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I have been using Google Reader since it was released basicaly. I moved all my feeds from Bloglines to Google Reader and I have loved it ever since. I have gone from 150 or so feeds that I check to 800 then back down to 300 then to 600 and about 2 weeks ago, I got them down to under 100 RSS feeds. I have since added 20-30 more, but I will weed some of those out soon too. Part of the reason for that is that I get more and more news directly from the companies or from Twitter.

Google Reader is an important part of my daily routine. I use it in an interesting way though. I am on/off a desktop or laptop all day. Sometimes I don’t have time to read or link to an article so I check my feeds in Google Reader 10-20 times a day. On my laptop, I always have a Google Reader window up. It’s my home page too. When I browse the feeds, I share articles I want to go back and read later or post on.

All that said, it’s obvious that I need to be able to read my feeds on my phone too. When I first started using the iPhone again, I downloaded the free Google app that has a reader icon inside. The problem is that clicking the icon, it just opens up the browser. That’s ok since the iPhone optimized version online is not bad at all, but I want to be able to a) read offline and b) have a dedicated app. Enter Byline Google reader. I read an article (lost the link) that recommended this program. The article was one that recommended their Top 10 apps for bloggers.

How did it go for me?

Entering the app is no frills, no gimmicks. You are shoved right into your folders (left). The new items show an aggregate of the newest 50 items. The folder list only shows the folder if there is a new item within the site’s feeds under that category. This saves some real estate and I like saving space. When you click on a category it brings up the articles separated by sites. In the screen on the right, you can see the header and then the items in that site’s feed that are unread. If you look at icon to the right of the category title, you can click it and ditch the site list followed by it’s items. Instead, you will get all the items in that category listed newest to oldest. To read an article, just click on it.

After clicking on a story, you get a nice optimized version of that post.  In the upper right, you have up and down arrows where you can stay in this mode and individually scroll through the posts. At the bottom, you have several icons. The “>” icon toggles between the feed view and the web view. You don’t leave the application either. The next icon allows you to mail the link to someone or open in the browser. The star icon allows you to star posts and the “engadget-like” icon is used to share a post. Sharing is important to me. The last icon allows you to add a note about a post.

The screenshot on the left shows the browser view of an item. On the right, I want to show how you can “read” an item without actually opening the item. You can swipe  left to right on the item, it will remove the blue dot. If you do this by mistake, you can go in reverse to bring it back. Good stuff when scanning feeds and a post is on a subject you know you won’t want to read. Reading the item removes it from the app.

Note: The settings for this app is not located within the app. You have to go to your iPhone’s settings and scroll down towards the bottom.

Wrap Up
This app does what I need it to do perfectly. I know $3.99 seems like a high price to pay for interacting with a free service, but the convenience makes it well worth it if you are in Google Reader quite a bit. I wouldn’t recommend it to a very light user. Use the web based version in that case.

Pros:

• Easy to use. Great, simple interface.
• Offline reading. You can set this up in the settings to sync for offline reading. You can save up to 200 items with all the photos too.
• Very fast running app.

Cons:

• $3.99 is not much money honestly, but some might have a problem with that price. According to how apps seem to be priced in the store, it’s a little high for what it does.
• Minor Con, but I would love to see the icons below a story have text below it to tell what it is. They are easily learned, but It would make it easier for a beginner to the app.

This review is part of our 50 app reviews in 50 days series. To check out the others, click here.