While it seems the Japanese don’t really use RSS as their main source of information gathering, RSS is still my #1 choice, replacing oh-so many bookmarks and webapps on my iPhone.
I am not willing to let my Google Reader go, as I use it to share news (like I do on the right column of this blog, even if this RSS was reformatted with Yahoo! Pipes to filter iPhone-only news) and find it the fastest and more convenient use on my Mac.
Using GReader on the iPhone is a snap, and can be done through Safari (the Google App [US iTunes Store link] has a dedicated direct link). However, as many of you riding the train & subway know, cell reception is not always on and leads to some frustrations and “when is the next station”-type of lingering questions.
Here comes Byline [iTunes Store link], by Phantom Fish [link].
This application is just fantastic. Not only it looks like it was done by the Apple bunch, but it’s a snap to use. It pre-fetches and caches your GReader feeds, allowing you to read while on transit, marking items as starred or shared and allowing you to note them, even offline as the app will sync your actions when it online again.
The major drawback is that it cannot filter your feeds yet, meaning you have to read them all in a anti-chronological order, not allowing you to specify one single feed to read. Developpers are looking into that for a future update, though.
Now, I just wish they’d add an email feed-link option and all would be perfect.
I was my very first purchase on the iTunes store, as I’d rather use free apps, but the JPY 1,200 I shelled out were very well spent.
Not convinced yet ? Check their video.
Posted by Paul Papadimitriou 
