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I’m always on the lookout for a better iPad news reader app. Thereupon, I recently purchased Pulse News Reader in the hope that it just might help feed my need for continuous ritual gratification. So, is it worth the developer Alphonso Labs’ $1.99 asking price? Come inside for the full monty.

I am a fan of Flipboard, SkyGrid and Reuters News Pro, and use these apps multiple times a day — they’re great for Oval Office reading. Nevertheless, I always feel like I’m one app short of being able to fully scratch my news itch (a deficiency I’ll probably take the grave).

Still, one must soldier on and part of that is finding the next great app. Thereupon, Pulse News Reader has been hailed by a number of leading media outlets as the next big thing in mobile news readers, perhaps the most competitive and innovative segment of the app business.

News you can use?

I have to admit being a bit put off in getting Pulse set up to my liking. That is, adding the news sources I did want — i.e. Mac and iPad-specific stuff — required me to search for and then add sources manually as they weren’t in Pulse’s default listings.

However, you can’t just add whatever you want. For example, I can’t get feeds for the myriad small blogs, FairerPlatform for example, and news outlets that are really important for keeping abreast of things.

Yes, you can add your own Google Reader feed, but I don’t have one. So, to put all of the news I want on Pulse would require me to set up yet another service, which seems an odd barrier to entry.

On the plus side, monkeying around in the app also lead me to discover that the sources I didn’t care for — i.e. someone else’s take on what it means to be really freakin’ now — could be removed rather than just pushed to the side.

Aside from the inability to add whatever I want, one feed at a time, I like Pulse’s management functionality.

To read or not to read?

Pulse’s tiled news browsing display presents an odd use of space. Each source is scrollable horizontally, which has me squinting at one line of stories leaving more than half of the screen unused and that might as well be blank space — larger tiles and fewer displayed sources, please.

Also, when scrolling through a source’s stories, tiles just stop wherever they stop, meaning the app doesn’t automatically snap them to tile boundaries. Pulse should recognize tile boundaries, keeping them readable.

Nevertheless, this app is meant for thumb-based navigation and that’s a good thing.

I’m really enjoying how Pulse displays individual stories, whether in landscape or portrait views — it’s refreshing in its simplicity. You get the scraped story or preview, depending on the source’s RSS setup, with an image or two, and there aren’t any ads to separate or distract you from the story.

Conclusion

I’m not in love with Pulse News Reader (iTunes; iPad, $1.99; iPhone, $0.99), yet can see this app’s merits and why so many notable publications have praised it. I just haven’t made up my mind yet.

Have you tried Pulse News Reader? Render your verdict on its merits, or lack thereof, in the comments below…