Mr. Reader 1.1: Now With OmniFocus Support, Better Services, Readability

Mr. Reader, the RSS app I reviewed earlier this month, keeps getting better and aims at becoming the most powerful, yet elegant Google Reader client available on the iPad. The first version of Mr. Reader was so full-featured for being a 1.0 release that it made me consider placing it on my homescreen to see how I would go by in my daily workflow (which implies dealing with at least 500+ articles per day) without Reeder, the app I’ve used for months. Mr. Reader wasn’t perfect – it still isn’t – but it was one of those promising pieces of software that showed great things to come. The developer announced a major update was already in the works, and as I kept using Mr. Reader as the only feed reading app on my iPad I wondered would could get better, and whether my main complaints with the initial version would be addressed or not. The modal window for sync is still there, but Mr. Reader 1.1 is a huge update overall that makes navigating between unread feeds and getting things done with the app a more pleasing, productive experience.

Mr. Reader 1.1 can now send articles as “tasks” to OmniFocus and Things. In OmniFocus, you’ll get a task with the title already filled in, and the article’s URL in the notes. Mr. Reader is now deeply integrated with other iOS apps and web services: the app can forward items to iCab, Mercury and Atomic Web Browser, send articles to Diigo and, more importantly, it allows you to read in Readability view. Articles can be read in fullscreen mode (you can change this in the settings), Instapaper and Read It Later got an option to remove the confirmation dialog, and switching between the unread list and a single article has been improved with the implementation of the “pinch” gesture. I find myself really digging the possibility to tap on a headline to read the article in fullscreen, then pinch to go back to the main list – it feels very natural. As far as marking items as read goes, a new tap & hold action on the “mark as read” button allows you to automatically hide items older than 1,2,3 days or 1,2 weeks.

There are several minor improvements throughout the whole app as well. For instance, images can be saved to the camera roll, and the settings have been redesigned to host cleaner service configuration options (admittedly, Mr. Reader has a lot of services to play with). The reading panel in portrait has been tweaked to automatically slide back after hitting the “mark as read” button (a minor annoyance in the first version), and the font family can now be changed in the article view.

As I said above, Mr. Reader is definitely en route to become the most powerful RSS application on the iPad, and the most-integrated with third-party apps and services. If you didn’t try version 1.0, perhaps now it’s time to consider following this link and click the Buy button.

Safari “Reading List” Discovered In Lion, Apple Taking On Instapaper and Readability?

A new feature uncovered in OS X Lion by MacRumors reveals that Apple plans to take on “read it later” services such as ReadItLater, Instapaper and Readability. It has implemented a new bookmarking feature in that latest Lion builds of Safari that Apple is calling the “Reading List” and can be used by users to save pages for later reading. Apple describes it feature saying:

Reading List lets you collect webpages and links for you to read later. To add the current page to your Reading List, click Add Page. You can also Shift-click a link to quickly add it to the list. To hide and show Reading List, click the Reading List icon (eyeglasses) in the bookmarks bar.

The feature is currently hidden away in the latest OS X Lion build and no mention of the feature has yet been made by Apple in any of its announcements or documentation of Lion. One question certainly is about how robust the feature will be and whether it will become a service that synchronises the bookmarks across devices, including mobile devices. Marco Arment, the creator and developer of Instapaper, appears not to be to worrying about it so far and believes that “Instapaper would still have a market even if Apple implemented Reading List synced to iOS devices.”

[Via MacRumors]


TweetyPop Is Like Time Machine For Twitter

Released yesterday in the App Store at $1.99, TweetyPop wants to offer a different way to read your Twitter timeline and interact with status updates. While regular Twitter clients like Twitter for iPad, Twitterrific and Osfoora are focused on empowering you to read tweets in a vertical timeline which you can interact with to reply, fave tweets, or just discover cool links to check out later, TweetyPop resembles the Mac’s Time Machine in the way it operates: tweets are placed on a three-dimensional space, and you have to move the tweet “bubbles” with your finger to fling them off the screen and move forward in the timeline. Just like Time Machine, you make progress in time: only you have tweets instead of files and you can do stuff with these tweets, too.

The app’s got a traditional list view as well, but that’s not really the point. What TweetyPop wants to achieve – and I guess the reason why the developers created it in the first place – is being the alternative app that lets you sit down and explore Twitter in time. A scrollbar on the right lets you quickly move to a couple of hours ago or a just a few minutes back; big arrows at the bottom allow you to dismiss old tweets and load new ones, or go back in time again. The concept’s really simple if you’re used to Time Machine or Lion’s Versions. In fact, the app’s even got the same space-inspired background that you can’t change. Once you get the hang of it – you can scroll, move tweets around, reply, fave and follow links – you might want to check out the additional icons along the top. These buttons enable you to use Twitter’s usual functionalities like replies, DMs and favorite tweets, as well as lists, trends, or search. In every section, tweets are displayed as bubbles against a Time Machine-esque timeline like in the main page. This might be a little disorienting at first for mentions and direct messages, but I believe TweetyPop wants to disorient you, in a good way. It’s very, very different from anything else I’ve tried on the iPad in a year of existence of the platform.

I also like the fact that the app’s got some interesting options to play with. You can send items to Instapaper or OmniFocus, filter the timeline by “all tweets” or “new tweets only” and enable auto-play to let the app automatically scroll for you and create a slideshow for your tweets. The slideshow speed is configurable in the settings.

At $1.99, I’d give TweetyPop a try if only because it’s different. Sure, it won’t replace Twitter for iPad or Twitterrific, but it has the chance to become that alternative Twitter app that does one thing well and surprises you with its original ideas and interactions. Plus, the time exploration effect for tweets is just neat. Go download the app here. Promo video below.

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Apple Releases New Update for Lion Developer Preview 2

Alongside Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 4, Apple also released another update for OS X Lion Developer Preview 2. The update weighs at around 1.17 GB and it’s available now in the Software Update control panel. It is recommended for all users running Lion DP 2.

Two weeks ago, Apple did the same and released a new build of Xcode 4.1 and the first update to Lion DP 2. The original Lion Developer Preview 2 was released in late March, and we’re expecting another major update before the WWDC, with a GM seed being seeded to developers in June. If you spot anything new in this update, leave a comment below. We’ll update this post with more notes as further details come in.

Update: MacRumors reports Lion build 11A444d has been seeded to developers.

Update #2: We’re hearing the new Lion update has a snappier Finder, a better UI for deleting apps from the Launchpad, and lots of design tweaks to changes introduced in the previous DP builds.

Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 4 Released

A few minutes ago Apple released an update to Xcode 4.1, which is required to build apps for OS X Lion. Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 4 is available now in the Mac Dev Center, and we’re hearing Interface Builder added support for NSPopover and NSWindow animations in this build, among other enhancements and bug fixes.

The first build of Xcode 4.1 was released in February soon after the original Lion Developer Preview, with new builds following the schedule of Lion DP releases and updates.

Kickstarter: Taposé - Bringing Microsoft Courier to the iPad

Remember Microsoft’s Courier booklet PC? It was an interactive tablet with dual-touchscreens and folded like a booklet that Microsoft abandoned about a year and a half ago. Well, Benjamin Monnig and Ricky Drake are taking the idea of the Courier to an iPad app simply called Taposé and have launched a Kickstarter project to help with funding.

Taposé brings Courier functionality to the iPad. The creativity, productivity, and attractive user interface merged into one outstanding product. The split interface design (similar to the Courier idea) allows users to interact with multiple apps simultaneously in one app - Taposé.

Kickstarter video and a “How It Evolved” video after the break.

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Apple Is Now More Profitable Than Microsoft (“Bill, Thank You. The World’s a Better Place”)→

Apple Is Now More Profitable Than Microsoft (“Bill, Thank You. The World’s a Better Place”)

Another remarkable–and remarkably ironic–milestone for Apple, which surpassed Microsoft in market cap last May. It was Microsoft, after all, that breathed new life into a struggling Apple back in 1997 with a $150 million investment in the company (see video below). What was it Bill Gates said at the time? “We think Apple makes a huge contribution in the computer industry. And we think it’s going to be a lot of fun helping out.”

A lot of fun indeed. Paczkowski reports that Microsoft reported a net income of $5.23 billion on Thursday, whereas Apple’s net income was $5.99 billion for the second quarter. Bill Gates was the best thing that could have happened to Microsoft, and I don’t see where Steve Ballmer is bringing fresh blood into the company. The focus has been on “Windows,” and not refactoring to make really great products. Arguably Windows Phone 7 isn’t bad, but is the future of Microsoft to re-skin everything to look Metro? (It feels the hip Zune style is playing a big role in where Microsoft wants to go interface wise - it’s at least fresh and exciting.) Microsoft can’t survive on Microsoft Office, and they need to work hard to remove the “Windows” stigma. Heck, I think Joe Belfiore (who is an excellent image for the company) has a better vision to take Microsoft places out of any of the execs currently running the corporate giant. Just look at where the corporate culture is taking RIM.

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E-Books Fail To Save Publishers From Revenue Decline

Research published yesterday by IHS iSuppli reveals that the US book publishing industry has reached a “major inflection point” in which there will be a long-term decline in revenue, as e-book sales fail to reach the levels required to compensate the fall in physical book sales.

Over the period of 2010-2014, the book publishing industry will face a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) decline of 3% for both e-books and paper books. This reflects a fall in revenue from $25 billion between 2005 and 2010 to $22.7 billion between 2010 and 2014. Driving the decline is a 5% fall in the CAGR of physical book revenue, which far outweighs the 40% CAGR in e-books. This is mostly due to the fact that the selling prices of e-books are on average 40% lower than those of paper copies.

Dedicated e-readers, however, are forecast to triple in sales from 2010’s 9.7 million sales to over 30 million units in 2014. Previous figures did forecast over 40 million sales, but IHS iSuppli believes devices such as the iPad and other tablets will limit the market for such dedicated e-reading devices. IHS iSuppli also reveals in its analysis that since the introduction of the iPad, e-reader manufacturers have been forced to shrink margins from 35% to far lower levels.

[Via IHS iSuppli]