Category Archives: News

Notice: Next version will come around June 20, 2013.

News

RssBook will get ready for Google Reader Closing with this new version.

In this release, we introduce ‘account type’. When adding a new account, user must select account type.

  1. Standalone type: normal rss reader.
  2. Google Reader type: sync with Google Reader.

As you expect, with standalone type, user can manage feeds/labels in local and can import feeds from OPML file. Google Reader account can be convert to standalone account at any time in account setting.

The original plan was ‘Adding two more account type’. Standalone type and one more ‘sync service account type’. Unfortunately, we can not prepare new sync service account type in this version. We had hard time in finding publically availabe and reliable API service until now. But things will get better in the near future.

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The state of the miserable app When Google Reader goes away.

News,

Yes, I’m shock too, embarrassed to see the full rigor of the Google Business and to feel ephemeral existence as a 3rd party app.

I know RssBook is not popular, but I know RssBook is really cool and precious. Why? It’s because I has made it for me, for my own use. At then, I just needed more complete reader. I’m a programmer, who is aged, far experienced and retired from software company, just want to enjoy coding myself with some broader usefulness.

In fact, RssBook come to existence a lot better quality than I first planned. I have overwork on this project. I made it too good. It is really full featured rss reader, especially with archiving, no other app can compare, even including PC world. No other app has such smoothness with high archiving options.

But RssBook has some tricky part. It exploits the repository attribute of Google Reader. Generally, rss is regarded as an update pulse of article feeds. Ordinary rss feed contains about 20~30 recent articles only. When I met Google Reader first time back in 2005 maybe, I’m really impressed with its archiving ability. There were all the articles! But it is very hard to scroll older ones. No grouping, no filtering. Just searching and stacked with articles like glacial deposits. When I first started to plan RssBook in 2010(long ago~), I want to take advantage of Google Reader’s archiving strength. That made RssBook really hard to code, but my patience was rewarded with high quality output.

Now, mountain-like archiving feature of Google Reader are about to vanish. I don’t know which API service would permit archiving articles generously like Google. Or reduce amount of archiving? Or should I develop our own cloud base repository??

Nothing was decided yet regards the future of RssBook. And archiving is not the only strength that RssBook has. But I just like to share my current feelings. One thing that I can tell is that RssBook will continue to work even without Google Reader in any circumstance.

Update(1.3.6): OAuth Applied.

News

In this version, we changed Google Reader login method to OAuth. (We admin it should have done earlier.) RssBook does not save user password any more. Users are redirected to Google sign-in and requested to permit RssBook. Previously saved passwords will be deleted, so users prompted to re-sign in when sync. And multiple Google account support feature is also upgraded and fully integrated with OAuth.

Additionally,

  • Feed fetches are more stabilized. If fail to read feed (in rare case, Google Reader return error or invalid format), it just skip that feed only. (Previously fail all sync).
  • Facebook framework updated to fix some sign-in bug. It may require re-signing in to Facebook if not display user name correctly in setting->social menu.

See you~~

Update(1.3.5): Color Theme Arrived.

News

New updated 1.3.5 version has released.

Long anticipated ‘Color Theme’ feature has arrived.  Including ‘Night mode’, there are 11 color themes available. In addition, a lot of new fonts are supported,  15 fonts altogether.  These features are accessible at font menu in article view or display setting menu. Personally i like ‘Slate Gray’ and ‘Ivory’ color theme. And impressed with ‘GillSans’ font.

Besides,

  • ‘Translate by Google’ menu in article actions popup.
  • Add website data management in setting->maintenance. (only iOS 6.0 later)
  • Image viewer loads images slightly faster.

There will be another important update following in one or two weeks later. In that, we change log-in mechanism to OAuth 2.0. No more saving password.

Enjoy RssBook~