Greg In The Desert

After Newsgater totally screwed up NetNewsWire with the last release I have started using Google Reader’s web based interface (and ByLine on the iPhone) for RSS reading. I would love to use a desktop app for reading RSS feeds on my Mac but other than the now banned NetNewsWire, none of the other Google Reader compatible applications are stable.

That leaves me with the web interface in which I have a love hate relationship. I now how two more reason to love Google reader since they added an Explore section and a Personalized ranking.

The personalized ranking has done a pretty good job of pulling out the most interesting items from the several hundred subscriptions I have. When I run out of my own feeds to read (often known as reaching the end of the internet), google can show me the most popular feeds from everyone else’s feed and suggest other feeds.

I’m glad Brent Simmons posted an updated on NetNewsWire for Mac and iPhone, my RSS reader of choice, on his blog at inessential.com. I was getting ready to post a pithy comment on the Newsgator forums about the lack of progress.

Brent says that NetNewsWire 3.2 for mac and NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone are in competition for release. Although he does not give a time frame for either. He describes NetNewsWire 3.2 for Mac as not a major upgrade except for the Google Reader synchronization options and NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone as a huge upgrade.

He goes into some detail about iPhone performance and NetNewsWire 4.0 for mac so if your interested I would read his post.

Now that the iPhone App store has been fully operational for several months, I have wasted money on many applications that I used once and regret spending money on. However a few applications have made it to my first screen (you an fit 20 including the dock) to stay for a while. Half of them are default Apple applications: Calendar, Notes, Contacts, Calculator, Camera, Safari and Mail with the phone and SMS apps in the dock. Here are the 10 applications which make up the rest. These should all work on the iPod Touch.

• Things ($9.99). A ToDo list is a necessity and it has to sync with my Mac for easy data entry. I checked out OmniFoucs even before there was a iPhone Version ($19.99). I found OmniFocus too complicated where Things is more self explanatory on the iPhone and Mac. Price was also an issue, since I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for an application that I would end up not using. Possible future replacement: Life Balance ($19.99). I used Life Balance on my Palm but it wasn’t out in time for me to try it out. I haven’t looked at the iPhone version too closely but the palm version synced with both Mac and Windows.
• iStockManager (Free). Although I don’t trade stock with great frequency, I do monitor stock prices on a regular basis (as sort of a social activity). Having the ablity to trade stock is a plus however and iStockManager allows trading through Ameritrade. I initially had some problems with the application, it turns out I needed to set up options within my Ameritrade account. Thankfully, iStockManger support was excellent. Previously used: Bloomberg (free). Doesn’t attach to a trading account but does the job of tracking stocks.
• Twinkle (Free). I was a Twinkle user when you could only install apps on jailbroken phones and haven’t tried any other twitter apps. I’m not a frequent twitter-er, so I probably wouldn’t need a power user app.
• NetNewsWire (Free). I was already a user of NetNewsWire on the Mac therefore using the iPhone version was logical. I have hundreds of feeds and check them all day long. There’s a number of improvements that NNW needs, I’m looking forward to a update.
• Gas Cubby ($4.99). I’m a automobile tracking fanatic. I used TealAuto on my PalmOS device and it’s annoyed me not to be able to find a good tracking app on the iPhone. I’ve tried several and recently started using Gas Cubby. So far I like what I’ve seen and will stick with it.
• Delivery Status Touch ($0.99). I’ve used the Delivery Status dashboard widget for some time to track my UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc deliveries and having a iPhone version is nice. The latest version sync with the devlopers servers which makes it easy to enter tracking information from the computer to the phone.
• Klick (Free). Klick is an app for viewing and uploading images on Flickr. I especially like the ability to find pictures uploaded near me, however they don’t update often since most people don’t geotag their photos.
• The Weather Channel (Free). As the first review on the iTunes store says, “Finally a good weather app that isn’t 9.99”. My problem with the other weather apps I’ve tried isn’t that they are $9.99, the problem is they weren’t good and were $9.99.
• Stanza (Free). An extremely well designed ebook reader with a built-in “store” of free, out of copyright books. There’s also a desktop companion for syncing your own ebooks and PDFs.
• Remote (Free). Apple’s remote application for us with iTunes and Apple TV. I use it for both.

Although no games are on my first screen, I can’t help recommend a few that I recently played.

• Touch Physics ($0.99). Although there are desktop versions of this game, it’s new to me and I found it very original and challenging.
• Jelly Car (Free). I’m having a particlualry diffuclt time with this game and yet I cannot stop.
• PAC-MAN Lite (Fr
  ee). When I get good at the free version, I might check out the paid version: PAC-MAN ($5.99).

Have a suggestion for an alternative listed here? Let me know in the comments.