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Apollo News reader shuts down and restarts with some RSS content missing
If you were enjoying using the Apollo News reader on your iPhone or iPad, you probably noticed that it stopped getting content for the last couple of days. In fact, the developers turned it off because they are in the middle of a conflict with some content providers. These disputes are nothing new. The excellent newsreader Pulse had a tiff with the New York Times, but it was finally settled. The Apollo app was created by some former Bing and Google engineers, and it worked well and had an excellent presentation of content from various news sites. I talked to company founder Evan Reas, who told TUAW the app has been shut down and pulled from the App Store while the disputes are being worked out. This morning, the data feeds reappeared with the feeds in contention stripped out, but I couldn't tell what had changed and Reas didn't want to elaborate. I hope the app comes back to the App Store soon -- if you already have the app, the feeds work, but until then there's no way to find or download it to your iPhone or iPad. We'll keep an eye on what the outcome of the dispute turns out to be.
Peek 9 is nine times faster than Pronto, adds PeekMaps, weather, Twitter, and Facebook
It's official. The latest Peek -- dubbed the Peek 9 -- is up and dancing with a full list of features. The hubbub boils down to speed improvements thanks to revamped software that claims to reduce lag and sluggishness experienced when connecting to newly enhanced Peek servers. While the hardware appears unchanged, it's still said to offer better reception and be 9 times faster (hence the name) than the Peek Pronto. The 9 comes pre-loaded with native Twitter and Facebook apps with ActiveSync support tossed in for Exchange. They've also added PeekMaps and weather apps to give you an idea of where you are in Google Maps and what the weather forecast is for that location. Rounding things out is the Streams RSS reader; the ability to view Word, PDF, and spreadsheet attachments; and a new Peektop Apps feature that lets you transform Peek into a "tailor-made mobile productivity machine," whatever that means. Peak 9 is priced at $69.99 or $99.99 plus two months of contract-free service (sorry, no lifetime service offering at the moment). After that, the Peek service will cost you $19.95/mth or as little as $9.95/mth for 24 months. Of course, with the 9's broader communications focus beyond just Twitter or eMail, we really have to wonder why anyone would buy this instead of a much smarter featurephone -- a Nokia C3, for example, can be had in the US unlocked for just $129.%Gallery-102788%
Dear Aunt TUAW: RSS in the clouds
Dear Auntie TUAW, I'll admit it... I'm a news junkie. Podcasts, RSS feeds, the works! RSS feeds are what I am wondering about today. You see, I like to skim my RSS headlines, read the feed items that catch my eye, and not have any items automatically delete or disappear. My current setup is using Mail's RSS functionality and then manually deleting the articles I don't want. I'm fine with that, heck, ... I prefer it that way. But ever since I got my shiny, new iPad, I've been wondering if there is a better way. See, I like to read RSS feeds on my morning and evening commutes. (Don't worry, Auntie, ... I take the train.) Hence, my problem. I read and delete or read and save an article on my iPad, but then I have to manually reconcile my feeds with those on my home computer. Ideally, what I'd like to do is have an RSS client "in the cloud" and then be able to access it from my iPad, my Mac, and maybe even my work computer and my BlackBerry. Basically have it function like an IMAP-push mail server, if you get my drift. I checked out Google Reader, but it seems lacking. Any suggestions? Hugs and snuggles! Erik
TUAW's Daily App: Times for iPad
We posted about Times way back in April of last year. Back then, it was an RSS reader for Mac that organized your feeds into a newspaper-style page, so you could quickly and easily scan and browse a lot of information. Nowadays, of course, the iPad is one of the main devices for consumption of online content, and the team at Acrylic has finally brought that reader over to Apple's tablet (and the 2.0 Mac version is due out soon as well). It doesn't hurt, I'm sure, that apps like Flipboard have made it cool to consume RSS content in a programmatically designed form again. Times is pretty smooth, as you can see on the website. It will seamlessly bring in content from all of your feeds, as well as Facebook and Twitter, and organize them all in an easy to read newspaper/blog format. Unfortunately, it doesn't sync up with the Mac version (or any other readers that you may already have set up), so you'll probably have to rebuild whatever group of feeds you're already reading. And personally, I have the same problem with this that I have with all of these "nice" feed readers; it's cool to see your feeds all prettied up and formatted, but sometimes I just want to make sure that I see important news or hit a certain site first. But that's not the kind of reading you'd do with an app like this anyway. (Since I write for TUAW, a lot of my RSS reading is systematically combing for interesting stories and posts.) As a simple iPad reader that makes multiple feeds pretty and easy to read, Times for iPad is worth checking out if you haven't landed on a good solution yet. It's US $7.99 on the App Store right now.
Pulse News Reader for iPad update makes you a news editor
A new update to Pulse News Reader for iPad now lets you mash up your own mix of news for others to subscribe to. The update to version 1.1.4, which went live last evening, provides each user with their own "pulse" if they so desire. What's a pulse? It's actually a Posterous blog (with a pulsememe.com domain name). If you're looking through some of your feeds in Pulse News Reader and see a post that you'd like your friends or followers to read, just tap on the "heart" icon and the post is added to your pulse. Followers can subscribe to your pulse in Pulse News Reader for iPad by searching for your name or handle in the app, then searching under Pulse Users. For example, if anyone wants to see what news I'm excited about, they can subscribe to Steve Sande. Whether it's a news item I've added from another site or something that I've written and posted to my Pulsememe blog, it gets published and the world gets to read it. If friends or followers aren't Pulse users, they can still follow what I'm interested in by going to the blog that's created at stevesande.pulsememe.com. Now here's the cool thing. If a lot of people are tapping the heart icon for a specific post, it ends up on the top stories page at Pulsememe.com. People who add a lot of posts are considered top editors and are listed on the Pulsememe page. In other words, this becomes a way for hot news items on the blogs you follow to rise to the top of the Internet heap, at least for a while. If there's anything I'm not happy about, it's that I can't connect this to my existing Posterous blog -- it ends up going into the special Pulsememe blog instead. The update is free to current users of Pulse News Reader for iPad, and the My Pulse feature should be making it to the iPhone version soon. Take a look at the gallery below for a few screenshots. %Gallery-98785%
Flipboard turns social network content into a virtual magazine
The latest hotness wandering around the blogs is this iPad app called Flipboard, which turns your favorite social network content into an easy-to-read magazine-styled layout. It does look good -- the idea is that pictures and text are all pulled in from various social feeds, and then assembled together by the app to make a full-color, full-featured magazine that you can flip through instead of pulling up various feeds and/or running a bunch of different clients. We saw a similar app at WWDC this year that pulled content from RSS and styled it in a magazine fashion. Personally, I'm not entirely sold -- I have the same problem with this app as I did with RSS readers for a long time, which is that I like to see content in the format it's generated for. If someone likes something or posts a link on Facebook, I'd rather see what it looks like in the same space they created it for, not crammed into an app's magazine-style formatting. You may make the argument that information is increasingly growing context in-sensitive, and you'd be right -- I do use an RSS reader now, after many years of trying to read blog items on their own blogs, and social networks are growing more interchangeable as they fight to find their own spots in your attention. Flipboard may work well (and at the low, low price of free, it's hard to argue against at least trying it out, though word is that the servers are hammered at launch), but I think there's still something to be said for seeing your tweets in your Twitter client and your friends' pictures on Flickr. I'm not quite ready to completely separate all of my social network content from its original form quite yet.
Reeder client for Google Reader now available for iPad
It's been a busy few weeks for iPad RSS clients. The Early Edition saw an update, Pulse got keynote love followed by a quick yank from/return to the App Store... it's almost as if the whole Newspad idea is starting to catch on. Judging by our inbox volume, a lot of you are very excited about the latest entrant in the iPad reader race: Reeder, a strong favorite on the iPhone, is now shipping in an upsized version for the bigger device. The US$4.99 client syncs with Google Reader, and provides a clean and clutter-free interface to your chosen feeds or foldersful of feeds. You can easily share selected stories on Twitter or via email, save items to Instapaper or ReadItLater, mark items as unread or bookmark them on Delicious. The app is carrying a solid five-star rating on iTunes right now, and we're looking forward to doing a fuller review soon. In the meantime, if you're looking for another strong option for feed reading, check it out.
Holiday weekend giveaway: Early Edition for iPad delivers easy RSS
Who cares that it's Tuesday already? We're still going strong with our holiday weekend giveaways. Next up: the capable and pleasant 'Newspad' app The Early Edition, just revised to version 1.1. There's a lot of buzz today around a new contender in the iPad newsreader market, but it's good to see that one of the first apps out of the gate has now gained some big-time improvements. The new TEE takes the solid 'personal newspaper' metaphor of the first version and extends it with new features like Google Reader/OPML import, feed discovery from website URLs, custom sections, filtering and more. You can still skim and skip stories with ease, and quickly share articles via email or social networks. The app now gives you more feedback when stories are being fetched, and it will save your reading state so you come back to the same place when you exit and relaunch the app. The Early Edition for iPad will set you back US$4.99 in the App Store, but we have five promo codes to give away to five lucky readers. Just leave a comment below with your favorite non-Apple-related RSS feed (we don't want to influence your opinion by suggesting sites, and it's a random drawing anyway). Good luck! Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post. The comment must be left before Friday, June 4 at 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One copy of The Early Edition app (Value: US$4.99) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Found Footage: Pulse News Reader for iPad
I've been looking for an iPad RSS news reader for a while, and was totally underwhelmed by what was out there. Fortunately, a reader pointed me to a video demonstrating Pulse News Reader (US$3.99), a new RSS reader from a couple of Stanford grad students. Ankit Gupta and Akshay Kothari have created an RSS reader that makes traditional readers look like, well, cluttered inboxes. If you're one of those folks who follows a few hundred RSS feeds, you may not like Pulse -- the current version has a limit of 20 feeds. The app makes it drop-dead simple to add feeds by searching keywords, and then picking feeds from the search results. The feeds show up as a series of tabbed rows of articles with the newest posts on the far left, oldest on the far right. Navigating posts is done by flicking left or right, and you can read the full post by tapping on the large post icon. Pulse 1.1 still needs some work -- the current version doesn't support video, so the post icon for this article would appear as text only. Still, it looks great and is easily one of the most usable news readers I've seen. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that TUAW is one of their featured sources in the app... We'll have a more thorough TUAW review of Pulse News Reader soon. Thanks to Graham for the tip! [via Cult of Mac]
First Look: Byline 3.0 for iPhone
The folks over at Phantom Fish software have released version 3 of their popular Byline feed reader app for the iPhone. The update brings with it several new features, including integration with Instapaper, gesture-based navigation, and improved performance. Byline works by fetching a list of feeds from your Google Reader subscriptions, and caching a copy of the articles on your iPhone for easy reading or viewing while offline. Now I'll admit, while Google Reader does simplify feed management by keeping all of your subscriptions and updates in one place, it's not my cup of tea. Personally, I prefer to manage feeds directly from my reader app, rather than having to go somewhere else to do it. That aside, Byline 3 keeps the process simple by asking for your Google login, and then quickly going straight to your list of feeds without requiring any additional steps or setup. Each item is displayed right in the app, allowing quick navigation between stories and feeds. Want to view the link in Mobile Safari or send it to Instapaper? That can be done by tapping the forward menu icon on any item. Starring an item or adding notes is also simple and intuitive. Since I'm a big fan of flexibility when it comes to iPhone apps, I was pleased to see the number of options offered in the settings panel. Viewing thresholds for several of the feed lists are easily configurable, so you can choose to limit or hide things like starred items or notes if you don't use those features. Other options include manual sync, portrait orientation locking and a few options to fine-tune the caching of stories. Overall, the app is well done and easy to use. Ironically, the only complaint I really have had with it is sync speed, which is one of the things that were said to be improved in the new version. It's not unreasonably slow, but still slower than I'd have liked. In all fairness, though, I'm pretty sure my less-than-stellar internet connection was a contributing factor. A few posts on the developer's twitter feed suggest that a few minor bugs are already known, and will be fixed in an upcoming update. Byline 3 is US$3.99 in the App Store, and is available now. Head on over and check it out! %Gallery-92705%
Dear Aunt TUAW: Why are there TV Squad Posts in your RSS feeds?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I'm dying here. Your RSS feed is full, I mean FULL, of posts from TV Squad. I don't watch TV. How do I get the TV out of my TUAW feed? Love and thanks! Your affectionate nephew
Sick of all the Apple news? We're here for you!
It's iPad time, people, and that means we'll be doing what we do and covering the hell out of Apple's new tablet for the next few days. But we'll obviously have other stuff going on as well, and if you just can't bear another post about this infuriating giant iPod touch mixed in with your daily dose of gadget news, we're here for you -- just hit http://www.engadget.com/exclude/Apple, and you'll see a completely magic- and revolution-free Engadget. It works for RSS too: http://www.engadget.com/exclude/Apple/rss.xml is your ticket to an iPad-free feed reader. You can also exclude anything else you want, so if you really hate the ASUS Eee PC 1201PN you can just hit http://www.engadget.com/exclude/1201PN and express your unique brand of misanthropic antipathy and ill-adjustedness quietly to yourself in the comfort of your home or workplace. We will accept your silent refusal to comment on iPad posts as agreement to these terms and conditions, and reserve the right to straight jack trolls in the face with a sick nasty bannination. Read - Engadget without Apple news Subscribe - Engadget feed without Apple news
Because you asked: iPad-free TUAW feed
You begged. You pleaded. You filled our in-box. We listened. We heard. We understand. For all of you who love the Mac and Apple news but whose interest in (and, occasionally, patience for) the iPhone and iPad have been exhausted, we have a solution. We're happy to introduce the following new URLs. Behold, iPad- and iPhone- free pages! http://www.tuaw.com/not/ipad [/rss.xml] http://www.tuaw.com/not/iphone [/rss.xml] http://www.tuaw.com/not/ipad,iphone [/rss.xml] These URLs are hot off the presses, sparkling with concentrated Mac- and Apple corporate-goodness. They will give you a brighter smile, cleaner breath, and a guaranteed[1] je ne sais quoi with that certain someone or someones. You can convert any one of them into an RSS feed by tacking "/rss.xml" onto the end of the address. This is a tag-driven system. It relies on us remembering to properly tag iPad posts with "iPad" and iPhone posts with "iPhone". While we promise to try our very, very hardest, we remain the same old fallible, carbon-based cellular automata you've come to know and love, i.e. human beings. Remember that old saying: "To tag is human; to tag poorly is human, too." So you will be finding occasional stray posts in your no-whatever feed. And we'll feel really, really awful about that. When that happens, we strongly encourage you to count to 10 (or at least to five) before firing off that irate email about how the new feature is horribly, horribly broken. Keep in mind that the "broken" feature is going to be us: your shiny, happy, loving TUAW team. We love all of our readers. And we want to make all of you happy. So put a bounce in your step and take your least favorite devices off (or at least, mostly off) your TUAW reading list! We'll be trying our hardest to tag everything properly. Happy filtering, everyone! [1] Satisfaction or your money back! Please include a small processing fee when filing your reimbursement request. This guarantee is fictional.
Unauthorized iPhone news readers raise eyebrows
Here's an interesting little new media legal dilemma for you: apparently there are several paid apps in the iPhone App Store that bill themselves as "readers" for publications like the New York Times, CNET, and the BBC, but aren't actually licensed or official in anyway -- they're just pulling RSS feeds. That means people paying for an app like The New York Times Mobile Reader aren't actually getting an app from the Times -- and, perhaps more importantly, the Times isn't getting anything from anyone. Seems like Apple should probably just shut these apps down, but that's the interesting part: all these apps are pretty much just custom-built feed readers, and you can generally access all of the same content using Safari. Now, there's obviously a trademark issue involved here, especially if these apps are confusing people into thinking they're official, but we're curious to see how these pubs and Apple handle the situation in the next few weeks, since it's relatively uncharted territory. P.S.- Let's not even get into the fact that Apple's rated the NYT Mobile Reader app "12+" for "Infrequent / Mild Mature / Suggestive Themes." Oh, the App Store.
Armory updates with model viewer, character and calendar feeds
Blizzard has added some nice new features to the World of Warcraft Armory, including a few players have been asking for in the past. The most exciting change is something that doesn't seem to be working quite correctly yet -- they're including a Flash-based model viewer for characters that will let you see what a toon looks like without ever logging into the game. So says their updates page, but as of this writing, the whole system is going up and down, and we couldn't get it to work correctly on any of our PCs. Should be done soon, though. Other updates include character activity feeds -- there are now RSS buttons all over your profile that will let you track achievements, items, and other specific character information via RSS. And Blizzard has also built in calendar feeds that will let you output guild and player calendars to Outlook, Google Calendar, or other calendar applications. That means your out-of-game calendars will update automatically if your raidleader happens to change up the raiding schedule. And finally, character profiles have been redesigned and streamlined -- they look a little different with all of these new features. The date on all of these changes actually says January 1, 2010, so Blizzard may have implemented them a little early, but sooner or later we'll see these welcome changes all active on the Armory. Thanks to everyone who sent this in! Update: The Armory is offline for maintenance now. These changes were seen in action, so they're real, but as we say above, they're officially dated for January 1st. So they may not be in effect just yet.
Apple introduces iPhone developer RSS news feed, takes time off from iTunes Connect
Late yesterday, Apple introduced a RSS feed for news from the App Store Resource Center, which was introduced a few months ago, and gives iPhone developers news about what's going on with the App Store for developers. Apple promises to deliver current turnaround time for app reviews (kind of a hot topic), program updates, development and testing techniques, and much more. Add it to your reader of choice. In related news, iTunes Connect will be unavailable from December 23rd to December 28th. You'll remember that Apple did the same thing last year. You'll won't be able to access anything in iTunes Connect in that time, which includes, sales reports, app submission, generating promo codes and more. Hey, even geeks need a holiday break, right? Make sure your pertinent business is concluded before then and enjoy the break!
Beta Beat: Gruml brings GReader to the Mac desktop
I discovered Gruml a while back, but didn't write about it right away because there were too many glitches in the first beta to make it really interesting. Thankfully, recent releases have smoothed out the vast majority of the kinks, and I can now present -- with gusto -- a great RSS reader that interfaces with Google Reader. NetNewsWire switched to syncing with Google Reader back in July, and I was pretty excited. Google Reader has been an amazing tool for me in the RSS world, and the more apps I have that all sync with it, the happier I am. However, despite seemingly endless trials and searches, I haven't really found the app that can top a Fluid SSB with a good userstyle. Gruml comes the closest so far, and it's free (at least right now, I'm not sure what the future holds after beta). One of the things I like about desktop clients (when it comes to RSS readers) is scriptability. Gruml currently lacks the AppleScript dictionary that, say, NetNewsReader has, and I'd love to see it implemented. The keyboard navigation is decent, but not yet up-to-par with Google Reader's web interface, which can be navigated entirely with the keyboard. It might not make a difference to a lot of folks, but when I'm cruising through headlines I like to be all-keyboard when possible. The "Send Article to ... " menu is fantastic, covering 12 services ranging from Delicious to Twitter, and including Facebook, Ping.fm and Posterous. Note-taking, starring and sharing are all very well done, and sync perfectly with Google.
Rumor: Imminent closed beta announcement for Star Wars: The Old Republic?
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Imminent_closed_beta_for_Star_Wars_The_Old_Republic'; Bioware might have tipped their hand accidentally today as they briefly updated the Star Wars: The Old Republic website with a call for testers for the highly anticipated MMO. The announcement only lasted a few minutes before being taken down off of the site, indicating an accidental posting.While the news announcement has been removed from the website, some screenshot happy community members have snapped pictures of their RSS feeds, which still show the call for testers. This has, of course, sent the community into an uproar of anticipation for the intended date of the announcement.Update: The intended date of the closed beta signups is today! We have all of the details over in this post!
Papercraft Wall-E checks email, dances a jig when new message arrives
We've seen our fair share of Wall-E mods over the months, and yes, we've also seen an impressive papercraft creation or two. But frankly, we've never, ever seen a papercraft Wall-E, let alone a papercraft Wall-E that serves a purpose. TotoroYamada took the time to concoct what he describes as his own personal Mail-E, a servo-equipped paper robot that's programed to check his inbox every few seconds and bust a move when a new message arrives. Cuteness overload is in full effect -- just peek the videos after the break if you've any doubts.
Fourteen ways to enjoy TUAW
We're always trying new things around here, from apps to web services to hardware and all kinds of novel ways to do what we do. We also appreciate the fact that many of you read us via RSS or even the iPhone. To that end, here's a list of the many ways to enjoy TUAW in all its myriad forms. If you think we're missing something spectacular, let us know in the comments. Heeeere's TUAW, in reverse order of no particular importance: #14 - TUAW on Facebook We can't really ignore one of the biggest social networks in the world, can we? For weeks I teased the iPhone app on Facebook, and a few of you caught it. We've also been posting deals, newsy tidbits and videos on there. It's a good way to share items, but so far we've kept our RSS out of it. It's entirely likely that we'll put more teasers on Facebook in the future. Let us know in the comments if you'd like to see more or less Facebook interaction overall. #13 - TUAW on Tumblr This has been fun. It's so easy to share stuff on Tumblr that a few of us have simply let the bookmarklet do the talking. We see something cool or useful or worth a mention; within seconds it is on our Tumblr page. If you're looking for something a little off-the-menu at times, this is a good place to look. #12 - TUAW on Flickr On the right we have a little widget that shows the last three items on Flickr tagged "TUAW" -- so try it! Sometimes we run a "Flickr Find" post showing a crazy Mac setup, so don't be bashful about your workspace. We weren't. You can check out our TUAW rig Flickr pool here. #11 - TUAW on Video There's no shortage of TUAW video to choose from. From Blip.tv to Viddler to YouTube and our aggregator VodPod, there's quite the buffet. You can also do a search on Truveo and find our videos across many video sites. #10 - TUAW on your iPhone Oh, you haven't heard? TUAW has an iPhone app. In fact, we broke into the top 100 free apps the weekend we launched. Thanks for that, TUAW fans! #9 - TUAW on Twitter Of course we're on Twitter, you silly Billy. We have our primary Twitter account, where we'll share cool posts and other fun things, and our Ask TUAW account where you get to ask us Mac, iPhone, iPod and mystery-of-life questions (and hopefully get an answer). #8 - TUAW on Kindle What? Yes, we are on the Kindle. Life is strange that way. #7 - TUAW on Stitcher and TalkShoe In case you've been hiding every Sunday, we do a regular live Talkcast on TalkShoe. It's a hoot, and you get to chime in via phone, live each week. Once that show is "in the can" and uploaded to iTunes, etc. we also appear on iTunes and in Stitcher. That's handy, given the awesome Stitcher app. Want to know more? Keep reading...
