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Reviewed Showcase App

ReadAIR - Google Reader AIR app

May 13th 2008 | by James

(50 votes, 3.8/5)

google reader

For those readers who use Google Reader as their news feed aggregator then you will love this new AIR application. It has the same basic UI layout that the web based reader has so you can really jump straight in and start using it.

You could be fooled into thinking this app was developed by the Google it is that well polished. It has full synchronisation with your Google Reader account and requires you to log in with your credentials prior on application load. These get stored locally so you won’t have to do it again. The viewing panes can be resized but the columns in the list view can’t. It has a search feature for going through all of those feeds and you can use tags as well as add or delete subscriptions.

According to the Google code page this app will soon have custom themes, keyboard shortcuts which I love using on Google Reader and more. Sounds like the developer has got some great ideas in the pipeline for this app.

Design eye

The interface is styled like a OS X application (regardless if your on Windows or OS X) and it looks great. The developers have done a great job on the UI. Text and icons are all easy to read and meaningful.

Technical eye

Yes, this application is hosted on Google Code and is open source. It is HTML based and uses the JQuery Javascript library for effects, AJAX and other behaviours. The code is extremely well written and commented so I would urge you to go and download the source, great for seeing how a complex HTML AIR application goes together.

Your Comments and Views

Fabianv said on May 13th 2008 at 8.06 am

Hmmm, cool concept but still very buggy.. it doesnt even log in on my side. Would love to see this further developed…

James said on May 13th 2008 at 8.15 am

Yes, I had login issues too. Seemed to work on the third attempt and now logs in fine.

Given that Google don’t actively support an open API for Reader, I guess that there are going to be a few teething troubles.

Tony said on May 13th 2008 at 1.45 pm

Cannot seem to move down list of articles using keypad – non-starter for me.

J. Phil said on May 14th 2008 at 5.15 pm

Ok, I get that this page is expressly for Adobe AIR apps, and I love AIR apps. But making an AIR version of Google Reader seems silly.. why not use the already-excellent multiplatform Mozilla Prism to make a standalone Google Reader app?

Adam McGrath said on May 14th 2008 at 5.43 pm

Thanks for all your comments about my app. It’s got a few bugs to iron out, especially for PC users, and there are some much needed features that I hope to implement soon – Offline mode and keyboard shortcuts for example. In the mean time I hope you enjoy using it! Thanks

James said on May 15th 2008 at 8.43 am

Adam,

It’s a good looking app and I it looks like your going to be actively developing it and incorporating user feedback, so keep us informed of your progress.

Wormy said on May 15th 2008 at 11.48 am

I love this app, looking fw to the further development. Will keep an eye out for the updates!
x

Adam McGrath said on May 15th 2008 at 5.42 pm

Couple of little fixes and I’ve made a start on the all important keyboard shortcuts (starting with J/K!). Full details of Version 0.11 here:

code.google.com/p/readair/wiki/ReleaseNotes

If you’ve already got the app you can auto update it from the application.

I’ve also set up a Google Group:

groups.google.com/group/readair/

Helloworld said on May 16th 2008 at 6.33 am

Nice app, but podcasts don’t work…

tearaway_Tea said on May 16th 2008 at 8.37 am

Really cool application with good skin!

Kristofer Harzinski said on May 16th 2008 at 4.48 pm

This is a great app. Good looking and useful. Can’t wait to see it progress.

ajay said on May 22nd 2008 at 12.11 am

this is what i am looking for in a desktop rss reader

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