I don't know, but it just seems like RSS is so under-rated. It certainly takes a backseat to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Alltop, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and so many other online services that bask in the glory of media attention and daily mention basically everywhere. Some even declare that RSS is dying, soon to be replaced by Twitter (or whomever else.)
So whatever happened to the good old RSS feed? Truth be told, there are way too many clients available, how in the world do you pick one? It might seem like a lot to manage and keep with, as well as syncing across multiple PC's. I think this is why many people have ditched favorite services such as Google Reader for organized browser bookmarks instead.
That just won't cut it for me. I want access to all of my news in one convenient spot so I don't have to navigate to individual sites just to see if it's something I want to read or not. I like being able to quickly scroll through headlines, mark favorites, send things to Instapaper if I don't have time to read them right away, and navigate to only those full websites I'm interested in.
I've been using Google Reader for the main fact that it runs on any platform, has a great iPhone client, and will effectively "sync" on any machine, given that your read/unread status is stored in Google's magical servers. Yeah, it can be slow (especially if you have lots of friends on the service) but I don't, so it's not slow for me.
However, the MobileRSS reader for iPhone, an app downloadable from the App Store, takes mobile RSS reading to a whole new level.
This nifty little program syncs directly with Google Reader. Read a feed on your device, and it instantly syncs with Google and updates your status. You can organize feeds by folders and your Google folder structure is ported intact.
Navigating through individual feeds is fast, pleasurable, and straightforward. None of the horrible slowdown problems that plague the NetNewsWire iPhone client can be found here, at least not in my experience.
Images embedded into RSS feeds are displayed clearly and integrated into the post, something I found Google Reader's iPhone client didn't do as well or as seamlessly.
It has a decent integrated browser, allowing you to read full original posts.
Another feature of this RSS reader that I absolutely love is the integration of 3rd party services, namely Instapaper and Twitter. You can easily tweet the article that you're reading or send it to Instapaper with just a tap.
I can't really think of any significant downsides to this app, other than that it's bound to slow down the more feeds and articles therein that you throw at it. To give you an example, I subscribe to about 150+ feeds organized into folders and there was no crippling slowdown; although scrolling wasn't liquid smooth per se, it was just fine for me. It's really the best RSS reader I've found for the iPhone (second only to Google's web app.)
My conclusion is that if you're one of the people still devoted to and using RSS on a daily basis (and have an iPhone) you definitely need to check this out. It's available at the App Store for what I hear is a regular price of $4.99 - and as of today it's on sale for $2.99. Worth every penny.
