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Apps Killer App alert! RSSWatch -- full-featured RSS Reader on your Wrist

sjinsjca

sjinsjca

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
2,239
557
OMG this is a killer app! It so deserves its own thread.

RSSWatch is nothing less than a complete and awesome RSS reader for the Apple Watch.

You set it up on your iPhone, et voila: you have a fully-featured, full-text-with-graphics RSS reader on your wrist. None of that limited-to-five-articles annoyance that you get from the major news organizations. None of that “go to read on your iPhone” horsepucky. None of that. All the text in the RSS feed and even the illustrations pop right up, and then you can scroll with finger or by twirling the crown.

Example screen shot:

IMG_0082.PNG



A killer app for the news junkie, for less than a buck (for a while!)

Bliss.
 
Real RSS junkies have too many feeds to make this viable. Those with fewer have left it behind.
 
jabingla2810 said:
Needs to sync to Feedly. I don't want to set up all my feeds again.
Click to expand...

Seamaster said:
Real RSS junkies have too many feeds to make this viable. Those with fewer have left it behind.
Click to expand...

Even a "real" RSS junkie like me has some feeds that are more wrist-worthy than others... as in, higher priority, faster-breaking.

I have Feedly for those times when I can sit down and go through all my feeds. And now I have RSSWatch for quick updates on topics of most importance or highest urgency.
 
sjinsjca said:
Even a "real" RSS junkie like me has some feeds that are more wrist-worthy than others... as in, higher priority, faster-breaking.

I have Feedly for those times when I can sit down and go through all my feeds. And now I have RSSWatch for quick updates on topics of most importance or highest urgency.
Click to expand...

But what you've marked as read on your watch won't sync back to your other apps.

Doesn't make much sense to manage a separate RSS app to me.
 
Thank You
Since I don't normally use rss feeds, I took your advice and purchased and now settings up.

I will receive my watch tomorrow or the next day.
In the mean time what RSS feeds do you all have? Recommendations please?
Thank You all!
 
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jabingla2810 said:
But what you've marked as read on your watch won't sync back to your other apps.
Click to expand...

True if you want an RSS service that spans computers, tablets, phones and watches. But you can use RSSWatch on your iPhone and iPad as your RSS reader...

jabingla2810 said:
Doesn't make much sense to manage a separate RSS app to me.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are folks who find it silly that some folks are doing emails on a phone too.

As in all things, it depends on your use case. If there are feeds you want to be sure to see as soon as possible and without pulling your phone out all the time, this is a godsend and, yes, a killer app.

For me, the convenience and immediacy of having some select feeds available on my wrist when on-the-go trumps the minor matter of seeing headlines I've already seen when I eventually return to Feedly on my big machine.
 
dfran1 said:
Thank You
Since I don't normally use rss feeds, I took your advice and purchased and now settings up.

I will receive my watch tomorrow or the next day.
In the mean time what RSS feeds do you all have? Recommendations please?
Thank You all!
Click to expand...

Congratulations on your new Watch! Hope you enjoy it as much as I have. For me, it's a significant a time-saver and very enjoyable, as I constantly use it to control Downcast (I'm a podcast addict, especially when commuting or on planes, and when falling asleep at night) and rely on it heavily for notifications and messaging, and for navigation. Oh, and my family maintains a shopping list stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet, and whenever I go shopping I'll just take a quick snapshot of it with my phone, favorite it... et voila, my shopping list is on my wrist so I can't lose it! Brilliant. And Apple Pay, oh my.

As to RSSWatch, answering your question depends on what you tend to keep an eye out for. For me, technical and news topics are most important. Deep reading is surely better performed on another device-- this is just for keeping abreast of things and is a totally new and different use case. So currently my RSSWatch feeds include:

o news.ycombinator.com (Hacker News)
o Slashdot (http://rss.slashdot.org/slashdot/slashdotMain?format=xml)
o MacRumors of course!
o newscientist.com
o deepstuff.org

I also have a few news, financial and political sites that I keep an eye on, but those are very much a personal preference and I'd expect most other folks' will differ. Otherwise, the first four in the list above are the ones I check most often when I'm on the go. I have many, many more feeds in my Feedly list for more relaxed review.

But RSSWatch is for quick checks, so you should keep your list concise. The longer the list--and the higher-volume the feeds--the longer it will take RSSWatch to update, and this is all about keeping abreast when on the go. I may be trimming or modifying my list in a few days after using this nifty app for a while.

Enjoy!

Oh, and by the way, Feedly has a Watch app too, which would promise to address jabingla2810's sync concerns. But it's bogged down by the sheer size of my main RSS list, shows only a few items from each feed, and currently has some bugs.
 
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jabingla2810 said:
But what you've marked as read on your watch won't sync back to your other apps.

Doesn't make much sense to manage a separate RSS app to me.
Click to expand...

Actually the Feedly support is ready and now I'm just waiting for Feedly devs to give me access to their production API.
 
mk833 said:
Actually the Feedly support is ready and now I'm just waiting for Feedly devs to give me access to their production API.
Click to expand...
That sounds fantastic!

How often does the complication update?

How have you found the Watch Development kit?

Is it possible to send articles to the safari reading list for example?
 
jabingla2810 said:
That sounds fantastic!

How often does the complication update?

How have you found the Watch Development kit?

Is it possible to send articles to the safari reading list for example?
Click to expand...

Minimum complication update interval is 30 minutes due to limitations of watch os.
Right now there is not possible to add article to reading list but I plan to add similar feature.
 
I wish Apple would add previous/next functionality to these complications so you don't have to stare at the same headline. Let a user toggle through headlines on the watch face and then touch the ones they want to actually read.
 
Armen said:
I wish Apple would add previous/next functionality to these complications so you don't have to stare at the same headline. Let a user toggle through headlines on the watch face and then touch the ones they want to actually read.
Click to expand...
I don't know if I understand you correctly but actually you can use "time travel" feature (using Digital Crown) to scroll through RSSWatch complication headlines.
 
mk833 said:
Could you describe exactly what kind of problem do you have?
Click to expand...
Sorted it now, thanks.

Does the complication update itself?

It only seems to update for me when I open the app. I assume this is a Watch limitation to reduce background processes?
 
mk833 said:
I don't know if I understand you correctly but actually you can use "time travel" feature (using Digital Crown) to scroll through RSSWatch complication headlines.
Click to expand...

No, I was thinking previous and next arrows to the left and right of the complication.
 
mk833 said:
I don't know if I understand you correctly but actually you can use "time travel" feature (using Digital Crown) to scroll through RSSWatch complication headlines.
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool!
 
jabingla2810 said:
Sorted it now, thanks.

Does the complication update itself?

It only seems to update for me when I open the app. I assume this is a Watch limitation to reduce background processes?
Click to expand...

Complication should be updated automatically every 30 min but it requires Background App Refresh to be enabled on the iPhone.
 
Yptcn said:
Same for me ! 3 RSS feeds with MacRumors and not a single update . Background Refresh is on...
Click to expand...

Hm. Works pretty well for me. Maybe it's the feeds... I never did get Daring Fireball's RSS to update, but others (including MacRumors) generally work without issue.

Well, the developer is a participant in this thread, maybe he'll have some thoughts.
 
Farsider said:
Newsify (which already syncs with Feedly) has had an Apple Watch app out for months.

How is this any different?
Click to expand...

Hm, guess it's not. I actually have Newsify and somehow its Watch app never registered on my radar.

Which goes to a deep and far-reaching issue: Apple seriously needs to make it easier for folks to find Watch apps. A little badge on an app's iTunes page just doesn't do the job.


UPDATE: I reinstalled Newsify and have been playing with the Watch app. Very nice, but it doesn't seem to offer a complication as RSSWatch does.
 
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