Anyone else disappointed with the Google Reader app?

Smokexz

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Aug 30, 2010
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I feel this app is just so slow and not ad expected, anyone else feel this way? Any alternative with notifications?

Sent from my Nexus S
 

terpitude71

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Dec 9, 2009
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its not bad for an initial release. once (if?) it gets updated with notifications and maybe a widget, i think there will be a lot more praise for it.
 

Hardcase

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Dec 3, 2009
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I am a bit disappointed. It is quick, which is good. But also has a lot of bugs. It will double up posts and not let you move through them. The screens do not always automatically refresh. When moving back from an article to the lists, often the list will not be there. "Refresh" does not work to bring it back. I have found that changing a view such as show unread counts or sort options will refresh the list properly.

I like that you can utilize multiple Google accounts. I keep one account for work and one for home and have different feeds on them. Of course, the best feature is the sync with the online. I use FeedDemon on my computer and moving between FeedDemon, online Google Reader and Android Google Reader is simple and clean.

A big disappointment is it is a HUGE memory hog. It can quickly balloon above 15 MB if viewing many feeds. It really should self clear its cache. It is a pain to go into application settings to clear data. Though, since it uses Google accounts, there is no restoring data afterward. Simply select your account and keep reading.
 
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UncleMike

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Apparently I'm a more casual reader than many - I use it to read my feeds *when I get to it*. It seems many people place a much higher priority on their feed reading, and need alerts and widgets.

The biggest thing I miss (when compared to the web browser interface on Android) is the browser would display articles 15 at a time, allowing me to easily read the ones that caught my interest, and mark the remainder of the 15 as read without touching the rest of the articles in the feed. This allowed me to whittle away at my reading list. In the app, the only way to mark something read without affecting the entire feed is to open the article.

I'm not sure, but I think this has an adverse effect on my "recommended" list, as it thinks I'm reading things that I otherwise wouldn't have read.

The only reason I stick with the app is that the web interface routinely misinterprets where I have clicked - selecting the wrong feed to open, or opening a new email instead of marking all items as read. Since I don't have this problem with any other app (or even any other web page), I have always assumed it was an issue with the web interface for reader, but I could be wrong.