Category:News
Price: free
TiP Rating: 4/5
Release Date: Updated May 3, 2011
Current Version: 2.0.1
Seller: DevHD Inc
Rated: 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Link to app

App Store Description: Feed your mind. Get the best content from your favorite websites delivered to your iPhone and iPad. Powered by Google Reader, Twitter, Instapaper and Read it Later. If you are an existing Google Reader user, you can think of Feedly mobile as a faster and more visual overlay with lots of sharing options and seamless 2-way integration.

Summary: Feedly lets you keep up with your favorite feeds from around the web in a clean, magazine-like style.

Review: I check my Google Reader daily, but I always do so from my laptop. I still haven’t completely immersed myself in digital reading – except for iBook. But when it comes to apps like Flipboard or Read it Later, I just don’t remember to check them. I always opt for the “old school” way of doing things. Some would argue that it’s stubbornness, but I blame it on forgetfulness. Nothing I’ve seen or used so far as wowed me enough to make me switch. Enter Feedly.

Feedly lets me pull in all of my subscriptions from Google Reader and arranges them into an easy-to-read magazine-like format. I was hesitant because magazine-style apps like Flipboard have too much on one page. It was distracting. Feedly is designed in such a way that all of your focus is on the content, making it easy to browse and read through all of your subscriptions. Warning: If you use Google’s 2-Step Verification with your Google account, you’ll need to enter the app-specific password generated within your settings. Otherwise, your normal password won’t work.

After you’ve synced your Google Reader account, you’ll see all of your folders and subscriptions organized within a column along the left side of your screen. This column can be hidden by tapping the lower left corner. It can also be accessed by doing the same thing. Toward the top of the menu, you’ll notice that you can filter your subscriptions by latest, saved, buss, history or essentials. Essentials appear to be anything you’ve starred in Google Reader, but when I checked the app against what was on my screen, it was missing a few articles here and there.

Below the filtering options are your actual subscriptions. I love that it displays how many unread posts there are next to the title. Clicking on the title will open the blog in a magazine format. The first page features four of the most recent posts. If you swipe the page you’ll be taken to the next seven posts. Tapping on the title of any post will open the full article and you’ll also have the option to view the website, complete with comments, inside Feedly’s built-in browser.

At the bottom of the full view, there are options to like, save for later, email and share with Twitter, which you’ll have to sync before sharing. It’s a little confusing because I expected an authorization box to pop up the first time I clicked on the Twitter icon. Instead, I was able to draft a tweet and tap “tweet” before the authorization box appeared. The bottom toolbar also lets users adjust the formatting to a more mobile-friendly setting. This comes in handy when you’re viewing a website with a lot of ads or extras around the content. It pulls just the article and its corresponding images into view. The content in its original state is easy enough to read without adjusting though. There’s also an option to open the post in Safari, but I don’t know why you would want to since the in-app browser works just fine.

When a blog is open and you’re going through all of the unread posts, if you keep swiping you’ll eventually hit the next blog on your subscription list. This is nice because you aren’t glued to the subscription menu. Feedly will prompt you when you’re entering a new subscription. Unfortunately, once you’re there, you can’t go backwards. I don’t know why you’d want to, but sometimes when I’m skimming I swipe too quickly and end up wanting to go back to the previous page. Not a deal breaker, but kind of annoying.

For those that prefer more customization, you can make some adjustments within the settings (accessed through the actual Settings app). I changed the start page to Latest instead of Home so I can see the newest content right away. You can also change the color theme from white to black, depending on your preference. This is also where you sync your Read it Later and Instapaper accounts.

My Feedly Wish List: While checking out other reviews of this app the biggest complaint I saw was the lack of landscape support. By default, I always start up my iPad in landscape view. So when I saw the content wasn’t adjusting to my iPads settings, I was a little disappointed. I also wish there was more comment integration – meaning, I’d like to see an option on the toolbar that at least shows how many comments a post has. It would be nice if tapping that button popped up a comment box similar to that on Newsy. And finally, the ability to share a post to Facebook would be great.

I can’t say that I will be giving up Google Reader on my laptop entirely for Feedly, but I won’t let not having a laptop stop me from keeping up with my subscriptions.