The iTunes app store is literally brimming with news regulator apps which enable you to gain the latest news stories at your fingertips. Sports Republic is the sister app of the already popular News Republic, which as the name gives away, focuses solely on sports.
Sports Republic brings together the news feeds from a number of different sources and enables you to filter these as you desire. The main page of the app is fully customisable and allows you to add and remove topics of your choice right on the main screen. This flexibility makes Sports republic good if you just want news stories from a certain sport or team.
The app allows you to link in your Facebook account and post news stories to your wall as you desire. You can also tweet a news story or email a link to a friend or colleague if you desire. Couple this with the notifications from the app, and the ability to set a ‘silent time’ to ensure you get no 2am notifications, makes Sports Republic a nifty little app. But unfortunately there is a but…
The one major let down I find from the app is that you are unable to add your own feeds to the increase the usability of the app. This means you are stuck with the news providers of their choice, which can sometimes limit the topics you can set to your homepage. If you want news from a slightly off-mainstream sport or team, this app is not for you. I set Orlando Magic to my homepage, who are a professional NBA team, and received no stories. It seems they have missed an opportunity by not allowing people to add their own and limiting them to the apps catalogue of news providers.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, and I am yet to find a sports dedicated news app that allows this level of customisation. Yes, the topics make struggle with non-mainstream topics but for general sports headlines and popular teams and sports it’s a great app.
Daily waffle rating: 3.5/5