Store