Review : NewsRack for the iPad

I love news.  Not just your typical CNN/MSNBC/FOX type news, but news about the things I enjoy; Technology, Music, TV, Movies, etc.  I’ve used RSS feeds for my favroite sites for a while now and with additons to Google Reader it’s become increasingly easier to follow the updates and stories I enjoy.  I knew when the iPad was introduced that it would be a tool I wanted to use for reading and following all these feeds, but when it arrived I was surpised (Guess I shouldn’t have been) to find that Google Reader looked and acted like garbage on it.  So while I waited for Google to get on the ball and make Reader more accessible via iPad’s touch screen (assuming they ever do) I needed an RSS reader for my fix!  I tried various RSS/News apps, some good, some bad, and some awful.  Finally I found NewsRack, and ended up loving it.
It’s simple, syncs with Google Reader, doesn’t crash all the time, lets you view links from feeds IN the app, and is well worth the $4.99!  You can send articles/links to an email address, Instapaper, Twitter, Facebook, and others sources. Users can also setup their preferences to allow for a varying number of articles to download, with or without images, for OFFLINE viewing.  Which is nice for those of us that couldn’t take the wait for the 3G version of iPad and would like to read on-the-go.  NewsRack works in both landscape and portrait orientations, and when you buy for the iPad you also receive the iPhone version as well.  I’ve read a few posts from others claiming that NewsRack doesn’t sync well with Google Reader or leaves things unread or mistakingly marks them as read, and other issues.  I have yet to experience these problems and have been using this app for almost the entire month since iPad’s release.  My guess is that these individuals are not letting the sync take place.  It shows at the bottom of the screen “marking items as read” and when it’s done, it disappears…perhaps the people with the sync problems are not allowing this to complete (it only takes a second or two when marking a large quantity of items as read) and because of it their sync is thrown off.

Does this mean I think this app is perfect?  Of course not.  It’s missing the “Shared Items” and “People You Follow” sections of Google Reader and there isn’t the ability to comment on items either.  You CAN star or share items just like in Google Reader, but you can not view YOUR shared items OR the shared items from those you follow.  I hope this is an update that can be made very soon.  I also have a problem with the location of the up and down arrows for moving from article to article in a feed.  If you click on a feed that has perhaps 10 unread items and you view the first one, and want to move to the second…there are two arrows at the top that indicate the number of read items above and/or below your current item.  The problem with these arrows is they are located at the TOP of the screen.  One has to reach above the screen to tap “next” essentially.  It would make more sense to put these on the bottom or side (so that a viewers arm is not obscuring the screen if moving from article to article quickly).

In the end NewsRack is a well put together app, it isn’t ‘flashy”, but does the job it’s needed to do.  I recommend it for anyone wanting to read RSS feeds and wanting to sync with their Google Reader Account.