Pulse news reader launches for web with IE10-exclusive touch features

Pulse, the mobile news reader app that launched for iPad in 2010 and later expanded to Android, is making the move to web, particularly Internet Explorer 10. An HTML5 web app, launched today, uses the same sleek tile-based design as the mobile app, but also adds a side panel and buttons for navigation. More unusually, the team has partnered with Microsoft to create a version specifically designed for Windows 8 touch devices using Internet Explorer 10. As seen in the video below, using the web app on IE10 adds support for a variety of touch gestures, from swiping between articles to saving or closing them with two-fingered sweeps and pinches.

Pulse co-creator Akshay Kothari tells us that a browser-based version of the tool has been the biggest request from users, but that he’d previously thought of HTML5 as “clunky and slow, like the web.” While he praised the implementation on Internet Explorer 10, he says that performance doesn’t suffer elsewhere. “If you’re using a computer, all modern browsers should work great... The main difference is around touch.” Still, Kothari says IE10 is the “bleeding edge” of the hardware acceleration he uses for touch, though he expects future versions of Chrome to have similar features.

If you’re using iOS or Android, you’ll want to stick with the dedicated Pulse app, and Kothari confirmed the team won’t be leaving those behind in the near future, though he says HTML5 could be versatile enough to support all touch platforms in a few years. Meanwhile, there are no specific plans for Windows Phone 8, but the team is “excited” to see how the app could be adapted to it at some point. You can check out the web app here, but you probably won’t be able to play with the touch features until the first native Windows 8 devices are released around October 26th.