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Recommend me a good app to follow blogs news and websites and podcast app

A

applelover4u

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
336
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I'm looking for a good app something like a rss feeder that allows me from with the app to follow news , news websites, blogs, websites and etc all within the app so I don't have to go to each website separately everyday


Also looking for a good podcast app
 
I use Feedly with RSS to follow news sites and blogs. Works well and they have a free iOS app that syncs with the web service.

I was a longtime user of the podcast app Downcast, but recently switched to Pocket Casts and I've been happy with it.
 
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I love and use:

RSS Feeds for News (each app has it's own advantages and some have offline feature):
* Heartfeed (free, 2.99 dollar/euro in-app full version) - the look and feel are like the former Pulse News app and has a few fans in this topic.
* Feedly (free)
* Newsify (free, in-app features to remove ads among other features, has offline feature as well) I'm not using Premium but did pay 2.99 dollar/euro once to get the ads removed.

Podcasts:
Downcast (2.99 dollar once, in-app are there but not needed it's just tips for the developers)
I have also tried others like Overcast (free, 9.99 full version) and PocketCasts (3.99 dollar) but always got back to Downcast because of the great settings such as a smart offline podcasts lists that get's automatically updated and only shows my offline podcasts and when I listened to one it gets removed automatically from the list/app.
 
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applelover4u said:
what does reader do vs feedly? isnt it the same thing?
Click to expand...

I prefer to plug the Feedly account into Reeder so you can put your rss feed on any other device & sync it. It's also easier to move to another rss reader if the one you're using stops being update with new OS releases.
 
AndyK said:
I prefer to plug the Feedly account into Reeder so you can put your rss feed on any other device & sync it. It's also easier to move to another rss reader if the one you're using stops being update with new OS releases.
Click to expand...

Feedly has a feature where you can have it automatically export an OPML file to your Dropbox account whenever you make changes to the RSS feeds. So if Feedly ever goes away, you would import that OPML file to another reader or service and be back in business pretty quickly.

It has been a while since I set this up, but it is somewhere in the Feedly settings on their web site.

Screen Shot 2017-05-12 at 6.32.12 AM.png
 
Realistically though Feedly isn't going anywhere but rss apps come and go all the time. Reeder hardly gets any innovation / updates and the developer hardly responds so it's more likely you'll be fishing for an app than a service over time.
 
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AndyK said:
Realistically though Feedly isn't going anywhere but rss apps come and go all the time. Reeder hardly gets any innovation / updates and the developer hardly responds so it's more likely you'll be fishing for an app than a service over time.
Click to expand...
You are probably right about Feedly, but I still like having my own local backup just in case.

Yeah that Reeder dev. is kind of a jerk. I've settled on ReadKit for desktop a RSS app.
 
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Weaselboy said:
You are probably right about Feedly, but I still like having my own local backup just in case.

Yeah that Reeder dev. is kind of a jerk. I've settled on ReadKit for desktop a RSS app.
Click to expand...

So readkit is like reeder basically?
 
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Weaselboy said:
Feedly has a feature where you can have it automatically export an OPML file to your Dropbox account whenever you make changes to the RSS feeds. So if Feedly ever goes away, you would import that OPML file to another reader or service and be back in business pretty quickly.

It has been a while since I set this up, but it is somewhere in the Feedly settings on their web site.

View attachment 699455
Click to expand...


Not sure if it's always been that way... but now it requires a paid "pro" account:
Screen Shot 2017-05-12 at 3.21.30 PM.png

Also, the Reeder app itself allows you to export your feeds ... (Subscriptions > Export to OPML...)
 
Well if I have Newsify on my phone do i need Feedly as well? Seems like if I have newsify then I don't need feedly even on my Mac at home???

Isn't newsify the same as feedly?
 
dwfaust said:
Not sure if it's always been that way... but now it requires a paid "pro" account:
Click to expand...

Probably has... I have always had the pro account.

applelover4u said:
Well if I have Newsify on my phone do i need Feedly as well? Seems like if I have newsify then I don't need feedly even on my Mac at home???

Isn't newsify the same as feedly?
Click to expand...

Newsify, Reeder, and Readkit are all apps that use the Feedly service to sync RSS feeds. Feedly also makes its own iOS RSS app that uses the service. Or on the desktop you can just use your browser to read RSS on Feedly.com.
 
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I used to use Downcast but it hasn't been update for a while now. Last update was August of last year.
 
rijc99 said:
I used to use Downcast but it hasn't been update for a while now. Last update was August of last year.
Click to expand...

Why stop using DownCast because it hasn't been updated for a while? It still works smoothly on my end on various iOS devices with latest iOS versions.
 
pacorob said:
Why stop using DownCast because it hasn't been updated for a while? It still works smoothly on my end on various iOS devices with latest iOS versions.
Click to expand...

The watch component wasn't working correctly and the app was crashing on me when used in my car causing my phone to default back to playing a song through the music app instead of Downcast.
 
rijc99 said:
The watch component wasn't working correctly and the app was crashing on me when used in my car causing my phone to default back to playing a song through the music app instead of Downcast.
Click to expand...

Aha then I can really understand why you stopped using it. Did you reach out to the developer?
I did reach out to the developer a month or so ago and he promised that he was working on a new version so hopefully you can switch back if the features you were using are then working again.
 
pacorob said:
Aha then I can really understand why you stopped using it. Did you reach out to the developer?
I did reach out to the developer a month or so ago and he promised that he was working on a new version so hopefully you can switch back if the features you were using are then working again.
Click to expand...

Yes, I did... :). Downcast is currently sitting in my MISC app folder in the back page awaiting an update. I hope he comes through as there were features that simply aren't available in the Apple Podcast app.
 
rijc99 said:
Yes, I did... :). Downcast is currently sitting in my MISC app folder in the back page awaiting an update. I hope he comes through as there were features that simply aren't available in the Apple Podcast app.
Click to expand...

I hope for you that the update will arrive this year. The sooner the better.
I also tried a few other podcasts apps such as Pocket Casts, Apple's Podcast app and Overcast but for me the best feature of Downcast is that you can make perfect playlists which are smart so in my case I've created a playlist which automatically adds downloaded podcasts and as soon as I listened to a certain podcast episode then it automatically removes that one.
 
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