Pipes is a crafty news app for your iPhone

Finding what you want to know about a given topic isn't hard, but an RSS feed is a bit bland. Other entities can be a bit too flashy for their own good (or ours), relying on snappy animation instead of getting the right data. Others curate information for you, which is nice, but limiting. Pipes, however, does a nice job straddling all those lines.

Part hardcore news site, part flashy app, Pipes aims to bring you the news you want in a desirable format. Culling data from roughly 10,000 sources hourly, you're free to keep up to date on whatever topic of discussion floats your boat. Helpful during those times when there is a lot going on (June, which has WWDC and Google I/O is a great example), but equally useful when you want to just keep up on a few particular topics all the time.

Pipes is also dead simple to use. Just click the "+" icon, and add a topic — or "pipe", really. Enter into the search filed what you'd like to track, and away you go. Once you find it, just add it to your homepage via a single tap. A shake of your iPhone gives suggestions on what's trending; not so useful for the dedicated news hounds, but fun if you're bored.

Piped topics can also be shared to social media, or just bookmarked for later viewing. Push notifications are also available, but we'll warn you to throttle that. If you subscribe to a major topical pipe, it can get messy.

Unlike an RSS feed, Pipes is a bit more visually appealing. Unlike Flipboard, it gives more information than pizazz. It's a great app for those times you want to enjoy your own little bubble of 'hypebeasting'. Free to use, Pipes is currently available in the App Store.

Via: TechCrunch