I've been a big fan of of the Silvio Rizzi's Reeder for iPhone, iPad & Mac for what feels like ages now. It's one of my core and most often used apps for catching up with tech and sports news on a daily basis. I'll admint, I'm an RSS guy and I'm proud. Don't get me wrong, I love curated feed apps such as Flipboard and Zite which add tremendous value to the reading experience. But when it comes to really scanning all your news items, it's got to be an RSS reader. Reeder's interface and experience reveals a clean, functional and Mac simple-like experience in reading and sharing news feeds. It achieves a uniform experience this across the entire iOS and Mac range which is a rare feat. It's an app I wish existed on Android (although gReader Pro is very good in its own right).
The iPhone version is what I use most while on the move. Up to version 2.x it offered a quick way to read news but to share with Instapaper and most importantly Twitter followers, using my custom URL which is I set up on bit.ly. Real nice bit of flexibility.
I've had version 3.x running for probably for 2 weeks, and while this post is not there to overly criticize the developer (who does a great job and is clearly thinking of evolving the product), the new version has left me somewhat disgruntled in terms of the overall balance of gains in new functionality versus ones which have been changed or upgraded for that matter. My main grips fall into 2 areas affecting functionality and user experience.
The functionality gripe is simple. The bit.ly support for custom URL sharing in Twitter is gone (at least for now). And the custom Twitter messaging has been replaced by the generic iOS Twitter integration dialogue:
The other odd grip relates to the design led animation to move from one article to another. It essentially mimicks moving from one piece of paper to another as if they were joined together. It's an interesting touch, but not to my liking. Again, the sort of thing which for some of us, takes away from the overall experience and enables us to moan that v3 feels like a backward step in places. You only need to look at some of the review on the Apps Store to see that I'm not alone.
Anyway, if you are new to Reeder and have always wondered if its worth the 3 bucks (separately for iOS devices and Mac), there are other posts which provided a more rounded introduction than my moans. I mean, I still use it daily, so that's saying something about the competition.
The iPhone version is what I use most while on the move. Up to version 2.x it offered a quick way to read news but to share with Instapaper and most importantly Twitter followers, using my custom URL which is I set up on bit.ly. Real nice bit of flexibility.
I've had version 3.x running for probably for 2 weeks, and while this post is not there to overly criticize the developer (who does a great job and is clearly thinking of evolving the product), the new version has left me somewhat disgruntled in terms of the overall balance of gains in new functionality versus ones which have been changed or upgraded for that matter. My main grips fall into 2 areas affecting functionality and user experience.
The functionality gripe is simple. The bit.ly support for custom URL sharing in Twitter is gone (at least for now). And the custom Twitter messaging has been replaced by the generic iOS Twitter integration dialogue:
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| Reeder v3.0 for iPhone - sharing to Twitter. No visible shortened link and no way to do it |
Anyway, if you are new to Reeder and have always wondered if its worth the 3 bucks (separately for iOS devices and Mac), there are other posts which provided a more rounded introduction than my moans. I mean, I still use it daily, so that's saying something about the competition.
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