Upcoming Features in Version 1.32
February 18, 2009 — Mike (admin)If Apple ever gets around to releasing the version of Feeds they have had for over a week now we will be able to get moving on the new version. There are a few obvious additions and a couple not so obvious for the upcoming 1.32 release.
On the obvious front (for those who have read any recent posts and comments in here), we have upside mode coming. For some reason beyond my comprehension there are some folks out there who like to read their feeds oldest item first. After a bit of playing around with it we also updated the ‘Items per Feed’ setting to allow you to choose 50 items. It didn’t seem to make sense to have 100+ items when you are reading upside down.
Support for App Store links has been added. If you follow a link to any apps the App Store application should open on the requested page.
An experimental image resizing setting will be added as well. This will resize any images that are too big for the screen to fit on the screen. Why is it experimental? Because I have no idea how all the different RSS feeds out there deal with their images and there is no way I can test all cases. So, can it harm anything to be ON? Nope. All that *might* happen if a few images that were supposed to be small end up being as wide as the screen. Nothing major.
It is likely that the feed details page will get a makeover as well, though not guaranteed. It is way too busy for our tastes. We are simple folk who like to hide complexity as much as possible. The only button we can see being used often enough to need to be front and center is the star button in our humble opinions. Sure InstaPaper, tagging, sharing, emailing and all that good stuff is nice and wonderful but it really doesn’t need to be polluting the screen. We are going to consolidate all of that functionality into a single action button. This will more than likely make all actions besides starring an item and viewing the web page take two touches but we feel the tradeoff is well worth the extra touches. Who doesn’t like extra touching anyway?
Feed preview has been reworked as well. It will now expand to 3 rows when the title only takes up 1 row. An example picture is below:
And for the not so obvious features, we have for all Google Users the ability to send an email directly from within Feeds! No more having to quit and go to the Mail application then reload Feeds when you are done. Choose your send to address right from your contacts! Send to multiple recipients! All right from within Feeds! This will be a welcome addition for us mainly because we don’t ever use the email feature due to the fact that it kicks us out of Feeds. This will actually make it useful.
Sounds great, especially the image resizing, 50 feed limit and direct emails!
Any tweaks on the feed preview text that shows all the html/script on a lot of feeds I emailed you screenshots of?
While waiting for the fixed version to appear on appstore I’ve been using the very recent update of Newsstand, the dynamic use of preview text across many lines with no wasted space is awesome, hint hint
Looking forward to future versions.
@Federov, the preview text had been remedied as well. I upped the limit on the number of characters that it will parse. I also cache the results so that scrolling won’t be affected by the change.
We certainly have some work to do with the preview text so don’t think we are done just yet…
Mike
Is there a way to open links in Safari without leaving the app? That would be great.
I happen to like quick access to Instapaper. Perhaps you could leave this as a standalone button.
@Vance, there is a setting that let’s you choose between opening links in Feeds or externally in Safari. You can also set it to prompt you each time if you are feeling indecisive.
Mike
Mike, big virtual hi-five for getting mail working within the app. Aside from stability impovements that was really the only thing on my wishlist for Feeds. Well done, sir.
I prefer to read my feeds oldest to newest because the things I read wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t read them chronologically.
Could you make an option for the article image to appear in the preview list
@Ayman, I’m not so sure were in the preview we could fit an article image not to mention most articles dont have images and some have multiple images…this would prove to be a very tricky addition so there would need to be a lot of folks out there wanting this.
Mike
I liked this app very much before the update, but since the update I notice quite some problems, that’s why it lost 2 stars for me: the read feeds aren’t taken into consideration when going back to the main menu (everything is still marked as unread, so you first have to push the ‘Mark All Read’ button before they are really marked read); though selected in the settings, news feeds aren’t refreshed automatically; after clicking through to view the news item’s webpage (within Feeds), the app crashes when going back to the menu (with feed preview); when sending a feed by mail, the app doesn’t add a space between the link itself and the first word of the description making the link no longer usable in the mail… another nice option would be to copy link into Safari’s favorites.
@Margo, we apologize about the issues with the current version. About 2 hours after the bugs came up we sent an update to Apple that they have been reviewing for over a week now. We have been patiently waiting each day for Apple to release the update with the bug fixes.
As for adding a link to Safari, unfortunately this is forbidden by Apple. We have tried to put in enough options to get your feeds in other locations such as starring, sharing and InstaPaper. We also have an update in the works that will allow you to send emails right from withing Feeds. This will make the send email function much more useful.
Mike
With all do respect, either fix the numerous bugs, including the constant crashing, or refund my money so I can buy an RSS reader that works. If I wanted crashes and the such, I would have stuck with FREE RSS.
@Kerry, we apologize about the crashing. We sent in a fix for the bug about 2 hours after it was reported. Apple has had this update for well over a week. Unfortunately, while the App Store makes it very easy for many applications to get published and to be purchased for an excellent and low price, it takes the power out of developers hands. Our bug fixes and updates are 100% at the mercy of Apple’s review team and the time it takes them to review and release an update. We, as developers, wish there was a faster way to get updates (especially bug fixes) out to customers quicker but at this time it just isn’t possible. I invite you and everyone else out there to write to Apple asking for faster and more direct access to updates and bug fixes. Just about every developer that I can think of has already pleaded with Apple for just that, but they listen best to consumers.
Mike
Mike, is it worth submitting your latest version in case your bugfix release has been missed?
v1.22 of Feeds was Feb 6th
To compare, Newsstand v1.3 was released on Feb 11th and they had a v1.31 bugfix release in the appstore Feb 19th…
That’s quite a worrying delay on your release is it not?
Regards
Fedorov
I´m using share with notes to blog from my iPhone RSS-reader. Are you planning to include support for notes shortly (in landscape mode). That would make me switch from Byline in a minute.
@Per-Åke Olsson, share with notes is on the horizon. It is on our to-do list. We have a few prerequisites such as redoing the UI for the details page so that we can fit a button in there for sending notes.
Mike
@Fedorov, we are pretty reluctant to resubmit. It puts you back on the bottom of the queue which could mean another week. We will give Apple a few more days before resorting to resubmitting. The lack of communication from Apple gets pretty annoying at times such as these.
Mike
Mike, I just installed the new update that appeared today finally, version 1.31. It feels pretty zippy so far. That being said, I am already looking forward to 1.32 because I want to test out the new emailing function as I use it on a daily basis. This should become my favorite capability! Keep up the amazing work!
@Stef, thanks for the kudos! 1.31 was submitted so long ago that I don’t even recall what was added besides the bug fix. Now that Apple has gotten 1.31 out we will be focusing on just one more major change before 1.32 gets sent over. The buttons on the details page are just far too many and we need to remedy that before moving forward. So far, testing for the email functionality and new preview text setup is going very smoothly. I actually use the email function more than starring now!
Mike
That’s excellent news for 1.32 Mike! We’ll all be looking forward to it!
Thanks for the fast response Mike. Am installing 1.31 now. Will report back any problems.
Mike, when the text at the bottom of the main screen says “all done” synching, there can be quite a delay until the unread counts appear alongside each feed/folder, presumably some addtional processing is going on? If so can we maybe have a “spinner” on there so we know it is still doing some thinking or another status text.
Another RSS app gives a nice “ding” sound” when all updates/syncing are done, this would be a nice simple addition, and if the iPhone is muted it could vibrate instead.
Will report back in the other thread later since resetting Feeds to see if unread counts regain accuracy.
Thank you for all the great support! I’m very excited about the app store links as well as the in-feeds mail! Feeds and Mail are the two apps I use the most on my iPod Touch but it is not ideal to have to switch to mail to send a link to someone. The ability to do it from within feeds will be fantastic!
Also I really like the idea of resizing images to fit the screen!
Thanks for all the great features!
Any chance of showing the total unread feeds next to the “All Items” line? I’m sync’ed to Google Reader, and only the folders/feeds show the unread count.
This post was really funny, I didn’t expect this feed to be humor but I welcome it! Thanks again for the backwards feeds, us crazy people appreciate being humored (Is it ’cause I’m Canadian?)
I’m loving Feeds (at least since the last update, now that it’s not crashing all the time!) The only thing I’d change is the way the built-in browser operates. I tend to open links in the Feeds browser, instead of Safari. However, the top bar of the Feeds interface doesn’t auto-hide when you’re viewing a website, unlike Safari. In landscape mode, the top and bottom bars take up almost half the screen, which is quite annoying. Please make the top bar auto-hide!
Otherwise, a great product… thanks!
Just bought a copy of Feeds (1.31). I’ve been using Byline with Google Reader for ages and I like to keep up with what else is out there.
A few questions
1. Is it possible to hide read items, feeds and folders, like you can on the GReader website?
2. Is is possible to show the name of the RSS feed in the item title? So that when reading all items you can track which feed an item comes from?
3. Would it be possible in a future version to maximise screen space by getting rid of one of the icon bars e.g. the top one by scrolling it away automatically or something like that? That’s one real advantage the GReader website has in Safari – the sheer amount of screen real-estate you get to read the feed items
Looking very good though, thanks.
John Francis
@jwfrancis, welcome aboard! To address you questions: 1. There is an option to view only read items but it does not hide the folders and feeds from the main feed list that don’t have any unread items. Expect this feature in an update. 2. At this time, the title will show up in the top corner of the feed item list but it does not show up on the feed details page. 3. We have been trying to come up with a solution to this one for a long time. There are some technical limitations to the SDK and the particular elements on that page that are keeping us from finding an elegant solution at this time.
Mike
Hi Mike,
I just wanted to post and see if there were any news on the upcoming version 1.32 and all it promises? I am actually looking forward to the built-in email capability. This will be a “God sent” gift in my case!
Keep up the good work!
@Stef, 1.32 was sent off to Apple last night. The built in emailing appears to be very stable. We have been testing it very intensely for the last week or so. I find myself not using starred items too much anymore with the emailer in there. There is one small caveat: you have to wait for the email to finish sending before quitting Feeds. It is pretty fast so most times you won’t have to wait at all. Unlike the Mail app built into the iPhone, if you close Feeds we can no longer send them email so it must complete before closing.
Great news Mike! I can’t wait to test it out!
@Mike – thanks for the info. However, I’m now having problems. Feeds isn’t refreshing any of my Google Reader feeds. I’ve just uninstalled and reinstalled but no luck. It’s read my tag/folder names OK and is showing one shared item in my All Items list, but none of my Starred items are visible nor any items in my feed list.
Anything I can do? Before I reinstalled I’d done the ‘Reset’ switch in the settings a couple of times to no avail.
@jwfrancis, I believe what you are experiencing may be related to a possible bug we found yesterday with the iPhone OS and the way it stores cookies from Safari. Can you try opening the Settings application from your Springboard (Desktop). Go to the Safari settings and select the ‘Clear Cookies’ settings. Open Feeds after you do that and touch the refresh button if it doesn’t refresh on it’s own. Let me know if that does it for you.
@Mike – No. Exactly the same. Nothing at all.