I love reading news on the ‘net, whether it’s local news, international news, or just an interesting article about a movie, TV show, new gadget, or a metal that’s 100 times lighter than styrofoam. I came across Zite when it was first released last year, and I instantly fell in love with it. The app, which is available on iOS and Android, allows you to select subjects that interest you from their list, or add your own topics. Then it pulls in articles relating to those topics, and presents them in a “magazine” format. Click on an article and it’ll open up, allowing you to read the entire thing. I’ve come across a ton of interesting articles on sites I’ve never heard of before, or rarely visit. This sets it apart from RSS readers, which allow you to easily read articles for sites you frequent. Zite also uses a “thumbs up, thumbs down” way to rate what you enjoy, and then it factors that into what it’ll display for you. My “Technology” section in Zite will look different than yours because of the way we use Zite, and the articles we’ve given a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to in the past. That personalization is something that sets Zite apart from other apps that do similar things, like Flipboard. The Zite magazine that it creates for you is always changing, so an interesting article you read may not be there the next time you open the app. That leads me to my next app that completes the Info-Junkie Marriage, Pocket…

Pocket used to be known as “Read it Later,” a name which describes what it does; it allows you to save an article for reading later. There are apps for iOS, Android, the Amazon Fire, Mac OS, browsers… it’s all over the place, allowing you to save articles, and read them later, on pretty much any device. If I find an interesting article in Zite I’ll use the “Save to Pocket” feature so I can read it at a better time, or so I can refer to it later. I use the browser plugin for FireFox to save articles as well, because some times I just don’t have a chance to get through a 5 page article about an interesting topic, and I know I’ll forget to read it later. Pocket also allows you to read articles when offline, you just have to download the article to the app when you have a connection. That’s a great feature if you’re boarding a long flight and want to catch up on some news.

If you’re an info-junkie like me, download both these apps (they’re free). Zite and Pocket were made for each other…