Doppler… Soon To Be My RSS Reader Of Choice

Yesterday,  Brad did an update on my current favorite RSS reader– Byline. I moved to Byline from NetNewsWire a number of weeks ago and have found that it’s an excellent RSS reader. The main reason for the switch?  My desire to be able to access clipped/saved articles remotely. 

I like NetNewsWire. I like it’s tight integration with the desktop version of the software. I like the layout of the iPhone application and the fact that it includes a "next post" button in the middle of the bottom of the iPhone since I find it to be the best placement for it. And I like the price– it is free.

Unfortunately, I was getting increasingly frustrated at the inability to access my clipped articles from my iPhone after they have been clipped. That’s right, once I had clipped an article the only way to access it was through my desktop browser or by going to the NewsGator web application. This was a huge issue for me since my "system" has me look through all my RSS feeds as quickly as possible, mark those I want to read in more depth, and then return to those I had marked. The system didn’t work with NetNewsWire.

As a result, I decided to try out Byline. I found that I really like it. It integrates with Google Reader, which was, for quite some time, my RSS reader of choice. Tell you the truth, I’m really happy to be back to it and not quite sure why I left in the first place.

Byline has two features I particularly love- the ability to use the app in landscape and the ability to quickly view saved posts. It is a great app and a price-drop a few weeks ago led me to make the switch.

So yesterday Brad did an update on it and one of our readers commented that as much as Byline is great, a new RSS reader, Doppler, might be worth a look. Well, I had look at Doppler when it first came out and found it to be buggy as buggy can be. It crashed all the time, had limited features and, quite frankly, felt unfinished.  I kind of ripped it apart.

At our reader’s suggestion I went back and I looked at Doppler again. (That’s the beauty of a site like this!) What a difference an update or two makes!

Doppler is now far more fully-featured, syncs quickly and hasn’t crashed once. It is, in fact, the "fastest synching" RSS readers I’ve used. Moreover, it has a huge advantage over Byline– the "next article" button is on the lower right rather than the upper right. As a south-paw, I personally find that the upper right is absolute worst place for it and while NetNewsWire’s positioning it in the bottom/middle is best for me, Doppler’s position is second best.

I do, unfortunately, still have two remaining frustrations with Doppler that keep it from being my RSS reader of choice.

First it doesn’t allow you to use the iPhone in landscape. I love reading a landscape and wish this feature were available on every application that uses text.

Second, like NetNewsWire, it doesn’t provide access to saved items… yet. This is why I left NetNewsWire in the first place and is the reason I’m sticking with Byline… for now.

But… not for long. I emailed Doppler’s developer and heard back from Erwin in no more than a minute. He shared that at least one of my two cocnerns will be resolved in the next release! Add to that the fact that I love supporting developers like Erwin who are working hard, creating great apps, updating regularly, and are super responsive and it looks like I am about to have a new favorite RSS reader.

Doppler is available HERE in the App Store for $.99.