RSS is boring, unless you like reading gobs upon gobs of text. Blancspot: The Art of News does something about it, turning your news-reading into a visually-rich activity.
While other news readers dump content in a pile, this app turns headlines into a slideshow using images included in each piece, complete with matching background music (you can jump into iTunes right from the app if you like the song) and smooth transitions. Tap on a photo or blurb, and it opens the full text of the story included in the feed (white text over the darkened photo), while the background music softens to allow you to better concentrate on what you're reading.
Each story has three tabs: Editorial, Twitter and Friends. The Twitter component lists tweets about the story, while Editorial shows a brief summary. As for the last tab, it's for the app's user community, which you'll need to sign up for if you want to take part.
From any point in the app, you can tap to the Dashboard, a filmstrip-style category display divided into four rows. The rows consist of Editorial (news categories), Suggested, Friends (what your friends are reading) and My Channel (for your saved stories). Categories within Editorial aren't very intuitive (the logic it uses just isn't very polished), so you'll have to rely on quite a bit of digging yourself to find what you're looking for.
Overall, Blancspot: The Art of News is quite the killer app. While far from perfect, it makes reading news particularly more engaging than it would normally be. It's available from the App Store for 99 cents.
