Feeds Version 0.95 is Feature Complete
August 22, 2008 — Mike (admin)We just finished adding the last features that will make it into the next update for Feeds. This one is a MAJOR overhaul. Feeds was mostly rewritten from the ground up to accommodate the features that everyone requested. Here is a short video demoing the new features:
We still have a lot of bug testing to do before we send this version up to the App Store. Lookout for the new version sometime soon.
Looks great! I hope to see this soon, this will finally get me off NetNewsWire. Good luck with the bug testing!
Hi, I have the App Feed and I have a problem. When I add a web address it shows: ERROR ADDING FEED.
What can I do to solve this?
Thanks
Rodrigo
Hi Rodrigo, our server had a small issue with adding feeds that has been resolved. Please let us know if it is working for you now. Mike
Hi,
my wordpress-feeds are either not visible or not up to date (delay 1-2 days). Can you help?
Thanks,
Chris
hi Chris, If you could provide the feed URLs we can look into further. In most cases with WordPress issues it is usually a misconfiguration with plugins. There are many plugins that cache data so the database doesn’t have to get it every time and many other plugins that change the headers telling browsers how long to cache the page they just downloaded.
Mike
Hi Mike,
http://bootsmann.wordpress.com/feed/ is one example.
Chris
Chris, Easy fix. Just remove the trailing slash ‘/’ from the url when you add it to Feeds. Use http://bootsmann.wordpress.com/feed as the feed instead of http://bootsmann.wordpress.com/feed/. Simple misconfiguration more than likely of an .htaccess file not having the same content for both URL’s or not sending the proper redirect headers.
Trying to resolve small misconfigurations for us when adding new feeds is very difficult because the server still reponds and it gives us a proper response at that. We will try to see what we can do to properly resolve URL’s such as this.
Mike
I’m having trouble with the feeds with /rss at the end. like http://www.theblogisfound.com/rss/ it says error adding feed feed not valid. What do I need to do, the feed is valid
Hi Denise, It looks like it is working for me. I just added http://www.theblogisfound.com/rss/ without issue. What other feeds are giving you a problem?
Mike
http://www.jessicaclaire.net/rss/ also doesn’t work..the other one is working now
Denise, I think we may have solved the problem. The last feed you sent me didn’t work for me either and we tracked down where it wasn’t parsing correctly. Give it a shot and let me know if there are any other valid feeds that don’t add correctly.
Mike
Hi, does this new version actually down the pictures of feeds onto the iphone, eg. the engadget feeds always contain a link to a picture,
also, is there a way to have the feeds arrange as newest or oldest first..
and finally, is that a mark all as read option?
Thank you v much!
It’s working now. Thanks for your help!!
Richo, the new version will only download the text at this time. We will look into getting the images downloaded as well but it might be an operation that is too slow to do in buld so we will have to do some testing.
There is currently no way to change the order. Newest feeds are always on top.
And, there is a mark all as read option in the new version. You can mark a full category read or just a feed.
Mike
Mike,
unfortunately the feed doesn’t still work yet, even if i remove the trailing slash. Any further idea?
Chris
Do you plan on trying to support Google Reader? I have a grouping of rss’d blogs in google reader that I would love to use in feeds.
fyi great work so far, I’m really enjoying feeds.
Chris, we can’t seem to reproduce the error on our copies of Feeds. Can you give with and without a slash one more shot each and let us know how it goes? If it doesn’t work, please email us your device ID using the instructions here: http://feeds.prime31.com/Blog/providing-your-iphone-device-id-to-a-developer/ and we can look into our server logs to see if we can find any anomalies.
Mike
Gage, thanks for the feedback. We are in the midst of testing a major rewrite of the application. At the same time, we are starting to work on Google Reader integration. It’s something that we would definitely like to do and as soon as we get the next major release out and all bugs fixed we will work on Reader integration.
I use your app everyday and love it! I’m looking forward to the offline content capability and unread count as well. Keep up the great work!
Richard, thanks for the feedback! Glad you like the app. We are working hard on getting the new version tested so hopefully it will be coming your way soon.
Mike
Vote me in for google reader integration as well…that would make this app really useful.
Yeah me too, definitely waiting for google reader integration. Mike, would it be possible to integrate it so that the ordering of the feeds (newest or oldest first) are consistent with the settings in google reader? can u give us an idea how long it’ll take for the google reader sync to get done? Cheers, Thank you for the great work!
For Reader integration our first goal will be just to get the feed list working along with downloading feed items and read/unread state. Once we get that finished we will be able to start considering things such as getting to the Reader settings and honoring them. It may or may not be possible. We won’t be able to say for sure until we get in there and give it a go. The problem is that Google has no real way for us to integrate with them so it is a bit of trial and error to hack it together. We’ll keep everyone updated once we get the new release out and start plugging away at it.
Wow, seeing the video I’m very impressed with the changes. It looks awsome
I especially need the offline mode, but all the rest seems great. Can’t wait for the update!
Mike,
this is my serial number 88824BTMY7H
Thanks,
Chris
Chris, in order to get to the logs we need your device ID which can be obtained by clicking on the the words ‘serial number’ in iTunes. The serial number will then change to ‘identifier’. If you could email it to questions@prime31.com we will get into the logs and find the issue for you.
Wow, this all sounds great. What’s the chances of your program eventually syncing with google reader?
Sean, Google Reader integration is our next big feature once we get version 0.95 out there and bug free. We have already started some of the code for it but there is much to do and we have to wrap up this release before we dedicate 100% of our time towards. it.
Can I edit and manage feeds from the browser on my computer?
It’d make my life much easier than having to enter addresses directly on my iphone.
GREAT APP BTW! I’ve tried a number of them and this is the way to go. Thanks.
Papa, Thanks for the feedback! We currently have very limited support for adding feeds from your computer (kind of). If you check out this post (http://feeds.prime31.com/Blog/feeds-095-finally-available-in-the-app-store-plus-new-features/) you can see how to do it. Basically, it only allows you to add one feed at a time. It was made for those super long, hard to type URL’s. We will have Google Reader integration in the future which will allow you to manage your feeds entirely from your computer.
Mike
I have some sort of bug that doesn’t allow me to update ANY app..not just Feeds. I can update if I delete the app and then reinstall but then I lose my feed list. If I restore from backup I get the feed list back but the App is also now downgraded. On top of that, I can find NO place where I can find what version of Feeds that I’m currently using! Can you tell me where you show the current version number? At some point I have to decide when losing the feed list is worth getting the update. Better yet, is there any way to save the feed list and restore it after a delete/reinstall?
Thanks in desperation!
Hi Goose, I have never seen the issue that you are having. To see what version of an application you are using you need to open iTunes and then find the application and right click it and choose ‘Get Info’. The version number will be in there.
Unfortunately, unless you are using a jailbroken iPhone there is no way to save your feeds and restore them after reinstalling. This isn’t the best solution, but if you take a look at this post: http://feeds.prime31.com/Blog/feeds-095-finally-available-in-the-app-store-plus-new-features/ we show a way that you can get your RSS feeds into Feeds pretty easily without having to type them up on your iPhone.
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for the reply. I’ve read about a few folks who have this upgrade issue but I’m having trouble finding it again in the Apple discussion groups. I guess sometimes a full wipe restore clears things up. Others say that if you delete any apps that have generic icons in the application folder of iTunes it will then update everything else. The problem is that I have two of those…. the native ad hoc Podcaster app and a version of Pcalc I’m beta testing. I don’t want to delete Podcaster since it too has a LONG podcast list I’ll lose.
Anyway, I’m seriously confused now. The version I get from get info in the application folder in iTunes is 1.024! I thought we were at 0.96? From the feature list in your blog here I think I may be really at 0.95 since I have the color change settings etc.
Basically under iTunes 8.0 I was getting an error message saying there was an error when updating Feeds (and all other new apps). It would realize that they were new and try to update the iPhone but it would fail. For those with little or no data structure I could just uninstall and reinstall and life was good for them. Obviously since Feeds is my most used app I have a long feed list and I just don’t want to do that.
Tonight I installed 8.0.1 but now it doesn’t even TRY to update the iphone. The App Store on the phone keeps telling me that 0.96 is available but it won’t install it either on the phone or via the store.
Sigh…. 2.1 fixed a LOT of my issues but this one lingers on…..
goose
Mike,
One further, perhaps obvious point. While I can see the version number that’s in iTunes (though I don’t understand the 1.024 its giving me) since I can’t get it to update to the phone I still don’t know what version is actually on the phone! Most apps show the version no. either in the settings or in the app list in the “main settings” on the phone. Feeds seems to do neither.
Still, its my favorite app even if I don’t know what I’m really running!
goose
It sounds like iTunes is displaying the build number. 1.024 is version 0.95. If I hear anything about others having the upgrade issues that you are I will post it on here.
Good luck finding a solution.
Mike
Mike,
I decided to bite the bullet and wipe my phone and try and see if doing this will cure my problems now that 2.1 is reasonably stable.
I’m trying to use the feedadder. I put a few feeds in there on my Mac but when I try to go to the URL from the phone I’m told the page doesn’t exist on the server. Clearly I’m being a dolt here but can you hold my had a bit?
How does the Google account play into it? I have one and am logged in…if that matters.
goose
Never mind. I am an idiot….
goose
I guess you figured it out. We are all allowed to have our moments…
Mike
Yes, and the older we get the more often they happen. I’ve noticed a propensity to not read what’s right in front of me and that often leads to senior moments.
Feedadder is great. I’ve been having these weird problems with my phone in which the only way to update an app is to delete the old version and reinstall. I lost all data then of course. I resisted a complete restore because of the long feed list I had in Feeds and the long podcast list in Podcaster. It turns out that once you take the time to figure out Podcaster.FM and use that to reimport the podcasts into Podcaster and once you take the time to use FeedAdder for Feeds, those issues went away. I now have a phone that is trouble free and FEEDS is in the top left corner of page one. Great App. Thanks….
goose
goose, We’re glad you got everything worked out. Feedadder was actually really made just for us so that we can wipe the application and install from scratch. We got tired of typing all our feeds in on the iPhone. It ended up being a nice, handy place to keep our feeds. Glad you are liking it too.
Mike
Mike,
I have a question to you about how feeds is supposed to work. As you recall from above I’ve been running 0.95 for a while with no issues at all. As my feed list grew and I discovered the “category” feature I assigned most of my feeds to one of about 10 categories. I may have added 4-8 more feeds but nothing hideous. Suddenly, Feeds started just freezing up on me. I have to push the home button and exit and re-enter. I updated to 0.97 but the problem is the same. The only thought I have is that I might be trying to read while feeds are being updated and maybe I need to wait until the total update is done before beginning to read. Just a guess. Any thoughts? It was perfect in performance prior the the folder/category creation.
Thanks
goose
Goose, You should have no issues reading your feeds while they are downloading. It does slow down a bit when it is really busy but it should still work fine. I have 4 or 5 categories with about 4 – 8 feeds in each and it works like a charm. If it continues to lock up and you can reproduce it let us know and we will get it patched up ASAP.
Mike
Mike,
Is there a better place for me to ask these questions? I don’t want to mess up the blog here.
The problem is quite repeatable. I have 10 categories defined with 3-9 feeds in each. I have a Gen 1 iphone, 2.1 firmware with about 700MB free memory on average. Even scrolls up and down hesitate or freeze while Synching is going on. After syching I’d say its 99% free of this. I have to admit that while I have limited feeds to 100 items, 4-5 are Google Search feeds and they max out every time so I may just be asking too much here. Maybe it would be nice to be able to put different limits on different feeds or at least have a 25 or 50 option in settings
I still love this thing though
goose
Hi Goose, Feel free to shoot send over emails to questions (at) prime31.com.
Mike