I’ve been using the free iDygest app on my iPhone for some time, and have enjoyed the way it culls the news for me.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]iDygest is not like a typical RSS reader. With an RSS reader, you enter in the sites you want to see stories from and it updates regularly. The problem is that many sites cover the same stories, which means you have duplicate content.

iDygest culls through hundreds of Web sites looking for the most popular stories and then brings them together in the app. You still have the option to read the story from your favorite site, but you don’t have to endlessly click through links of the same story.

“Our objective was to intelligently process content so that it matches mobile consumption patterns,” Alain Mayer, iDygest found and CEO, told The Loop.

Mayer explained that often times people don’t have time to scroll through a lot of news stories, but they still want to know what’s going on. That’s what iDygest provides.

With the technology originally developed at Columbia University, iDygest uses sophisticated algorithms to generate all of the content in the app. With around 800,000 downloads to date, it would seem people like what it has to offer.

While Mayer wouldn’t commit to a similar type of app for the Mac, he didn’t rule it out either.

“We believe the technology we have is a natural for mobile consumption,” said Mayer. “Our immediate plans don’t include the Mac, but I wouldn’t preclude that from happening over time.”

There are currently four versions of the app available on the App Store: iDygest, celebDygest, techDygest, and gameDygest. All of the apps are free to download and use.