It’s safe to say we’ve all experienced some kind of “information overload” before, OK so this morning, which is no surprise considering the amount of content that’s produced every minute. There’s just so much we need to consume and so little time to dig around and find exactly what it is we’re looking for…
Enter My Taptu, an app that attempts to organise your online and social media content, whilst looking a hell of a lot better than a standard RSS reader. Essentially My Taptu is a fairly straightforward news aggregator, similar to any feed reader or apps like Pulse and Flipboard for the iPad.
But for me, a lot sets it apart from the competition, particularly the way it looks. I’m such a sucker for apps and networks that display content in neat little boxes, think the standard Tumblr theme, so I love that My Taptu consists of a grid of information across the whole screen, each displaying a title to a post, a picture and sometimes a tiny bit of text too.
If you want to see more of your content you simply scroll to the right, if you want to search through different categories, sorry “streams”, then scroll up and down and to actually read some of the content, click on the article and the app will open up a browser or bookmark it for later.
To get the app properly up and running you do need to spend some time adding content from wherever you please and grouping different sources together to make different streams. I accessed my Google Reader account, sifted through a lot of my feeds and narrowed it down to general news, entertainment, digital, tech, gossip and glamour for now. You can create these streams yourself or look in the Stream Store to find pre-prepared ones and browse through singular titles, like Wired, Jezebel and Glamour.
You can also add your social media activity into My Taptu, which I suppose many people would see as a huge benefit. However, I do like to keep information from blogs and webites and information from the likes of Twitter and Facebook separate, but I suppose that’s just personal preference.
To give you a bit more information about the app, I spoke with Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Head of Product & Engineering at Taptu…
What kinds of users did you have in mind when you were creating Taptu?
People on a smart phone who suffer from information overload and are driven to distraction by app hoping; time-crunched people who want to stay in the know with an app that can bring all their interests – work, play, serious, frivolous --all in one single app.
Why should we all be downloading Taptu?
Because it’s convenient, fast, fun and let’s you stay on top of all the news you’re interested in. Not only that, it lets you discover news, sites and blogs that you might not ordinarily seek out. Take our mixed streams, like our tech news or fashion one, news flows in from a variety of sources, so you might find an article from a blog or magazine you don’t usually read.
What are a few of your top tips for making the most of the app?
We just had an update that we think really makes My Taptu fun and really takes personalising your content to the next level. Basically, you can create your own streams, by remixing or what we like to call “Dj-ing” your news. So, lets say you love fashion, you can take say your top 10 favourite sites or blogs, put them all in one stream, name it, and see the news flowing in all in one place. You can do this for anything: you can set up one to follow say your work news, general news, things you really love—like tech and gadgets. Or you can create a random one of just say your favorite sites and blogs that you get inspiration from. The list is endless.
I’d definitely recommend getting this app if you’ve got the right kind of mobile device, but do sort through your feed reeder while you add everything to My Taptu, weeding out anything that you don’t really pay much attention to anymore. The app itself can store a huge amount of content, but for me it’s so much more useful if you only have sources on there you know are still relevant to you.
The app is free for both Apple and Android devices. BitchBuzz app rating 5/5 because what it does isn’t particularly new or ground-breaking, but it’s the slick and user-friendly way it does it that makes it so appealing and useful.
Becca Caddy is a BitchBuzz Tech columnist and freelance writer. You can follow her @beccacaddy or read her blog beccacaddy.com.