Cool News is a free news reader app for Windows 8 devices that allows you to read news from different sources on your Windows 8 device on the go. The app has a pretty clean interface which is self-explanatory, and has various toggles that make navigating between the various parts of the app easy. When you launch the app for the first time, you will be asked to add sources from where you would like the news to be fetched from. Adding sources is a fairly easy task, and to do that, all you have to do is to click on the + button in the top-left corner of the screen and select the source from where you would like the news to be fetched from (more to that later).
Cool News has an ad-free interface and it is available for free from the Windows App Store.
Using the Cool News App on your Windows 8 device…
When you launch the Cool News app on your Windows 8 device, you will be presented with an interface which looks like the below screenshot.
As it is the first time for you are running the app, you have to add a few sources from where you want the news items to be fetched. Click on the + button at the top-left corner of the screen. This allows you to search the internet for the sources that you wish to add. I wanted to add The Times Of India as a source for my news items, so I clicked on the + button, clicked on the Internet Search option, and searched for The Times Of India. As you can see in the below screenshot, certain results have turned up which I can add by clicking on the plus button next to each result. (see below screenshot)
You can also add technology websites as the source for your news items by searching for them. I searched for The Verge and added it as a source for my daily updates for technology related news. You can add as many sources as you wish by searching for them and adding them. The below screenshot shows the multiple sources added and how the feeds are displayed.
To access news items from a source that you have added, click on it from the left side of the screen. To open up a feed, simply click on its tile.
Upon opening a news feed, you will be taken to a screen which resembles the above screenshot. With more feeds that you can access to the left, the detailed version of the feed that you clicked on at the right and self-explanatory control toggles at the top of the screen, the app provides a clever way of navigating through news feeds.
The app also supports docked view.
Another interesting feature of the app is that it is completely customizable. You can set a custom wallpaper for the background of the app by clicking on the colour palette button next to the + button in the main screen of the app. To delete a source, you can click on the Pencil button in the main screen and select the sources that you want to delete, and to refresh the feeds, you can click on the Refresh button (also present in the main screen of the app). These buttons are illustrated below.
This is all that you need to know about using the Cool News app for your Windows 8 device. You can also check out the Weave News Reader for Windows 8.
Highlights…
- Completely customizable.
- No ads.
- Allows adding multiple sources, supports docked view.
The verdict?
Cool News is a great app to have on your Windows 8 device if you are an avid news reader and love to stay updated about the latest developments.
I give this app a 4 out of 5.
