The next update for feed7, version 3.2, is now available on
Marketplace. It is mainly an update targeted on fixing and
improving things, but there are also a couple of new features in
it. Here are the details:
Improved FavIcons
For every feed that offers one, feed7 shows it's FavIcon. feed7
was, for a long time, the only feed reader on Windows Phone that
offered this feature - but it's an important one. It makes
distinction of different feeds much easier.
In version 3.2 we have improved this feature a lot. Many feeds
(sites) today offer already higher res FavIcons than only 16x16
pixels and most of them use transparency for the background.
Both is now supported by feed7 and this makes FavIcons for many
sites much more beautiful and better recognizable.
Here is a comparison of the new (left) and old (right) FavIcons.
You can click on the images to see them in a higher resolution:
feed7 now also checks frequently for updates on FavIcons so you
always see the latest and greatest icons of your favorite sites. Be
aware that this is only done when you are using a Wi-Fi connection,
not over GSM networks to save bandwidth.
If you are upgrading from earlier versions, give feed7 a couple
of syncs (over Wi-Fi) before all icons get updated with the newer
versions. It's very likely you'll see upscaled older icons for a
couple of app runs.
Feed list backups
A common issue for users that do not use Google Reader is
backing up their feed list so they don't have to manually add all
feeds again if they have to reinstall feed7 for some reason or
switch to a new phone where they have to freshly install feed7.
In sync settings, you now find a switch to enable automatic feed
list backups. The service is called "MyOpml" and is run on feed7
servers. OPML is a popular file format for exchanging feed lists.
The OPML files that are generated by this backup can be accessed
also by other applications than feed7.
If you re-install feed7 it will find backups automatically and
asks you if you want to restore the backed up feed list.
This feature will be explained in more detail in a separate
post.
Improved OPML support
Because of lack of time, OPML support was temporary unavailable
since feed7 3.0 release. Now it's back and even better: it now also
supports importing folders that are defined in your OPML files.
Just enter the address where feed7 can find your OPML file in the
"add feed" screen and feed7 will recognize your OPML file
automatically and import it with all top-level folders.
As with feed list backups, this feature is only available for
users that sync with individual feeds ("web sync") aka users that
not sync with Google Reader.
Support for native Twitter URL shortening
When sharing articles over Twitter, feed7 now supports Twitter's
native URL shortening and the shortened URLs are correctly counted
in the new "chars left" counter.
Rating & Trial reminders
feed7 really needs more ratings on Marketplace so it will now
remind users to do this every 14 days. Of course, these reminders
can be permanently disabled.
Also, trial users will now be reminded to purchase the app if
they like it after 30 days. These messages will appear every 5 days
and, in this case, cannot be disabled.
Improved Google Reader sync speed
We already had a few features exclusively for web sync users -
now something nice for Google Reader users: sync speed was again
improved by decreasing the pre-feed-sync tasks. Unread tags are now
downloaded and processed during sync of each individual feed
instead of in front of the whole sync process and when
subscriptions have not changed (which will be the case in 90 % of
your syncs at least), the process of syncing subscriptions and
folders is now much, much faster.
This and other speed improvements will result in a lot fewer
pre-processing so the first new items will come in much faster now
and you can start reading earlier - and also the overall sync
process is now finished even faster. Expect even more improvements
here coming soon.
Other fixes & improvements:
- Fix: OAuth for Twitter and Facebook sometimes failed because of
encoding problems
- Fix: Possible app crashes in low network coverage areas (not
when there is no coverage at all)
- Fix: Multiple error messages displayed on sync errors
- Fix: Delete and Mark All Read is mixed up in checkboxmode for
folders and feeds
- Fix: Bookmark-Tags missing in folder view
- Fix: Wrong description for search AppBar icons in unread and
starred view
- Fix: Local changed read/starred tags can be overridden during
sync
- Fix: Localization for "Folders" and "Feeds" group headers in
main view missing
- Fix: AppBar Color not changed when alternate AppBars are
used