Mr. Reader Challenges Reeder App With Huge Update

One of the more recent Google Reader apps for the iPad has received its first significant update. Mr. Reader by Oliver Fürniß includes new features, improvements, and a few bug fixes too as it transitions to Version 1.1. Mr. Reader has always been a worthy competitor to Reeder, which is arguably the best Google Reader for Apple’s tablet. However, with its latest update, Mr. Reader is well positioned to take the No. 1 spot. Added flexibility is a big part of the update. Readers now have a choice of reading articles using Readability, or opening them in the Atomic Web Browser, iCab Mobile, or Mercury. Articles may also be sent to Diigo. Reading articles via Safari Mobile remains the default browser selection. In addition, tasks may be created in either the Things or OmniFocus for iPad app. Other additions include:

Mark items as read older than 1,2,3-days or 1,2-weeks by using tap and hold on the 'Mark All As Read'-button

Mark items as read above or below the current position in the articles table by using tap and hold on the blue 'read/unread'-button

Pinch gesture to close the article view

Save images to camera roll by tap and hold on image

Pull up and down to navigate to the previous and next item in article view

Mr. Reader also includes a long list of improvements. These include a new setting to enable multiline titles in the article table, plus improved font adjustments. Other improvements include:

New Instapaper and Read It Later option to send articles without showing the details dialog

Replaced the activity indicator in the article view toolbar by the system activity indicator

Showing the web navigation buttons (article view) only when we can go back or forward in history

Change the font size of the Mobilizer and Readability article view with the font size picker introduced in v1.0.1

Clickable title added to open the original webpage when sending a article by mail

Larger mail composer dialog

Moved the URL shortener settings to the Twitter configuration pane

Service configuration splitted and made much clearer (Settings)

Theme selection with preview images

Keeps the last search term when searching for feeds

Increased the touch area of the previous and next buttons (article view)

Shifts the article list automatically to right when using 'Mark all as read' in portrait mode

Highlighting of folders, feeds, ... with unread items

Set a default recipient Email address when using the mail services (new mail setting)

Select a sound that gets played during paging in the article view (optional)

"What's New?" added to the support area

Some performance improvements

Finally, fixes include:

No content shown when tapping the previous and next navigation buttons very fast in the article view

Layouting problems after watching a video in fullscreen and rotating the iPad

Inconsistency when using invalid folder, feed and tag names

Mr. Reader has always been a thorough and easy-to-customize Google Reader app. Its latest update makes it better than ever. For more information on Mr. Reader, please read our initial review published last month. Mr. Reader is available in the App Store for $2.99. The update is available for free for current users. What do you think? Leave your comments below.