Disclosure: VentureBeat is one of Zite’s publishing partners, which permits us to place house ads within the VB publisher section of Zite free of charge.

Zite was one of the first companies to answer cries from loyal Google Reader users when the service was shuttered back in March, building a “replacement” in six hours. Yet in the news reader’s latest iOS app update, Zite’s management team makes one thing very clear: It’s time to let Google Reader die.

At its core, the CNN-owned Zite is sort of the anti-Google Reader, anyway. Google Reader pulls in RSS feeds from any news website as they become available, which creates an unruly fire hose of content that most people couldn’t possibly keep up with, and the design is bland and basic. Zite, on the other hand, curates news from the best publications on the web using your preferences and arranges them in a visually pleasing digital magazine layout.

“We realized we didn’t need to shift focus of the company for the next two months trying to build a Google Reader replacement, because we already did that in 2011 with Zite,” Zite CEO and founder Mark Johnson said in an interview with VentureBeat. “I think part of the reason Google Reader’s death was so prominently covered was because a large group of Google Reader users were people in the media. A very small portion of people — reporters, analysts, VCs and news junkies — are actually benefiting from seeing every single one of those articles in one place.”

I tend to agree with Johnson’s assessment, as I had a front row seat when my boss, Dylan Tweney, and colleague Sean Ludwig communicated their frustrations over Google Reader going away. I imagined them pulling their hair out trying to find a replacement. [Not counting Canadians, all the men on VentureBeat's editorial staff have -- or have the ability to grow -- full heads of hair, but Google Reader's death almost changed that -- Ed.]  But those that just want a good mix of articles from trusted sources that can reasonably be finished without having to block out half a day on the calendar, Zite already did a pretty good job of delivering. The latest update, however, makes some important tweaks to the user experience that will help ease those former Google Reader fans into Zite’s news curation service.

With Zite, you can “thumb” up or down articles, but now you’ll be able to see a prominent list of sources that you’ve “thumbed up” in the topic drawer (aka category or section) — sort of like a list of favorites. You’ll also be able to click through to any of those sources to read and vote on everything they’ve published recently. All the content you’ve read will now appear gray to signify what you’ve seen previously — a nod to Google Reader’s bold/gray headlines. And finally, Johnson said, Zite wants to fix the problem Google Reader had with burying really good content from sources that published something only once or twice a week (or month) by giving it a higher placement within Zite’s magazine layout. That means the algorithm for news curation is changing slightly to unearth what would be the best content from a Google Reader account with hundreds of headlines collected from lots of handpicked sources/publications.

“The goal is to give Zite more of a magazine feel that’s inviting, not a huge list of headlines and photos,” Johnson told me. Zite is also rolling out more diverse “story cards” that help break up what’s shown on the screen. For instance, some topic drawers will have only headlines and photos from sources, while others may feature a headline and a good pull quote from an article, which I’m guessing is similar to how Flipboard presents content. In other words, unlike Google Reader, there isn’t a flawed display that’s exactly the same for every story, since a one-size fits all approach really doesn’t work when dealing with content from more than a handful of publications.

Johnson said Zite’s strategy focuses on streamlining the news curation and consumption experience for new Zite users. He nicknamed this process “frog cooking,” a term I was previously unfamiliar with.

“It’s said that if you slowly raise the temperature of the water inside a pot with a frog inside, you’ll be able to cook [the frog] without it noticing,” he said.

I didn’t ask, but I’m quite positive no frogs were harmed during the development of Zite iOS version 2.3. And while Johnson was likening the “frog cooking” to new users unfamiliar with Zite (and walking them through the process with tutorials as shown in the screenshots below), I’d characterize most of the new tweaks in the iOS update to “Google Reader-er cooking.”

In addition to various UI and algorithm tweaks, Zite is also bringing on a slew of new publishing partners, including Atlantic Media (The Atlantic and Quartz), Business Insider, Fast Company, GigaOM, Salon, SAY Media (Remodelista and ReadWrite), and Serious Eats. Zite users can add any of these publications a separate section within the Zite app, as VentureBeat previously reported. And while the latest updates are only available on iOS devices, Johnson said the team is planning to launch a new version of its Android application later this year.

Zite’s iOS app update should be available for free later today via the iTunes App Store. Check out the gallery of screenshots below for a closer look at the latest version of the app.

Google launched an update for digital magazine iOS app Google Currents today, which features a new user interface, lots of navigation changes, and a greater emphasis on real-time news.

It’s also really freaking pretty.

Historically, Google hasn’t really followed a specific template when designing applications for each of its many services on iOS. For instance, the iPhone version of YouTube, Google+, and Maps didn’t have much in common aside from being able to use the same account to log in. But that seems to have changed with the latest version of many Google iOS apps, which feature a unified set of design elements (fonts, colors, search bars, and so on) — with Google Currents being the latest example.

The update brings the digital magazine app’s navigation in line with what we’ve seen on the latest versions of iOS apps for Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Currents’ has a search bar that sits at the top of the interface, and a button in the top right corner reveals a YouTube-like sidebar. Opening the sidebar reveals a new breaking news section feed from Google News, an option to add new sources, and several news categories. Clicking a category reveals a sublist of publications.

You also don’t have to use the sidebar, as you can scroll between simplistic categories pages and news sources by swiping left to right. Navigating articles for each source is done by scrolling vertically. You even have the option of including a breaking news feed in each category. Also, to switch between sources within each category, you can click a “Short List” located in the top navigation bar. This seemed like over kill to me at first, but after using the app for a while, I do think it’ll get used often because it speeds up your capability to zip through a ton of news sources.

Overall, Google Currents’ design is crispy, pretty, and consistent with the company’s other iOS apps. If you want to follow a high volume of news sources in a short amount of time, the latest version of Currents is worth getting reacquainted with.

Check out some screenshots in the gallery below, or download the latest version of Google Currents for free in the App Store.

Digitial magazine service Flipboard has finally landed on a variety of Android-based tablets today.

Flipboard allows you to aggregate news into specific categories and sorts articles based on their popularity among your Facebook friends and people you follow on Twitter. The user interface is designed to mimic the pages in a printed magazine, but until now users were only able to access a scaled-up version of the smartphone Flipboard app

The new version of the app, which is available today in the Google Play store, is optimized for larger screen, such as those available on the Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Tabs, and Google’s flagship tablet the Nexus 10.

Even tablets with a 7-inch screen (Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Nook, etc.) will get the new UI when users upgrade the current app. (Of course, if you prefer the smaller screen orientation, there is a setting that lets you switch back.)

Popular digital magazine app Flipboard has made its first foray into video with new “TV” channels chock full of YouTube clips, the company announced today.

Two-year-old Flipboard just announced yesterday that it now has 20 million users. While the app is available widely for iPad, iPhone, and Android phones, it has had some trouble on the content side. Popular content providers, including Wired and the The New Yorker, have stopped providing full articles. So it makes sense to start adding video to the mix to give Flipboard users more options.

The new video feeds are curated from popular YouTube channels, and they cover a wide variety of topics including cooking, music, and science.

Check out the descriptions of the new channels below.

Cooking TV: For foodies and aspiring home chefs, these how-to cooking videos can add skills to your culinary repertoire. Learn the basics like Chow.com’s “How to Make the Creamiest, Cheesiest Mac ‘n Cheese” or try quirky recipes like Food Network TV’s “Chicken and Waffles on a Stick.”

Influencer TV: Hear about big ideas from leading innovators and creative thinkers. Influencers TV includes a TED Talks lecture on creating awe by Rob Legato, the visual effects supervisor for Titanic and Hugo. For shorter fare, check out Big Think videos on “The Search for Life on Mars” and “Seeing Sound, Tasting Color: Synasthesia.”

Music TV: Keep up with what the kids—and hip people of all ages—are listening to these days. Watch the latest indie music videos on Noisey and follow NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series for intimate sessions with emerging artists. Pitchfork TV catches live show moments, including “Bjork Dedicates ‘Declare Independence’ to Pussy Riot.”

Science TV: Feed your curiosity with cool experiments and surprising scientific facts. VSauce will answer “What if the Earth were Hollow?” and “What If Everyone Jumped at Once?” On SciShow, find out “Why Our Brains Love Junk Food” or other scientific explanations for everyday dilemmas.

News TV: With News TV, stay updated on current events via leading news outlets. Get storm and earthquake alerts from Associated Press and ABC News. CBS News follows the 2012 presidential campaigns and Al Jazeera provides international news.

Catwalk TV: Get the latest fashion trends, fresh off the catwalks in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, New York City and more. YouTube channels like Fashion TV and Videofashion cover global runways and rising models. See new campaigns from individual designers, like Alexander McQueen’s “Menswear Autumn/Winter 2012.”

Video stream via Shutterstock

Digital magazine service News360 launched a revamped version of its iPad app that offers a sleeker design, some refreshing user interface tweaks, and the possibility of stealing eyeballs away from its competitors.

News360 lets its users chose from a vast array of news topics to follow and aggregates favorable content based on user behavior through the app itself as well as social-networking activity. It’s already facing heavy competition from several digital news-magazine tablet readers, including Flipboard, Pulse, Google Current, and Editions by AOL. But News360′s most direct competitor is probably Zite, where users can vote on content and improve its news discovery the more you use the service.

The new version allows you to pull in trends/topics of news from your Twitter hashtags, Facebook likes, and Google+ profile listing. You can also search for custom topics like in previous versions and have everything displayed in a central home screen view. One pleasant addition to the main news view is the capability to treat news items like rectangular cubes, which you can flick up or down. Flicking the article cube reveals a longer version of the text that you can scroll through, and flicking it again shows a menu for bookmarking, voting on the article, and sharing the article through a number of social networks.

You can also select the individual article cube, which makes it take up the entire screen. The article text and images are displayed in a News360 reader, with a small portion of the article’s original website shown below. I wasn’t able to view more than the small portion of the website without first clicking through to the in-app web browser. I’m guessing this is a bug. If you don’t like the article’s source, News360 provides you will several other alternative news outlets that covered the same story. This is certainly useful for finding the best version of an article, but honestly, I’m not sure how often average, passive news readers will really use this.

You can download the updated News360 iPad app today for free via iTunes. Check out the demo video below for a closer look at the app’s updated look and feel.