For Web junkies who fancy themselves as "in-the-know," reading news across the Web takes up a significant portion of the day. They tether themselves to their gadgets and mobile devices, soak up new posts on their favorite websites, and of course, maintain their presence on all the usual social media channels. It's a sometimes taxing cycle of knowledge breeding hunger for more knowledge. Well, we at CNET are certainly no strangers to the plugged-in lifestyle, so we thought we'd take the time to share a couple of Android apps to help manage it.

Now most of us know about RSS readers. They aggregate content from several sites so you can do your reading all in one place. They save you from having to open up dozens of tabs and scroll through potentially hundreds of posts. They're efficient. But at the same time, they're usually, well, bland. Enter Pulse News (download)--an alternative to your typical, run-of-the-mill RSS aggregator. It pulls content from all your favorite news sources, and presents it in an intuitive and elegant interface. Complete with graphics and bold headers, Pulse News makes your reading experience not only efficient, but enjoyable. You can program different pages of content to correspond to different categories that you're covering, use Pulse's site suggestions, or add your own. Swipe up and down to quickly glance at all of your sources, or swipe horizontally to read more stories from a single source. You can even program it to pull content from your Google Reader account. It's all very simple. And it enables sharing to all your typical social media profiles, SMS, e-mail, and, very conveniently, our next featured app.

Read It Later (download: Free | Pro) is a short-term bookmarking tool that helps you manage your online reading across any and all of the devices you use to access the interwebs. We think it's a perfect complement to Pulse, as it keeps a running queue of articles you want to re-visit later. Let's say you're swiping through your Pulse feeds and you come across a particularly riveting article that's a bit too lengthy for your two-stop train ride to accommodate. With a few quick taps, you can add the article to your Read It Later list and access it at a more convenient time, even without a Web connection. And if you download Read It Later on your other devices, you can access your list on those as well. It's an efficient way of keeping your reading experience seamless throughout the day, no matter where you are or how you're accessing the Web.

Do you have a favorite set of apps or perhaps a particularly effective work flow to manage your online reading? Let us know in the comments below.

Google Maps for Android hit version 5.7 today, and it includes a significant update in the form of Transit Navigation (beta). Now, users in over 400 cities around the world will get to enjoy turn-by-turn and stop-by-stop navigation for public transit systems. The feature is perfect for when you're traveling and you can't read the signage or don't understand the language, and it's difficult for you to decipher your next stop.

Transit Navigation uses GPS to determine your current location along your route and alerts you when it's time to get off or make a transfer. Keep in mind, however, that since GPS connection is essential (as it is with all navigation), the service works best on above-ground transit. This means that traveling on certain public systems (subways) may result in interrupted service or no service at all. That's not a problem we're pinning on the app itself, however, it's simply the nature of GPS.

And just as before, Navigation will stay active even when you open other applications or kill your screen and put your device in your pocket. It will display notifications and vibrate to notify you of any inflections in your route.

Along with Transit Navigation (beta), Google has also added a few convenient, yet admittedly less significant, updates to the app. The Navigation icon now appears automatically when you're pulling up directions, whereas previously, you had to enter your destination, hit Go, then find the bright blue arrow. This change means one fewer tap to activate turn-by-turn navigation. Search suggestions are now more powerful, displaying icons and suggesting previous searches when relevant. And finally, a nifty photo viewer has been built into Google Place pages, giving you a slightly improved browsing experience.

Google Maps 5.7 is available now for all Android devices running OS 2.1+. Check out the official release here.

The ability to play Blu-ray movies in OS X has been a bit of a sore spot for Mac users. When Blu-ray was being developed, Apple's presence as a supporter of the technology spurred much speculation and rumor that Mac users would be seeing native Blu-ray support in OS X. Unfortunately, to this date this has not happened, and Apple has progressively shied away from Blu-ray in support of alternative options like the iTunes store.

While Apple has claimed that the complex licensing for Blu-ray playback has been partly to blame for the lack of Blu-ray support, oddly the ability to create and burn Blu-ray movies has been readily available with tools like Final Cut Pro and Toast Titanium. It is more likely that Apple's reluctance to support Blu-ray revolves around its competition with Apple's preferred streaming media solutions.

Despite the controversies and frustrations with Apple's support of Blu-ray, native playback is finally here. Recently, developer Macgo released a new media player aptly named Mac Blu Ray Player, which is the first to bring full Blu-ray playback support to OS X. All you need to get Blu-ray up and running is the following:

1. A Blu-ray drive, which can either be internal (likely easier and cheaper for Mac Pro systems), or external. These can be purchased at places like Other World Computing or NewEgg

2. Mac Blu Ray Player software, which can be downloaded from the Macgo Web site.

The player is a simple drag-and-drop install and works by managing Blu-ray licensing through the Internet, so when you insert a disc and open it with the player, the system will manage the Advanced Access Content System keys and other content management features through the Macgo servers. Unfortunately this means there are some limitations, like not being able to play the movies if you have no Internet connection, but perhaps if you are reading this article, then you have all that's needed in this regard.

The Mac Blu Ray Player comes in a trial version that offers a free 3-month playback. During this time the player will put a watermark on the screen and some features may be disabled, but with the $39.95 license for the software, you should be able to play your movies in full.

Keep in mind that this is new software in its version 1.0 release (actually version 1.0.0.0000), and while it should work, it may have some issues at times. The developer has a FAQ available in which it does mention a few workarounds for crashes and errors that may pop up when using the software.

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt

Open-Xchange, maker of open-source software for e-mail and other collaboration needs, plans to release a tool to let people extract contact information from Facebook friends who've shared it.

The technique uses the company's SocialOX tool, which provides what Chief Executive Rafael Laguna calls a "magic address book" that draws on your online address books at LinkedIn, Gmail, and other sites.

The tool is arriving during a hot time for social networking: Google has just launched a mostly closed beta test of its new service, Google+, and incumbent power Facebook is blocking access to another tool that can be used to move contact information to Google+.

Open-Xchange's approach isn't for the faint of heart, but the company is working on simplifying it, Laguna said.

"It works pretty well and doesn't break any terms and conditions," he said in a Google+ comment. He details how it works in a separate comment on the same discussion thread.

With the approach, the software does the minimal amount of "scraping," which means copying raw data off a Web page rather than accessing it from an API (application programming interface) explicitly designed to permit such an operation.

"You most probably won't need those scrapers anyhow, because our method uses the services API's and all e-mail accounts made available to your OX user to harvest names and e-mail addresses from the e-mails within," Laguna said. "And then we merge all this stuff into your 'magic' address book from all your friends and business and mail networks that you give your Open-Xchange user access to."

Meanwhile, there's another, Facebook-sanctioned way to get your contacts' e-mail addresses out of Facebook: Yahoo. You won't get phone numbers, birthdays, and other useful information, but the main thing you need for Google+ and Gmail is e-mail addresses.

To do that, open a fresh account at Yahoo. As soon as it's created, you'll get an option to import contacts from elsewhere, including Facebook. Choose that option, authorize the tool, and it'll import the contacts.

You'll then have to transfer them to Google by exporting a CSV (comma-separated values) spreadsheet. Gmail lets you import a CSV by clicking Contacts, then the More actions button, then the Import menu item.

Also worth noting about this method are TechCrunch's snarky remarks about Facebook's contradictory position on whether mass exporting of data is permissible.

The debate centers on who exactly has control over the contact information. On Facebook, people can share it with their contacts, but Facebook doesn't permit automated extraction. Google, eager to press any advantage it can get over Facebook, makes people export this information, as long as their contacts have shared it.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Like games? Like helping good causes? Then have I got a deal for you.

Last December, I worked with AppSumo to put together a software bundle that was not only a great deal, but also a fundraiser for an important charity. Thanks in no small part to Cheapskate readers, we raised around $7,000.

Needless to say, I wanted to do it again, so here we go. The AppSumo BadAss Gamer Bundle features eight titles with a combined value of $97. Your price: a mere $33. And $10 of that goes directly to Hands.org, a fantastic organization that provides aid to victims of natural disasters.

What's in the bundle? A little something for everybody:

Aztaka: A sweet-looking side-scrolling action/RPG. (It reminds me of a 2D Diablo.)

City Rain It's a puzzle game combined with urban planning/strategy. In other words: SimCity meets Tetris.

Crystal Towers 2: If you like Mario-style platformers, you'll have a blast with Crystal Towers. It even has the appropriately cheesy soundtrack!

Desktop Game Arcade: This Adobe AIR-powered game portal provides instant access to 10,000-plus (!) online games--mostly the casual, play-for-5-minutes variety. (You have to watch a commercial before playing, though, which I admit sucks.)

EmberWind: A sweet-looking side-scrolling platformer set in a medieval fantasy world. There's even a bit of RPG thrown in for good measure. Also available for Mac!

Lugaru: Without a doubt, the best third-person fighting game starring an anthropomorphic rebel bunny rabbit. Also available for Mac!

Plants Vs. Zombies: This probably needs no introduction, but it's one of the all-time great tower defense games.

Vizati: A thoroughly engaging puzzle game of connecting like-colored stones.

The bundle is available for the next 12 days, but why wait? This is a great collection of games at an unbeatable price. And you get the satisfaction that comes from helping a very worthy cause.

Plus, AppSumo offers a money-back guarantee (something you rarely see with game bundles). If you're not happy with the purchase, "for any reason, anytime before you die," you can get a full refund. (My only request: don't abuse this generosity.) Game on!

Bonus deal: HP is offering the Pavilion dm1z ultraportable for $369.99 shipped when you apply coupon code SAVE30HP at checkout. That's a killer price on one of my favorite portable PCs.

Originally posted at The Cheapskate