Updated iPhone Apps: Feeds RSS Reader
Feeds “ one of the many native RSS reader apps for the iPhone, has had a recent update “ to Version 1.7.
The App Store page for Feeds touts this as a ‘HUGE ‘ update, and it includes changes like: reduced sensitivity in the swipe to mark item read or starred, you can now tweet a message that can include a shortened version of the article ‘s permalink, removed error pop-up when viewing RSS feeds offline, updated to the new ReadItLater integration API, added the ability to back sync up to 5 days, the ‘Show Only Unread ‘ feature will now hide feeds and folders that don ‘t have any read items, reordering of feeds and folders for Google Reader, better InstaPaper integration “ Feeds will now remember your password so you only need to enter it once, better ReadItLater integration “ same as InstaPaper, visual overhaul – ‘We changed the look because Feeds was looking a bit dated ‘.
Feeds is one of the more promising native RSS apps I ‘ve tried out, and I have tried out a lot of these apps, as I ‘m a very heavy and avid RSS reader. Unfortunately, Feeds “ and all the native RSS apps I ‘ve tried “ still fall far short of matching the Google Reader web app, as I ‘ve written about before.
I ‘ve kept several native RSS reader apps around on my iPhone, just to see if they can improve and catch up with the GReader web app. Feeds is one of those “ so I ‘ve been checking out this latest version of it.
Although this latest version of Feeds offers a good number of fixes and enhancements, it still has some performance issues which have plagued it since I first tried it. The most notable are that it is still quite slow to sync, and is erratic and inaccurate in showing unread items for individual feeds. Time and time again while testing out this new version I would find that Feeds listed a feed as having X number of unread items, and then see when selecting that feed that the number of items was very different.
Your mileage may vary, but I still just cannot find a native RSS app that matches up to the GReader web app.
You can find the latest version of Feeds in the App Store now, priced at $2.99.
