Read the news, fast. Whether you want to know what's going on in the world of technology or quickly swipe through headlines from around the web, the right site or app makes it easier.

Cool Websites and Apps aims to bring you five things never covered on MakeUseOf before, despite our tens of thousands of articles. Today we're going to point out five news sources we think are well worth installing or bookmarking. Let's get started.

Morning Reader: The Day's Top Tech Stories

If you're a regular MakeUseOf reader, you probably like keeping up with the world of technology. Morning Reader compiles five of the day's top technology news from around the web, all in one place.

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You can see the headlines in your browser, if you like, or you can have them delivered to you every day using email or RSS. Click a link to read the story online. There's even an extension for Chrome that uses these stories as a sort of clutter-free new tab page.

The curation is pretty good, and the site itself is easy on the eyes, so check it out. You might end up doing so every day.

Sometimes an article is so fascinating that you just want to learn more. News Bot is a Chrome extension that will, with just a click, read whatever it is you're reading and recommend related stories.

You can also, if you like, subscribe to a particular story – meaning you'll be notified

Note that if you've turned off those distracting Chrome notifications this extension won't really work, so turn them back on if you want to try this out.

Liten.in (Web): Really Fast RSS Reader, No Account Required

We've gone over more than a few minimalistic RSS readers, but we've somehow missed this gem until now. Liten is a really fast RSS reader you can use without creating an account. Just start adding feeds, or importing an OPML file, and you're done.

liten-lightweight-rss-reader-web

RSS can improve your life, and Liten is a very quick way to see how. Once you've added feeds from the sites you love you'll have a go-to homepage, full of the latest headlines from around the web. Be sure to include the MakeUseOf RSS feed.

News In Shorts (iOS, Android): 60-Word Summaries Of The Day's Top Stories

And now for something from India. News In Shorts is a smartphone app with an editorial team behind it. The idea is simple: to summarize that top news stories, every day, for busy readers on the go. Just swipe up and down to see the summary.

If you find something interesting, you can swipe left or right to read the full article in a browser. The news sources have an Indian slant, so readers from other countries might feel a little left out, but it's still an interesting look at how mobile news can work.

Those of you not living in India can check out a few other news summarization tools, if you prefer.

Swipe News (iOS): Quickly Browse 100+ News Sites

Here's another app for quickly swiping through stories on your phone. Swipe News lets you see the headlines from multiple sites – swipe right and left to browse stories, up and down to switch news sources.

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You can customize which sources the app provides you, and generally find out what's going on pretty quickly. You can also add articles to your reading list, for future reference.

What's Your Favorite News App?

We've looked at other interesting news apps, like NPR One, a sort of Pandora for news stories, and sites for keeping up with financial news.

But we want to know: what news apps have we missed here? Point out your favorites in the comments below, along with any questions you might have. I look forward to chatting with you!

Image Credits: Newspaper and coffee via Shutterstock