Since Apple has taken over a month now to review version 1.7 of Feeds we have been busy preparing version 1.8. 1.8 is probably the biggest update yet besides when we added Google Reader syncing a loooong time ago. There are a few screen shots below to let you see the visual changes we made. The internal changes that I can remember off the top of my head are:
- 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.
Just installed 1.72 update and restarted iPhone.
My News folder had a few articles and my Gadgets folder had some entries.
Went into News folder, chose the one and only BBC news feed, hit the Mark Read button at bottom, it removed the BBC news feed but left me sat inside an empty News folder instead of taking me back to the main screen.
This is the same random issue I had with 1.71.
Will see if it improves with use tomorrow when I wake up with lots more folders and feeds to go in and out of…
Update: just tried with lots of folders/feeds – appears that the bug where after marking all read and the FEEDS back button on top left would disappear is resolved.
The only remaining issue I see is that every time I’ve marked read and all articles within a folder disappear (I hide the read articles) it just leaves you inside that empty folder and you always have to hit the FEEDS button in top left. Hope this helps.
Update2: okay, the more I use it today the more I can see the pattern now
Go inside a folder that has 2 feeds in it.
If I choose the option above the 2 feeds to View ALL items, when you hit the Mark as Read button it DOES take you right back out of the folder
The issue is if you manually navigate into each feed and hit the Mark as Read button. So in my Gadgets folder I navigate into my Engadget feed, hit Mark as Read and it takes me back, removes Engadget from the list and I now just have Gizmodo left. Manually navigate into there, hit Mark as Read, it again brings me back out into my Gadgets folder, removes the Gizmodo feed and I’m left sitting in an EMPTY gadgets folder and need to hit he FEEDS button top-left to get out to main screen.
So 1.72 appears to work consistently but only brings you right out of a folder if you performed the Mark as Read when initially choosing to View ALL Items.
@Fedorov, I haven’t been able to reproduce but I am thinking it might be due to internet connection speed which is why is slipped through. We have very fast 3G out here (and WiFi when near). Are you on EDGE or a slower 3G connection perhaps?
3G here but i’m sure it is behaving the same on my wifi at home. Now that I know how it’s doing it on 3G I’ll try on wifi when I get home and let you know.
Just tested on my home wifi and exactly the same Mike.
The workaround I’m brainwashing myself into is that when I’m down to ONE feed left to read in a folder to always hit the View ALL items instead of the feed itself. This way when I hit the Mark as Read it takes me back out to the main screen
Hi Mike – I’m on 1.72 as well and using Google sync. I’m seeing the same issue above once I’ve marked all feeds as read it doesn’t always take me back to my folder view.
Since updating to 1.72 I’m also seeing a strange issue with the unread feeds flag. With everything marked as read within Feeds, I’m being shown an unread feed count on the app icon once I’ve left Feeds.
How is the manual sync supposed to function? I was expecting a cache of previously synced items, but if I leave the app and re-enter later there’s nothing to read.
Thanks in advance!
Jez
@Jez, if you are set to manual synch Feeds will not display the counts from Google Reader. It will instead count any unread items that are stored on the device. Try going into ‘all items’ and then touch ‘mark all read’. That will get you a fresh start and reset the unread count for the items downloaded to your device. Manual sync is quite a bit different then letting Feeds handle things for you. All items that Feeds downloads will be available offline. I am guessing that you have ’show only unread’ ON. Just shake your iPhone while on the main feed list to toggle it ON/OFF. That should get your feeds showing.
@Mike – thanks for the clarification!
Hi there, I am using 1.72 and google sync. When starting the app in horizontal mode and Opening a few articles through google instead of safari, I find that the uivew gets split into two partitions after some time and scrolling is independant in each partition. I tried disabling the rotation feature so that everything is forced into portrait but it still happens. Also, marking everything as read and then going back to the list still shows unread count, I have to go back into the feed and back out to show no unread count.
It appears that you have not done enough regression testing.
@Nader, we are working on trying to reproduce the problems. As soon as we can reproduce, we will get an update out.
Hi,
I’ve been using Feeds for a while, but have noticed a bug since installing the latest version…
If I go into a feed with unread articles and hit the Mark All Read button then hit the confirm button, I am taken back to the feeds list but the unread bubble doesn’t update (it still says I have X unread articles). If I then go into that same feed, then back out again, the bubble is updated.
Any chance you could fix this so that the unread bubble is updated immediately after hitting the Mark All Read button? This used to work, I think, in older versions…
Any hints about what features might make it into the next version? Thanks for all your hard work…
Steve.
@Steven, we have had a couple other reports of this bug but we have not successfully been able to reproduce it. What are your settings for ‘Show only unread’? Does it happen on WiFi, EDGE or 3G?
Mike, I’ll jump in and say I’m having the same problem. It occurs on WiFi (airplane mode on otherwise), and I do not have Show Only Unread enabled.
It’s also doing this odd thing where feed names ge randomly indented a few spaces as I scroll up and down through my list. (I have favicons disabled.) I doubt it’s related but perhaps it will help diagnose.
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. The issue happens on both WiFI and 3G. I have “Show Only Unread” set to off. It has happened both before and after a clean reinstall of the iPhone OS.
Cheers,
Steve
Great to have the “Mark all unread” bug fixed in the latest update. You might have described the release as “Just a few minor bug fixes” but that bug was so annoying that I would have switched to another product if there was a better one. Thanks.
@Lance Andrewes, we only called it minor because it only affect those who don’t use the ’show only unread’ option
. Glad you stuck with Feeds. We do our best to fix any reported bugs within a day or two when possible.