iPhone Diary Day 6: iPhone's hidden RSS client
While it's not the dedicated RSS client that I hope they'll build for iPhone, it helps a news junkie get his fix on a slow EDGE data connection. It works like this: when you click on an RSS badge on a site Safari for iPhone it redirects you to a page at reader.mac.com.
The page shows the RSS feed in a tight layout that's lean and mean. There aren't any settings to speak of, but you can create a bookmark of the reader.mac.com page and tap off to it via the little bookmarks icon on the bottom tool bar in Safari.
Navigating to that same reader.mac.com URL in a desktop browser takes you to the following error page:
Reader.mac.com works in both portrait and landscape modes but not that well. It often won't flip back from one to the other. But other than that it's pretty functional.
The name of the subdomain (reader.mac.com) begs a couple of questions:
- Does Apple have something more planned for 'Reader for Mac.com subscribers? I hope so, because this four year user just renewed his subscription for another year of the Family Plan.
- Did Apple simply license Google's Reader Web application?
No one's really sure yet, but I'm ecstatic to have a way to easily read RSS feeds on iPhone.