Umano brings news read to you to Android

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 9, 2013
Updated • Jun 9, 2013
Apps, Google Android
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Sometimes it may not be possible to read news depending on what activity you pursue at that time. Lets say you are jogging, riding on horseback or driving a car. What if you want to read news while you are pursuing those activities?

You can try radio for instance but the selection here is not really customized to things you like. Podcasts are an option as well but they are usually too limited in what they cover.

The Umano application for Android may be an option. It looks on first glance like any other news app that you come across. The front page highlights recent articles from newspapers and Internet portals such as Forbes, Time or Gizmodo.

You can browse articles here or use the search to find articles that cover a particular topic of interest.

What makes Umano special is that every news is read to you by professionals so that you only have to listen to find out what is new and interesting.

umano read news

To get started tap on any article that you are interested in. The next page displays an image and an excerpt of the article only, and a player interface that begins to load the audio file right away.

Controls are rather basic. You can skip an article or go back to the last one you listened to, use the slider to jump to a specific part of it, or activate the double speed option so that it is read in twice the speed to you.

You can also tap on the title of the article to be taken to the website it was hosted on right from within the app which can be useful if you want to listen to the article and read it at the same time. You may also want to use this feature to access additional images, charts or other media that Umano does not display to you.

The application will automatically load the next article in line so that you do not have to look at your phone or tablet all the time to select new articles of interest.

If you create an account, you can furthermore add articles to your custom playlist just by tapping on the plus icon next to an article in the app.

You can tap on the apps name at the top to display a menu listing all available categories the app currently supports as well as options to access your personal playlist and the login option.

Registered users have two interesting options at their disposal. The first one offers to create an auto-playlist from recent articles. All you have to do is select how long you want it to be and let the app take care of the rest for you.

The second option lets you download the audio to your device so that you can listen to the news even if you are offline or do not want the phone to use the Internet connection.

Verdict

If you are interested in mainstream news then this application is definitely worth a closer look. It is especially useful if you want to have access to news even if you are pursuing activities that do not allow you to read them.

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