Five productive non-news apps to help you keep reading new things on the go

Five productive non-news apps to help you keep reading new things on the go

Android is nearly everywhere, and thanks to that, we have a vast diversity of different apps available from the vast wilderness we call Play Store. Yeah, there are some cheap, useless apps there, but many a times we get some really cool ones which do actively boost our productivity. And here in this article, let me share with you all five of thos marvellous apps I've found to keep my reading habit intact on the go.

Wikihow, the beauty of. 

Today's world is a fast progressing one, and we all need to rush to keep pace with it. The attention span of average Jim or Joe is much less that what it was a decade ago. While books and magazines are still found, we don't have to rely on them for 'seeking wisdom' anymore, thanks to the magical realm we call the internet. And since the advent of smartphones, having the ability to serve as minicomputers on the move and stay connected with internet at all times, we've really seen a lot of innovative approaches to making reading on tablets and phablets more and more pleasant and elegant.

The list of these five apps I am going to mention are not news apps, however. News apps are productive ones, and they are so many in number that it would be better if I keep a separate article slot reserved for them. These apps are for reading on the move, say when you're in the metro, or on a bus, and trying to do something productive. And for many, reading is indeed a great and productive habit.

Here are my five beloved readers:

1. Wikihow: This app integrates the beautifully designed website with your smartphone, so that you can always learn a new trick or two while on the move. Ranging from 'How do I tie my tie?' to 'How to solve a differential equation', from 'How to train your dog' to 'How to murder your neighbour and hide the evidence', you can find almost anything, any 'how-to' tutorial using Wikihow. Rightly, wikihow is a mega-database that serves as a wish-granting genie, teaching you almost anything.

You are almost certain to find interesting articles and how-tos, no matter what your interests are. The app has a nice interface, featuring different categories of 'how-tos', and even if you're not looking for anything in particular, you can always get to see a title that attracts your interest, browsing a bit through the categories.

Pocket the web with Pocket!

2. Pocket: Formerly known as 'Read it later', pocket is an app without I seriously can't live a single day. For starters, pocket simply synchronizes anything you find interesting on the web with your personal list of 'to read' pages. Especially well-designed for phablets and tablets, pocket nicely gets all that you'd like to read on the web at one place, giving you a much more organized and elegant way to read your favourite articles. The power of pocket is its versatility. Firstly, it can just turn any written content on the web, be it a wikipedia article or a post on someone's blog (this one, for example) into an e-page or small e-book like content, using its 'article-view' technology. Secondly, pocket is just everywhere. You can access its online interface with your browser, get a chrome or Firefox extension to store interesting links while browsing, for reading them later. And additionally, you can also use android's native inter-app sharing feature to transfer anything from almost any reading app (wikihow, for example) to pocket. You can easily use the android menu for that, select the sharing option and then hit 'Add to pocket', and the rest of the things is done automatically.

Pocket is especially good if you like to read a lot, but don't find enough time to do that. It collects whatever you find interesting online and gives it a magical touch to convert it into an easily readable, beautifully rendered e-page so that you can read it whenever you like. Adding to the list of benefits you can, pocket seamlessly integrates images, and worked offline. You will need to sync it once or twice in a day though, to keep your material afresh.

Boy, that's the beauty of Cracked!

3. Cracked reader: Ok, cracked is arguably one of the most visited sites on the web. Using humour and satire, Cracked really 'cracks' everything, giving you the ability to simultaneously learn new things (they are known for their research and originality) and keep on laughing like hell. Thankfully, we are no longer at the mercy of Google Currents to get our Cracked.com updates, because the folks have kindly released a nice reader. Be sure to install it, and you won't regret it. :) There are few sites on the web which help you learn so much in such a fun way. A problem however is that it doesn't work well offline. But you can just get online and save whatever you'd like to read on pocket, from the comfort of using your smartphone itself, using the process I already mentioned above.

Keep on stumblin', baby! ;)

4. StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon is indeed what I call ' a magical search engine'. Open a new account, customize your preferences and feed into the app/the web interface your interests, and it will help you automatically find new and interesting contents based on your preferences. For example, if you're interested in physics, it helps you find a random page on physics, that you have a high probability of finding 'interesting'. If you don't like a particular page, you can give it a thumbs-down, and vice versa. Using its smart algorithms and continually increasing piles of 'user recommendations' made by humans sharing your interests, StumbleUpon keeps on getting better as you start using it more routinely. The app is a bit laggy, definitely, but still doable. Good for discovering new and interesting stuff online.

Ah, Quora! Perfect, like her counterpart
from Tron: Legacy.

5. Quora: Quora is technically not a 'reading' app, but it can easily be called one. Quora is one of the best things the web has to offer, it's a place where people from all parts of the world collaborate, by answering each other's questions and learning more as a result. It's basically a place where you can discuss/ask anything, and you'll surely be getting an answer. Even better, the Quora app on android lets you see if the question you're willing ask has already been asked or not. If the former is the case, you can carry on reading what the folks have to offer in answer to your query. Quora is thus a grand and majestic place to learn, collaborate, read, answer and ask.

Our tastes and preferences differ, definitely. Some of you may not find these apps immediately interesting, but chances are many of you guys will like them all. In this fast-moving world, cultivating the most out of your time has become more and more necessary. As such, these apps can definitely help you learn more during those otherwise lazy and boring hours.