ezFeeds News Reader
Description of App
ezFeeds is a full-featured news reader with Google Reader synchronization.
Read items quickly in your custom feed & folder order using the Next Unread button, so you can get in, read all your news in the order you want, and get out.
Find & discover suggested feeds and subscribe to them instantly
Features
• Synchronize with Google Reader
• Optionally hide read folders, feeds and articles
• Download read items to keep a full history of articles
• Cache Images for offline reading (see Settings)
• Add, remove, and order your feeds and folders
• Search for articles by keyword globally, by folder, or by feed
• Create “smart feeds” to save your searches
• Quickly find, preview, and subscribe to blogs and feeds by keyword
• Find recommended feeds and blogs based on your subscriptions
• Subscribe to custom feeds from Google News, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, eBay, and more
• Safely authenticate with Google, Twitter, and Facebook without storing passwords for enhanced security
• View how many items are left by feed and folder on the navigation bar
• Share articles by Twitter, Facebook, Email, Instapaper, ReadItLater, and Google Reader sharing
• Shorten shared urls using Bitly
• Open articles and web pages in Google Mobilizer, Instapaper Mobilizer, and Safari
• Excellent accessibility with voiceover
What's New in Version 2.4
• Fix Only over Wifi setting for image caching
• Fix crash when deleting feeds using swipe gesture
Also in this release (version 4.3):
• Hide read folders and articles
• Hide top folders (starred, shared, etc) easily in edit mode
• Optionally auto-fit images to size of display (global & per-feed)
• Customize Open With (mobilizer) setting per feed
• When marking a feed or folder as read, will navigate to parent automatically
• Hide status bar in landscape for more reading area
• Use newer Facebook integration for simpler authentication
• Added ability to reset Google Reader account (and data) in settings
• Can now reset Twitter & Facebook accounts in settings
• Mark feed cache files as not for backup in iOS 5.0.1
Bug fixes
• More iOS 5 compatibility updates
• Fix Twitter authentication issue
• Better popover handling for iPad
• Fix issue adding feeds in portrait on iPad
• Next Unread button sometimes didn't work
• Fixed some accessibility issues when editing lists, and unnamed buttons
Version
Free or Paid
Compatibility
Device(s) App Was Tested On
Accessibility Comments
AppleVis Editorial Team Note: The developer has been so kind to have fixed just about everything we have mentioned! He has also went out of his way to make this app more Voice Over friendly as well. See the Comments down below for more information.
Original Post by the Poster:
This app is very accessible with VoiceOver. In fact, it is one of the best that I have used (and I have tried lots!).
There are, however, a couple of minor accessibility issues. Firstly, if you double-tap on the 'Edit' button when viewing a list of folders or feeds, you cannot delete or move anything when using VoiceOver. The 'delete' and 'move' elements are displayed onscreen, but are not recognized by VoiceOver. If you double-tap on a folder or feed whilst in edit mode, you are taken to a page showing information and some settings for that item. Among the settings are the option to delete or unsubscribe.
The only other issue that I have noticed is an unlabelled button when viewing a feed. Double-tapping on this gives you access to information and some settings for that feed.
What I do like about the app is that VoiceOver reads the badge that indicates the number of unread items in a folder or feed. Most other RSS apps do not. Also, when viewing a list of articles in a feed, VoiceOver will read the title of a article followed by the article content. This makes for quick browsing, as you don't need to double-tap on an article to access its content. If it's not an article that interests you, then simply flick through to the next one.
Button labelling is very good (apart from the one exception mentioned above), and the use of hints suggests that the developer might be aware of VoiceOver.
VoiceOver Performance
Button Labelling
Usability
Other Comments
With the addition of a couple of extra features, this app could easily become my default RSS reader:
- The option to hide folders or feeds that do not contain new items.
- The option to hide the 'Starred' and 'Shared' folders.
- The option to sort articles by oldest first.
- Moving the button that marks all items read to the menu bar (at the moment you have to go to the 'Action' menu first.
Even without these features, this app is still a good option for VoiceOver users.
Comments
#1 IOS 5
Well, this app worked great under the IOS 4.x but now tih IOS 5.00 one major change occured. Now when you do double-click an article you can no longer are able to read the content. Ouch! That was a major let down. Only hope that the developer will fix this issue. If not, you will not be able to read any of the articles. That is a major flaw. This was my favorite by far but now we have hit a wall on this. So be forwarned.
#2 Not a VoiceOver issue
This problem isn't specific to VoiceOver users, so that probably makes it more likely that there will be a quick fix.
#3 Fixed!
Version 2.2 has just been released, and it appears to have fixed the issues that were introduced with iOS 5.
#4 Confirmed
That is correct. Version 2.2 has indeed fixed the problem that I was having. Everything I have tried appears to be working great once again.
#5 2.4
I have just released version 2.4 of ezFeeds, which hopefully should fix all outstanding VoiceOver issues. The first two of four suggested features have been implemented as well (hiding feeds/folders with no new items, and hiding Starred/Shared folders).
Please let me know if there's anything else that can be done to make it better!
Cheers!
Curtis.
#6 Spoilt for choices
Thanks for the update and fixes.
This is 1 of 5 very accessible RSS readers that I find myself alternating between right now.
Each has a little something that is missing in the others and which matches the way that I like to manage, browse and read my feeds.
One of these days I will commit to just one, and it's great that accessibility won't be a factor in the choice.
#7 Remarkable App
This is no doubt my most favorite RSS Reader to date. I had been using the Feeddler Pro for sometime but it is not near as superior to this. This app is so much cleaner. Very easy to use. At this time there isn't a thing I change! If I do find anything or if anyone else has suggestions do please leave it here or contact Curtis. Lastly, any developer that go out of their way to this site and make those changes for the non-sighted community isa Gold Star from me. Not only that I will recommend this app to my friends because that money is going in to make this app even better and a job well done for us non-sighted folks! Thank you Curtis!
#8 feeddler comparison
I like feedlers because it allow you to show a few lines per item, so in most cases you can read enough of the article simply sweeping trough the article list and only if you are interested you can double tap... does this app have this feature?
#9 Yes, ezFeeds shows you a
Yes, ezFeeds shows you a preview of the article in the list. When using VoiceOver, it will also read a large portion of the article text (more than what you can see) so you don't even need to go into the article most of the time.
#10 v2.5 is now released, feedback requested for future versions
I've added the 3rd of 4 requested features, which you can now customize your reading order. All unread lists will be in your reading order, so you can start reading oldest first, or newest first.
I've also added the 'Latest News' item when viewing a Feed with 'show only unread' option turned on, so you can see all articles in a feed without having to switch back to show all articles.
The next major feature I want to add is the ability to navigate backward when using the 'Next Unread' button (since sometimes I read too fast and miss something). I was thinking either:
a) switch to using a swipe left/right in the article view to go to next/previous unread, but keep arrow buttons for next/prev in feed
b) pull down on article to navigate to previously read articles (like pull to refresh style on many apps).
My question is, are either of these more preferred when using VoiceOver? Using the swipe left/right would be using the built-in paging functionality of iOS so it may be a little easier than using the 'next unread' button.
Cheers and happy reading!
Curtis.
#11 Streamlining
In terms of accessibility, this app is great.
It's also now very close to being a perfect match for the way that I like to browse and read feeds.
The only change that I would like to see is the option to go straight to the full article when tapping on a feed item in the list view (as in Feeddler). The 'teaser' view of an article rarely tells me anything more than what I've already gathered from its title, so simply becomes another page that I have to pass through to get to where I want to be.
#12 New Update
Great job! The new features are great and works well. I would love to see the hand gestures built-in with this app for reading articles as you mentioned with the hand gestures. That would be fantastic. I really love the reading of the article preview when Voice Over is on. That saves so much time with out having to double tap the article to see what it is about. Honestly, I'm running out of ideas what or how to make this any better?! Would love to see other people comment here in what they want to see in addition to what you already have done!
#13 Point Taken
David, does indeed has a very good point. Yes, that would be great in having the article taking you to the direct content since EZFeed does a very good job of reading the teaser already. No need to have you taken to the teaser page if you already have heard this. Also, in the direct page I like the ability to e-mail the article on this page. At this point you can't but only on the teaser page. So adding that ability would be great.
#14 I agree with comment 13, I
I agree with comment 13, I would like to be taken to the article directly. However, I would prefer if I could choose in settings what my article view should look like, I prefer sending most articles to instapaper mobilizer and I would like to be able to select that in settings. Maybe there could be a default setting in settings, and a setting for each feed that should display articles differently than the default settings. For a few feeds instapaper mobilizer doesn’t work too well, and I would like to be able to select another view for them to open in.
Also, this is just a small change, but maybe you could word the star/unstar button differently. Currently it says this article is starred/unstarred. I think it would suffice if it just said starred/unstarred or star/unstar, because the VoiceOver hint explains what the button does. If you put “this article is…” into the label for this button, then we have to listen to the sentence first before getting the relevant information. If you want to use a sentence for the button, then I would prefer if the information as to whether an article is starred or not would be placed at the beginning of the sentence.
EzFeeds is an excellent reader. Thank you for having made it as accessible as it is and for continuing to improve it and asking for our opinions.
#15 Overriding the default article view
Hi Sandra,
The option to override the default article view is already available.
When viewing the list of articles in a feed, double-tap on the 'Edit' button on the top menu bar. This gives you access to various settings for that feed, including what you are looking for.
#16 v2.6 is out!
Hi ezFeeds users!
Just pushed out another accessible friendly update to ezFeeds. Most of the new features are based on your feedback, so thank you for your support.
Some of the notable features:
I hope you enjoy it!
#17 This app just keeps getting better
I'm particularly pleased to see the ability added to skip the preview and go straight to the full article. love it! Thanks Curtis!
#18 Update
Once again. I can't stress enough how this app is the must have for you devices. There is nothing that comes close to this anymore after these updates. You have taken our feedbacks and taken it above and beyond the bar of our expectations. Hands down blow away the competition. Nothing close. Thank you ever so much.
#19 Two more suggestions
Curtis, could you please consider adding another option to the “Open articles in…” feature? I’d like “default mobilizer” as a third option.
Also I would like a timestamp following the main heading of each article. Maybe others wouldn’t like this, so maybe this could be put into an option to be activated or deactivated in settings.
Thanks for your terrific work!
#20 Hi Sandra, Thanks for the
Hi Sandra,
Thanks for the feedback. You should be able to do your first suggestion with this new update - if you set the "open articles in" setting to web page, it will use the feed/global mobilizer setting to open the web page.
I can definitely put a time stamp to mirror what is visually displayed, such as "10 minutes ago", etc. I agree this should probably be an option.
Cheers!
Curtis.
#21 Curtis, thank you, from the
Curtis, thank you, from the wording of the option I thought this wasn't possible. Personally, I would prefer the timestamp to give date and time, not the number of hours that have passed since the article has been put online, but maybe people have different preferences there, too. Thanks for your quick reply and for clarifying the "open in" option.
#22 Awesome!!!
Thank you, Curtis, for the new update. I am amazed by your attention to detail and your great commitment to accessibility and other improvements. Thanks for closely listening to our suggestions. I will recommend your reader to other blind users!
David, thank you for the information on how to override the default article view.
#23 Google?
Can you guys tell me if this app can be used without signing up with Google? I like to be able to just enter my own URLs. I don't want to have to use a news feeds service.
Thanks,
John
#24 You do require a google
You do require a google account to use ezFeeds. The best advantage of that is it makes downloading new articles super fast (it would go much slower grabbing articles from each source), and that you can sync your read and starred items across devices.
You do not need a gmail account, you can use your existing email to make a google account here, for free:
https://accounts.google.com/newaccount
Hope this helps!
Curtis.
#25 I forgot to mention, however,
I forgot to mention, however, is that you can still subscribe by entering your own feed urls or searching for feeds and add them directly in ezFeeds. So you don't ever need to go to google reader to manage your subscriptions.
#26 duplicate articles in many of the feeds
Hey,
I love the app, however there is one major issue for me. In certain feeds such as AP Top headlines or AP sports or AP Science or AP Technology or NY Times, most of the time, the app seems to retain duplicated articles. This seems to occur no matter if I use google reader to get the feeds or manually go and add them. In many cases, the articles shows up two or three times as it is duplicated. Is there anyway around this or any fix in the cards for this issue. It makes it somewhat difficult to move to the next article because I keep getting the same article heading over and over.
One thing I'd love to see is a format where the entire article can be read from the headings page. AP Mobile used to have a setup where the entire article itself would be read without having to tap on anything. Rather, it would be the title, the city, and then the actual article would be read out. Unfortunately you would not be able to use the move by words or line feature in the rotater, but it was very nifty as it just let you swipe left or right and hear all of the information including the entire article without doing extra taps unless you wanted to.
Again, I love the app, but the duplicated problem keeps me from using it. Instead, currently I am using web feeds as the duplication issue doesn't exist although it isn't as roboust as EZ Feeds.
#27 Hi VRein, It appears that
Hi VRein,
It appears that this is an issue with the feeds themselves, as the articles get duplicated in Google Reader, not just ezFeeds. This is happening because AP's feeds are not properly keeping the same identifier for each article, but instead changing the identifier when the article is updated/edited. Since Google Reader stores ALL past articles (even if they are not present in the feed anymore), it shows them as duplicate entries because they are identified as such.
There is unfortunately nothing I can do to ezFeeds to alleviate this, as it'd be a problem with any google-reader based news reader on the app store, and possibly many other readers that follow the standards for ATOM feeds.
As for your second point, ezFeeds does indeed read the entire article text in the headings page - but only when the article text is actually part of the feed. For these feeds you mention (AP & NY Times), it seems that they do not include the article text in the feed, most likely on purpose. I tend to stay away from feeds that do not include the article text, as it forces me to load their web page to read the rest of the article.
#28 Alternate AP feeds
Hi,
In doing some searching, there are some alternate feed url's you can use for Associated Press, which seem to work a lot better (since they are using RSS instead of ATOM):
Top Headlines:
http://hosted.ap.org/lineups/TOPHEADS-rss_2.0.xml?SITE=RANDOM&SECTION=HOME
Sports
http://hosted.ap.org/lineups/SPORTSHEADS-rss_2.0.xml?SITE=RANDOM&SECTION=HOME
Technology
http://hosted.ap.org/lineups/TECHHEADS-rss_2.0.xml?SITE=RANDOM&SECTION=HOME
It seems many people are using these feed url's on google reader, instead of the ATOM versions.
Cheers!
Curtis.
#29 Solid, useful and worthwhile
I am not much of an internet news reader but I have a few blogs and book authors I like to keep track of. I started by putting in David Weber's and Taylor Anderson's feeds and have added a few other of my favorites. However the one thing I never seem to get around to is checking in on Facebook. I have had an account for a couple years and I read updates about every 6 weeks. Some searching the web indicated it might be possible to get note feeds and more digging located a way to also get friend status as a feed. Now I added them to EZfeeds and it is wonderful. The one thing I wish I could figure out how to do is trigger a complete reading of all new items with a single or series of simple commands. Maybe there is and I missed it. I don't mind reading each item and hitting the down tab, should say button, but if I could just start reading from the top and get all new items at once it would be nice. I heard the demo on the app that reads but I didn't like the bridge music between categories. Simple, fast and functional with no extra junk is what I prefer. This app works great on my phone and pad. The PC side of things from Google Reader is ok and I actually add stuff from there because it is a bit easier with full keyboard and the other resources of my big system but even from the phone or pad I could have done just about everything. Probably the hardest thing would have been to do the Facebook feed trick because of the long URL. Anyway you can't go wrong with this app. This is one app I am happy with and clearly it is worth supporting.
#30 Only A Few Requests
I specifically registered here to provide feedback. I’ve never seen an app developer be so active on a forum to make their product so accessible with VoiceOver. I’m making the transition from Feeddler RSS. My requests for improvement are not a deal breaker but would make it move from a great app to a perfect one.
1. Please consider moving the Mark All As Read button from the Actions Menu to the main screen.
2. Please consider prepopulating the e-mail address field in the E-mail Article component. I may be the only weirdo who does this, but I used Feeddler to send myself copies of good articles to my PC. Of course, one does not have to prepopulate the field with one’s own address, but it’d be nice if that could be an added convenience.
3. Please consider making it possible to make changes to all feeds globally as opposed to individual feeds. I’m going to double check this point. I must surely be missing something, but if not, it’d make it a lot easier to make tweaks across the board.
4. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, but despite my leaving the box checked to remember my login, I still get the login screen. Earlier I simiply hit Cancel, and things went on as normal. That said, I have not refreshed, but I’m hoping I do not have to constantly sign into Google to use the app.
Otherwise, I’m very satisfied. I purchased it last night. I’m going to give it a positive rating in iTunes, and I encourage anyone else interested in a solid RSS reader to give this one a try. At $.99, it’s a bargain.
#31 Hi Joe, I'm glad you're
Hi Joe,
I'm glad you're liking ezFeeds. (; Here's some feedback for your requests:
1. I've toyed with doing this - however with the "next unread" button there is very little room to put this button there. I understand, however that for VoiceOver users this is not really a concern so I'll give it some more thought.
2. Typically, I'd just star an article and then it'll be waiting for me on my desktop (I have a woefully unfinished version of ezfeeds for OS X that I use). However, this sounds fairly easy to implement and will go on my to-do list.
3. You can make changes to the Mobilizer, Open Articles In, and Auto-fit images settings globally in the Settings.app. If you choose "Global Setting" on the feed level, it will use those global settings.
4. This has been reported by a few people, and I'm checking into it. It happens when getting an authentication token, for some reason google is returning a failed status when in fact it did not fail..
#32 An addition to a great app?
Hello, one addition to an otherwise great app might be the ability for push notifications. I have not seen this feature on any of these kind of applications what so ever. Maybe an option to have the application refresh ones unread feeds say like every three hours, or something like that, and provide a push notification once this has been accomplished on the badge app icon with the number of unread articals available would be nice....at least I think it would be. Thank you for all you have done.