MobileRSS Native iPhone feed reader app is a keeper now …
If I was listing out my most frequently used applications
– on a desktop or a mobile device – RSS readers would be at or very close to Number 1 most used – so finding the best way to keep up with RSS feeds on the iPhone is an ongoing process. Google Reader has been and remains my favorite way for now, but of course when you’ve only get an Edge connection, its performance is not much above just acceptable.
So a good, native RSS reader that allows feed reading even when you’re away from WiFi (or offline completely) is way up there on my iPhone Apps Wish List.
Until last week, I had shied away from trying out the only native application entry in this area – MobileRSS. Last week I noticed that Version 2.0 of MobileRSS was released and decided to give it whirl. I had never been willing to give it a go before because there was no way to import your list of feeds via an .opml file – and there was no way I was going to mess with adding dozens of feeds manually.
The latest version does let you do an OPML import – once I saw that, I was more than ready to try it out – so I exported my feed subscriptions from Google Reader and have been using it for several days now. Quick note if you’re wanting to import a Google Reader feeds list into MobileRSS – the app only seems to recognize a file with a .opml file extension, and GoogReader exports by default as filename.xml – so you’ll need to rename the file before copying it to the /var/root directory on your iPhone.
After using MobileRSS for several days, here are some very quick impressions:
It’s got a pretty good set of features. Considering how ‘youn
g’ this program is, I like the set of features it now offers. The OPML import is crucial, so that getting your list into (or modifying the list and overwriting it) is quick and painless. The program now shows the number of unread items on its icon, lets you mass delete feed items, or mark all as read / unread, set your refresh preferences (to manualy or every X minutes, hours, 1 day / 7 days), and slect your preferred font size.
Managing your feed subscriptions is pretty OK now too. Once you’ve imported your list, you can delete individual feeds via the Settings area of MobileRSS with just the quick swipe delete method, which is fine if you just need to get rid of a few feeds you no longer enjoy. If you’ve got major edits to make, I’d still say it’s much easier to do them at a desktop and re-export your list. The program also has a Quick Add feature – which lets you add a popular feed with one tap, but currently only has 6 entries. This should be expanded as soon as possible. Since there is no copy/paste on the iPhone, it would be very helpful to have a broad list (preferably sectioned off by category) to pick from and add easily.
Individual feed articles are displayed nicely now and include images that are contained in feed items, as you can see in the screencap above. A big ‘miss’ for me right now is that there are no ‘action’ type buttons or links on the individual feed item screens. I’d really like to see a link to go to the full post on the web (for those feeds that do not show full articles) and an email link to mail the item to yourself or others.
MobileRSS is not rock-solid stable yet. In just under a week of using it a few times per day, it has locked up on me twice in a pretty severe hissy-fit sort of way – as in becoming non-responsive and not allowing me to force-close it and return to the home screen – forcing a restart of the iPhone. To be fair though, in years of using Windows Mobile and Palm RSS apps, I have come across quite a few that were prone to occasional or even frequent crashes when they were far more mature applications than MobileRSS. For now, the crashes are infrequent enough that they are not a major issue for me, although of course I hope future versions will improve in this area.
Overall, I am enjoying using MobileRSS. It’s a definite keeper for me now, as it’s the only game in town for local RSS reading on the iPhone, and I’m looking forward to seeing its future enhancements – in fact I very much hope this one will continue to be offered once we see an iPhone SDK next year!
You can install MobileRSS via Installer, or you can visit its Google Code Page for more details and a download:
http://code.google.com/p/mobile-rss/
UPDATE:
My bad on the point where I’ve said there are not any ‘action’ sort of buttons / links on individual feed items. There is a globe icon at the top-right of individual items that links to the full web article. Thanks to kdbdallas (the developer) for clue-ing me up on that one 🙂
Technorati Tags: MobileRSS, iPhone RSS reader, iPhone RSS program, RSS feeds on iPhone, just another iPhone blog
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