Our favorite iPhone-optimized RSS reader, Google Reader, just got a nice update. The first thing you have to know is that it has a new address. Because it’s still in beta, it’s not currently the default Reader that shows up when you navigate to reader.google.com. So, it’s time to tap some glass. The new address is:
http://www.google.com/reader/i/
The old and still default address is /reader/m.
The coolest feature is that each story now expands on the same page–there is no more navigating to another view to read the story and then hitting the back button to go back to the list view. Now, you tap to expand the story, then tap to contract when your finished reading.
Also, now the stars show up right next to the story and are much more easily selected. This is much easier than the old method, which required journeying to the end of the article and selecting a tiny star at the bottom of the screen.
New placement for stars.
Previous method for starring an article. Yuck.
Another update is that they have removed the Tags link. There now only two selections at the top of the landing page: Feeds and Refresh. In fact, it appears the ability to view your tagged articles has completely disappeared.
Tags go to the land of no return
Regular Google Reader (for the regular Internets) also recently added the Notes feature. You can now view those notes on your iPhone along with the original source material in the Feeds view. However, you can’t write notes for stories on your iPhone. Durn it.
I highly recommed using Google Reader on your iPhone. If you aren’t using an RSS reader to read websites you frequent, it’s time to start, especially with your iPhone. Even with the smaller loading times 3G will bring, it can save you lots of time by bringing all your news sources into one place. And the iPhone-optimized auto- formatting makes reading much, much more pleasant. Thanks again to the Google Reader team for keeping up the hustle. Glad to see they are big iPhone users as well. They also have a version optimized for the Nintendo Wii that ulitizes the Wiimote’s unique functionality.
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