[tweetmeme]There are plenty of RSS Readers for the iPhone today. Back in October, Patrick had a chance to round up the popular RSS apps for the iPhone and even though he was a Newsstand user back then, he’s since changed over to Reeder. In fact, most of the SA Team uses Reeder as their choice of RSS app for iPhone.
But what about the iPad? A while ago, we showed you an early preview of Instapaper for iPad and while most of the developers scramble to get their RSS apps ready for launch day, we have a new entrant to the scene. Glasshouse Apps, developers of the beautifully designed Barista and Cellar apps for iPhone and iPod touch are ready with their very own RSS app for iPad.
The app, called ‘The Early Edition’, is beautiful and takes the real world UI metaphor, much like Apple’s very own iBooks app. The layout is much like an actual newspaper with the front-page showcasing the a mixture of stories from all your feeds. A horizontal scrollbar at the bottom lets you browse through internal pages. You can tap a single story to read it full-page or simply scroll the text in the same position. A very nice feature if you have to simply read through and move on.
The developers have provided us some screenshots of the app, along with a walkthrough video which is embedded below.
As seen in the video, you can view the articles full-screen or load the original article within the frame. Moreover, any videos on the story will play within the app, even Full-screen. However, it appears that there is currently no support for Google Reader or Instapaper.
Of course, there is nothing to conclude unless we try the app on an actual iPad to see its performance and how slick it is, but looking at their previous apps and considering how fast the iPad is, I have my hopes set high. The Early Edition looks to be the app I will use (whenever I get my hands on my iPad in India) and this, coupled with Instapaper is bound to change the way I’m fed my daily news.
Update: The App is live on the App Store (iTunes Link) at a price of $4.99.
More shots (click for larger version):
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
No Google Reader syncing, no deal.
Looks like a great app, but like Sachin, Google Reader sync is a must have for me. Still might try it out with some feeds I’ll only read on iPad or something like that..
I’ve been using it for weeks and loving it.
Google Reader is must have for me as well (Currently subscribed to close to 300 feeds).
What makes TEE so great is that you can subscribe to the feeds you want to read, say, early morning with a cup of coffee and this, it presents in an interface that you’re kinda used to all your life. So while this may not have Google Reader support at the beginning, I’d still love to use it for the way it presents the news to me.
The Google Reader approach is a terrible way to think of this app. If you’re the type who needs to look at every article, I doubt this app is for you. There are going to be plenty of standard RSS readers on the iPad; you’ll be spoilt for choice. The Early Edition is a way to sit back and read the news, as you would on a newspaper. It has unread counts, but they’re nowhere present when you’re actually reading your feeds. Just like in the newspaper, you look the title, and if you find it interesting, you read ahead. If not, just skip past. There’s no ‘mark as read’ on a newspaper. Just as I like it; possibly not how you like it.
This app reminds me of Times, the RSS reader on the Mac. Except this time, it could work. Times on the Mac still had to deal with a mouse pointer, and didn’t quite make use of the keyboard. With this app, you’re dealing with a totally new user interface, and the input is your fingers. I say it ‘could’, because there’s no way of knowing how good an app is until one has tried it out.
I need that iPad; god help me.
Good point – I look forward to trying it out with some select feeds I’d like to read this way.
For a lot of people, no Google syncing is a big plus: Google Reader STILL doesn’t support authenticated RSS feeds.
Hi,
just chiming in here to firstly say thanks to Preshit for his positive response to The Early Edition, (makes my day when people get excited about the work we’ve put into our apps).
But secondly, on the Google Reader and Instapaper integration… These and a few more features were originally on our list of things that 1.0 would support, but the launch crept up and we just had to make some tough decisions simply to get the app submitted in time.
Rest assured, we’re already working on the next version of The Early Edition, so watch this space.
…and thanks to everyone else for your comments and feedback.
Those glossy favicon substitutes should be replaced asap!
I’ll still buy this anyway
I have been using this app now since I got my iPad and I LOVE it! it is a must buy. Dont treat it as a google reader. Only thing I really would like to see is instapaper support (on the way) or a save to read later function.
I agree with Corey. App is great, but it’d be nice to have an option to save and read later. This way I can read stories while I don’t have wifi access.