Feedly for Android– RSS Reader that Rocks…

Mmmm RSS feeds.. who doesn’t love the ability to subscribe to feeds from various websites and being able to read through the articles at ones leisure.

Now, when I had my iPad as my primary tablet, I used Flipboard ALL the time. It was amazing and one of the premiere products out there that supported subscribing to various topics as well as twitter accounts. That was one of the major reasons why I bought the iPad funnily enough. It looked so damn cool going through my Facebook and Twitter listings like a magazine.

Come forward to the Asus Transformer, there was no Flipboard, and I almost panicked when I found there would be no android version of this application.

The major difference between Feedly and Flipboard is that Feedly is a RSS Reader that integrates seamlessly with your Google Reader subscriptions. Flipboard on the other hand does funky stuff with your twitter and Facebook feeds.

Anyway, enough about Flipboard.. all about Feedly from here.

Feedly is first and foremost a news aggregator based on RSS feeds. Its optimised for Honeycomb and while it comes pre-configured with lots of fantastic content, its even better when personalised with Google Reader integration. Presenting your RSS feeds in a clean magazine like format, Feedly looks and behaves beautifully. Feedly comes with customised layouts for different types of devices (including mobile, tablet and web) and looks great in landscape more on my Transformer.

The developers have taken the user experience seriously and designed the interface to be intuitive and familiar. The panels transition to and from the background seamlessly with very little lag, and the rendering engine that sets up and displays the content is almost on par with Flipboard.

Integration with products such as Instapaper and Read It Later is excellent as well as the ability to discover and add additional feeds directly from within the application.

While Feedly is available on both Chrome and Firefox, I’ve never really used the PC equivalent. Frankly, it was easier to subscribe to the RSS feeds I needed via Outlook than to go through Feedly. However, on the tablet, this application has made reading the RSS feeds a new experience and one that comes with my highest recommendations.

Combined with the fact that its free from the Android and Amazon market, its one of those applications that can only get better with time.

Bring on Twitter and Facebook integration, and I’m happy to leave the iPad to the wife!

You can get Feedly for Android here:

• Amazon Market Link (US Only)
• Google Market Link

Ooh! Peggle for Android just released and free today from the Amazon AppStore!

Yes.. finally, one of the classics from PopCap Games is out for the Android, and free for the next 24 hours!

I’ve played this game on the PC and IPhone before and the android version looks good! Hurry and get your free copy below. Otherwise, its still a cheap deal at just shy of three dollars after today.

Peggle (WiFi Download Only)

Swype 3.0 Beta released for Android

Good news! One of the premier keyboards for Android just hit version 3.0. The beta version just got released and is available from the Swype website.
This version comes with major new features including:

• Tap Correction – allows the user to go from “swyping” and back easily.
• The pop up word choices window has now been replaced (finally!) with a much more user friendly horizontal list above the keyboard.
• Its now Honeycomb friendly, with a version specifically for WXGA screens.

As this is Beta software, you need to install it from their website directly (complete details are at http://beta.swype.com/), and bear in mind the warnings on the website before you proceed to install beta software on your device

Google Adds Device Compatibility on its Android Market

This was a pleasant surprise for me for sure. In addition to allowing users to remotely deploy applications directly from the website, Google has now included functionality to do a device compatibility check against registered devices.

I have an Asus Transformer Tablet in addition to my Samsung Galaxy phone registered and going into any application, you can now see which device the application will work on.

The market shows all applications regardless of device compatibility, so usually the only time you used to know if an application will work would be when you try and install it. Now, this message would save the users some time as well as looking very cool indeed!

Samsung Galaxy I9000 Replaced My iPhone

After owning an iPhone for over a year, I’ve finally decided to replace it with a new phone. I had a choice between an iPhone 4 or an Android based device. Having an iPad helped in the decision to not purchase yet another Apple device. I wanted something different to play with.

Transitioning from the iPhone to the Android device was hard actually. I found out that to get the best out of your device, you need to know a LOT of things :). Everyday users will most likely use the phone as a phone and not much more. For myself, the actual phone functionality is secondary.

Only a few years ago, the first thing one does when they get a new phone is to set up the ringtones, messaging etc. The first thing I did when i got the new Samsung was to “root” (jailbreak for iphoners) the phone and set up my email and work apps. I didn’t even realise that the time on the phone was all wrong until the next day.

If you look at my current home screen attached, the phone icon isn’t even on the main screen.

The Samsung is not perfect, but I’m growing to like it a lot. Wifi tethering out of the box, the level of customisation as well as the ease of developing widgets/apps for it is something I’m looking forward to exploring for the rest of the year.

After finally setting up my homescreen just the way i like it, now am looking forward to putting the latest version of Android OS on it (2.2) – it should be out (via legitimate means) in the next day or so.