think differently big

RSS Readers - iPhone Apps

Google Reader is the de facto standard for consuming RSS feeds. Leaving aside some small issues (like lacking a normal desktop app, plugins, etc. — if you are interested in how I’ve solved some of these drop me a note and I’ll follow up with a post), it provides an almost complete set of features for effective and pleasant RSS reading.

But what is the best solution for consuming RSS feeds on the iPhone?

Google Reader has an iPhone optimized web presence and you can access it by using this URL. Now, that is not quite an app but it comes quite close.

Anyways, there are a couple of features I am missing:

• It is not an app. I am not referring to the fact that you don’t have it as an icon on your iPhone (you can easily get that ;-) ), but rather to the fact that it will not work without an internet connection
• It is basically impossible to mark items as read without opening them. This is THE feature I hope they will include in the next version
• it is missing some of the features available on the normal app: tagging, liking and that makes it a bit less useful

Having these features in, would make Google Reader the killer RSS reader iPhone app.

Now, if I’d be to pick another RSS reader app for the iPhone then that app should be able to:

• synchronize with my Google Reader account
• support all Google Reader features (star, like, share, note, tag)
• work in offline mode
• allow marking items as read without opening them

Here are a couple of iPhone apps I could find that are close to my requirements:

• Feeds (€2.39)
• Byline (€3.99)
• RSS Flash g (€3.99)
• Pro RSS Reader (€1.59)

While it does not provide many of the above features, a notable mention goes to DaisyFeed (free) which features integration with AideRSS.

This list is definitely not complete as there are tons of other apps in this category (feedPot, Doppler, NetNewsWire, azRSS NewsReader, News Reader Free, RSS Runner, Web Feeds, smartRSS2, Newsstand, etc), but not many of them satisfying my requirements.

This post is part of the iPhone apps for geeks series where I’m exploring the different apps for geeky daily tasks.