Newspapers are a bit rubbish really aren’t they? I mean, the ones made out of paper. The ones that are impossible to read unless you’ve got five foot of elbow space, which fall apart and leave your fingers inky and grubby.

If it’s the tactile thrill of touching paper you’re after then stroke a Yellow Pages or take up origami or something. Personally, I’d rather have news served to me on the crisp and convenient screen of a smartphone.

And there’s plenty of corking news apps available on the market. Here’s a pick of the best:

Flipboard

This takes your chosen news feeds, along with any social media accounts you want to add, and it turns them all into a whizzy digital magazine. It even finds a suitable image to use as the cover. It creates a great mix of content but the flipping effect of turning a page is so enjoyable that you just want to keep flipping – rather than read the important matters of the day.

Feedly

One of the problems with most news readers is that they all sucking info from the same news sources. But what if you want to catch up with the latest murders in the Abargavenny Chronicle or anything a bit off the beaten track? Feedly lets you do this by using RSS feeds. It’s more attractive than Google Reader and although it takes time to figure out, it’s well worth the effort.

News Republic

This is the X-Factor within news apps. It doesn’t matter if the news is boring because you can just admire the fluid swish of the graphics as you flick around and watch stories fly into place. It’s superbly slick and lets you choose from a massive number of news feeds.

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Google Currents

If you’re more interested in actually reading the news, rather than gimmicky stuff, then Google Currents is a great choice. Its minimalist, uncluttered approach and crisp formatting is designed to make text easy to read. Does everything else you want from a news app but it’s readability that makes this stand out.

Pocket

This is ace for commuters. It’s basically just a place to shove articles you find interesting but haven’t got time to read at the time. So if you spot something at work but the boss is hovering, you just send it to Pocket. Then, when you’re on the train home you can enjoy at your leisure. It grabs a copy of the article so you don’t need an Internet connection.