Update (04/07/10): Feeds just changed status to ‘In Review’.

Update (04/07/10): Feeds just went live.  Anyone who was having login issues post here if they are resolved.

First up, accessibility.  We added a new toggle to turn ON/OFF accessibility features.  We will add more as our blind users let us know what makes using Feeds a better experience for them.  This release will remove the date field so that Voice Over doesn’t waste your time reading the date for every item and you can get to the important information faster.

Next is the long awaited search feature.  You can now filter your loaded articles on the fly.  This one has come in handy for use while testing a lot.  Sometimes you want to pull up an article you read earlier in the day and now all you need to do is remember a word or two from it.  Below is a screen shot of the search.

Apple has been pretty good with the updates lately so hopefully this one gets through fast.

• You can now add a note to any article (if using Google Reader)
• Fixed a crashing bug when deleting a folder
• Fixed the ‘Get 20 more’ issue when show only unread was turned ON and it didn’t actually return 20 more

Enjoy!

UPDATE (12/11):  In record time Apple has finished reviewing the update and it is now live.  This marks by far the quickest update we have ever received clocking in at just 5 days.  2.5 weeks was the previous record and it has most often been over a month.  Maybe Apple doesn’t hate us as much as we thought…or maybe they just forgot to tell the new guy to stick our updates on the back burner for a few weeks before looking at them.

• unread count issue when marking an item as read
• an odd issue that comes up when portrait only is set and you hold your iPhone sideways while navigating to the article view page

Edit: Just a short 21 days after we submitted the update to Apple version 1.73 has officially gone live in the App Store.  You should get update notifications in the App Store shortly.

• 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 (Note: changing the order in Feeds will not affect the order on Google Reader)
• Better InstaPaper integration.  Feeds will not prompt for and remember your password so you only need to enter it once.
• Better ReadItLater integration.  Same as InstaPaper, Feeds will ask for your login info only once and then remember it.  You no longer need to go into Settings.app to enter your login info.
• Visual overhaul.  We changed the look and feel a bit because Feeds was looking a little bit dated with an emphasis on performance so there isn’t too much visual flair.
• Actual website favicons are displayed (when available.  RSS feeds that use aggrigators such as FeedBurner will not have their favicons present).
• If you have 3.0 installed you will get to use the standard Apple Mail.app compose message right inside Feeds.
• You can now post to Twitter a message that can (if you want to) include a shortened version of the articles permalink.
• When viewing a list of articles, you can send an email with all the articles including their permalinks and preview text.
• The much needed Help button has been added (pay no attention to the ugly icon placeholder in the pic below)
• We removed a bunch of settings from the Settings.app to simplify things.
• You can now back sync as far as 5 days (not suggested. It WILL be slow).
• You can now set the number of items per feed to save as low as 25.  This speeds things up for those who have a ton of feeds.
• Blue is now the default theme color.
• A few bug fixes here and there

We apologize about the delay with 1.7 and really hope Apple makes some changes to their review process.  Not to gripe, but in the time Feeds has been in review (since July 2nd) three updates to Facebook have been approved.  Favoritism?  Unfair review practices?  You be the judge…

And now some screenshots:

UPDATE:  we pulled the previous version 1.7 that has been in review since July 2nd yesterday and replaced it with this version.  Version 1.7 will now be the version in the images above.  We are hoping that resubmitting won’t add any more time the review process (is it possible to add any more time at this point?).  Maybe the last update we sent to Apple got ‘lost’ over there.  Who knows?  Not us, that’s for sure.

UPDATE: Apple just approved version 1.7!  We are already aware of 2 bugs and we apologize about that.  The rushed cycle due to our last update not being accepted after 6 weeks caused us to get a bit itchy on our trigger fingers.  The 2 bugs we are aware of only affect landscape mode so hopefully it won’t affect too many people.

✚ Reduced sensitivity in the swipe to mark item read/starred

✚ Removed errors when viewing RSS feeds offline and Feeds tries to load an image

✚ Updated to the new ReadItLater integration API

✚ Fixed issue when editing a feed inside a folder

✚ Added the ability to back sync up to 5 days (Note: this will make sync times very long in some cases)

August 22 edit:  we are patiently awaiting word from Apple as to whether they will allow this update or now.  We are on day 20 and hoping that Apple will eventually get around to reviewing Feeds.  It sure is a good thing this updated didn’t have a major bug fix in it!

UPDATE:  We pulled this version from Apple’s review process due to the insane amount of time it has been in review.  See http://www.prime31.com/iphone/feeds-1-8-sneek-peek-if-apple-ever-finishes-reviewing-the-1-7-update for more info.

We are wrapping up testing on the next update now.  There isn’t too much to report on this one.  There are a couple additions and we are starting the process of removing some settings as well.For the additions, we are adding ReadItLater support.  There will be a spot in Settings where you can put your ReadItLater login and password so if you don’t have a ReadItLater account now is the time to secure your username.  Apparently ReadItLater is getting popular really quickly and we didn’t want to be left behind.

Also added in the update is a toggle to turn off the features that use shaking to activate.  We also make it require a bit more effort to get the shake to be recognized so that we can avoid false positives.

Probably the most significant update and also the most elusive is a small change we made to attempt to remedy some syncing issues.  Without getting into too much detail, currently Feeds will ALWAYS grab the freshest unread count from Google every time you start it up.  Feeds does not always do a sync though.  Currently, if the ‘Refresh Feed Items’ setting time has not elapsed Feeds will not fetch the new items.  This leads to the unread count being slightly different (or very different depending on the RSS feeds and the interval set) than the number of actual unread items.  All this dies on this day.  Feeds will sync each and every time you start it up.  We are no longer going to worry about the data plan you are on and trying to penny pinch the couple kilobytes of data.  The complaints far outweigh any benefit in us trying to be frugal with the feed updates.  This is the first step in eradicating all the confusing options in the Settings app.  More to come.

Also added to the feed details page is the title of the current feed that you are reading.  This helps out when you are using the All Items or any folders so that you know what feed you are reading.

The final feature addition is a toggle to turn ‘View only Unread’ on and off from within Feeds.  When you are on the main feed page just give your iPhone a shake and you will be able to toggle the setting.  This comes in handy when you want to view some old items that are already read.  Just give it a shake, and get going to read the old read items.  When you are done, give it another shake and you are back to showing only read items.