Wouldn’t you rather be writing code?
Google has released a new version of Reader that is optimized for the Safari browser on the iPhone, and I definitely think you should switch over. It’s a significant jump up in usability from the original web-based reader.
My favorite upgrades:
Give it a try!
Some of you may have already started using the new Bloglines Beta RSS reader. It’s a feature-rich, good-looking, pleasant-to-use website. I had previously used the original Bloglines, and this is a significant step ahead for Bloglines, with the addition of a great new home page with “featured feeds”, AJAX-y drag and drop features, etc.
The reviews have mostly been positive: see Richard MacManus’ review at ReadWriteWeb here, and Mike Arrington’s review at TechCrunch’s here.
However, since my early Bloglines days, I’ve since moved on to Google Reader, not least because of its lightweight, clean mobile interface that I use on my AT&T Tilt with Windows Mobile 6. The mobile version of Bloglines Beta is nice in its own way, but to my mind it doesn’t compare with Google Reader mobile. For one thing, Google Reader mobile is date-based, whereas Bloglines is feed-based. If you have a lot of feeds, it can be a chore navigating back and forth. Secondly, marking an item as read/unread is unwieldy on the mobile device with Bloglines, whereas with Google Reader it’s all inline (albeit in batches of 10).
Finally, I enjoy harping on bad search, and Bloglines’ search is nowhere near as good as Google’s search. In my humble opinion, anyway.
I don’t know — I hate to waffle, but right now I can’t come down on either side. I’ll probably use both for a while until I’m certain of which way I want to go, or until some new features come out on one other or the other that force my hand.
I’ve been using Google Reader a lot lately on my new AT&T Tilt. The tilt function really does help with lengthy browser sessions — it’s much more ergonomic than the 8125/8525 “flat” configuration. I’ve been using the keyboard to do quick navigations, using the “fn lock” capability to get to the numbers on the keyboard – press the Fn key twice. The Tilt has a nice amber status light to let you know that Fn is on.
However, the # (pound/hash) key doesn’t work. I’ve checked to see if this is a problem with the keyboard mapping fix I had to apply to the cooked ROM, but it’s not that — it may be a problem with Mobile IE, or something else entirely I haven’t yet figured out.
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