Reeder and Mr. Reader - RSS Newsreader Apps for the iPad Review

If you do read a lot of news, then I am sure you would have heard of RSS newsfeeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is essentially a news aggregator. The feeds are read by software called RSS readers and is available pretty much in all forms desktop or mobile applications. Today I am going to look at Reeder and Mr. Reader apps for the iPad and see how they fare.

I have been a big fan of mobile newsreaders and when the iPad first came out I bought pretty much everything out there to find the best one I can settle on. Sure there were many reviews but I wanted to try them out first hand to see which one I was comfortable with. There are number of RSS newsreaders in the App store. So much that it can be quite daunting and confusing. There are also some beautiful visual RSS newsreaders notably Pulse and Flipboard. However I prefer the more traditional RSS readers that are not too visual as there are many feeds I use that have very little pictures.

The best way to subscribe to RSS feeds is by using Google Reader as it keeps all your feeds in sync and you can maintain all your subscriptions in one place.  Following is just a brief write up.

Hands On

Both these apps have good GUI's and very pleasant to look at. They both have some good functionality and pretty close when it comes to features, Reeder has been around for a long time and is pretty well established and is a very stable product. Mr. Reader on the other hand is the new kid on the block and because of this suffers from a few things that will take a release or 2 to fix. The developer is quite responsive and open to suggestions. So I think it has the potential to be one of the best out there.

Settings: Both apps come with a wide range of settings for things like Instapaper, Read It Later, Twitter, Facebook, Mail link, Mail article, Zootool etc. I prefer the settings menu in Mr. Reader as its is within the app whereas Reeder has the settings in the settings menu of the iPad. So you have to close the program to get to the setting. Edge: Mr. Reader

Adding Feeds: Reeder requires a Google Reader account in order to use the app. With Mr. Reader you can enter your own feed or use the Google Reader account. Edge: Mr. Reader

Syncing: Reeder syncs very fast and it does it seamlessly. It is one of the fastest readers when it comes to syncing and fetching feeds. Mr. Reader on the other hand does need a bit of work. Even with their latest updates it is still quite slow and they will need to improve quite a bit to catch up with Reeder in this regard. Edge: Reeder

Layout: Both apps have great layouts but Reeder has a bit more real estate when it comes to reading the actual news. The one thing I dislike about Mr. Reeder is when you click on a news you can't view anything else as it opens up a separate page with what you clicked. Edge: Reeder

Readability: Both these apps have Readability. What is Readability? Readability is a web & mobile app that zaps online clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view. This functionality is actually very useful for an RSS Reader and is my favorite go to and use it all the time. One good thing I like about the Reeder is that I can open pinch and it opens readability. in Mr. Reader I have to click on the readability button. Edge: Reeder

Value: Reeder comes in at US$4.99 and Mr. Reader at US$3.99.  Edge: Mr. Reader

Overall Winner: Reeder

Conclusion

I find Reeder overall a much better experience and is also a faster snappier app than Mr. Reader. It fetches newsfeeds very quickly and if you have a lot of newsfeeds like I do then it comes in handy. Mr. Reader is also a good newsreader, however it is still at least a couple of releases away from it being a great newsreader app. In my opinion these are the two best newsreaders in the App store. Two other notable newsreaders I would like to give special mention to is River of News and NewsRack. They are also very good and able readers. If you are more into a visual experience, I suggest you check out Pulse or Flipboard. My favorite newsreader app is Reeder and I highly recommend it. I also use it on my MacPro desktop computer.

Mr. Reader for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Reeder for iPad on the iTunes App Store

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