Facebook Paper and the 5 Best Apps to Read News on Your Phone

Facebook announced this week that it will release a new iPhone app called Facebook Paper on Monday. This new offering will provide most of the functions of the social network’s standard app, but instead of scrolling endlessly down through a list of status updates and news headlines, users will be able to scroll through — as though they had a magazine on the their phone.

Like Flipboard before it, Facebook Paper will have a horizontal interface that allows users to flip through stories from their Facebook friends as well as a wide selection of customizable news outlets from indie bloggers to mainstream media sources. And it helps add to the sense we’re living through a Golden Age for news junkies. Here are some of the best ways to get news on your phone.

5.  Zite – Free – Android/ iPhone
Zite is an app that lets you subscribe for news updates from over 40,000 topics. You can receive daily updates on wildly specific categories, from gardening to prison.

4. Instapaper – $3.99 – Android/ iPhone
Instapaper lets you download web pages to read later on your smartphone. This way, if someone texts or emails you an article while you’re working on something, you can save it and read it later. It’s great for reading offline: You can save an article while you eat breakfast and read it on the subway on the way to work.

3. iAlien – free – iPhone
This unofficial Reddit app lets you browse through links and original content from users around the world. You can see what people are doing anywhere from /r/Philadelphia to /r/worldnews.

2. Flipboard – Free – Android/ iPhone
Flipboard is like a newspaper where you’re the editor and the reader. You can design what content you read from major news outlets such as The New York Times as well as personal news outlets like Facebook and Twitter. You can publish your own virtual magazine, as well as subscribe to others. It was the best, most user-friendly news and social media app, until…

1. Facebook Paper – Free- iPhone
Paper will be like Flipboard, but even more streamlined to your Facebook account. You’ll get flashy features from Facebook, like the ability to tilt your phone back and forth in order to scroll across a panoramic picture. But you’ll also see the beginning of Facebook’s transition from a single app to a group of apps that perform different functions. Instead of a cramped, overloaded app, Paper is the first of several Facebook apps that will change the way we browse news and social media on our smartphones.