Download ReadAIR: Google Reader on Your Desktop
ADVERTISEMENTSIf you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Adobe AIR apps. They’re quite cool that I’ve found myself using twhirl, etc. very often.
Today, DailyApps pointed to a new application called ReadAIR that runs on Adobe AIR and puts Google Reader on your desktop.
The advantages:
- You can access Google Reader like any other desktop application - just click on the icon, and launch it as a window of a desktop app.
- The aesthetics - There are no skins available for Google reader at the moment, so why not go read your feeds from a refreshing interface?
The first thing you’ll notice is ReadAIR’s pleasing UI that mimics a Mac OS X application. Additional themes are coming soon.
Don’t worry about losing the socializing features of Google Reader - ReadAIR provides access to your friends’s shared items (something I really love in Google Reader).
You can add, remove tags from the ReadAIR app itself.
You won’t miss anything except the keyboard shortcuts and offline access via Google Gears. Don’t worry, these features are coming soon, according to the developer.
Did you try ReadAIR? Tell us in the comments!
May 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Well, I’m going to it NOW. I’ve been waiting for something like this - Gears in Firefox just didn’t cut it.
The theme looks sweet, though I hope there is atleast some shortcuts (space, n, p, shift+S).
May 14th, 2008 at 10:03 am
There are actually skins available for Google Reader for Firefox users with the Stylish extension installed. It might also be available for Opera, I’m not sure, but it’s like the Greasemonkey of custom styling sites with CSS. There’s a repository of styles at userstyles.org ready to use with the extension too. Even still, looks like a cool app.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:05 am
PS: You’ve linked to “…#more-1064″ in that link to dailyapps.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am
@Sumesh: No, even those shortcuts didn’t work when I tried. And about the link - thanks, I’ve fixed it now.
@Blake: Yep, I’m aware of those. I was only talking about the lack of official skins for Google Reader
May 14th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I tried and it can’t connect.
I guess this is still a bit too alpha.
I’ll follow it because it looks really interesting.
I hope the developer can dedicate some time to make it more stable because it has lots of potential. Probably the first really interesting AIR app I’ve seen.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
What about Firefox 3 + Prism, or standalone Prism ? For me, it’s the perfect solution : 100% of Google’s features, improve in second when Google add a new killer feature, lightweight and so on …
May 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I’ve tried Prism and it sometimes sucks in terms of reliability. Not to say ReadAir is perfect, but atleast it is a beta application and we should give it time until a final release.
I’ve stopped using ReadAir - can’t live without shorcuts and various other tidbits. However, I will be checking its progress often. Just make sure you have a post/review when it is out of beta, Shankar
May 15th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I would still prefer the online version as compared to this desktop app. Also, Google Reader works with Google Gears, so you can read everything while you’re offline anyway!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Tried it, but i think the power of google reader is the smooth scrolling of the articles in a RSS feed, in this app you have to select the article you want to read, just like in all other RSS readers…i’ll stick with the online version for now.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:08 am
haven’t been using it,Will try it out.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I personally recommend using Prism with Google Reader. You get the native interface, which works best in my opinion, yet it still works much like a desktop application. It may not be for everyone, but to me this is reinventing the wheel.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
@Tonino: The developer is working on the app, I’m sure you’ll have a better experience with it some other time in the near future
@Sumesh: Sure, I’ll buzz you when it gets better.
@Aseem: You might want to try it when this app starts supporting Google Gears
@Tjeerdo: Well, you can expect such smooth scrolling in the next version. Probably they’re working on it.
@Ashwin: Do try it.
@Jake, Benoitb: Interesting suggestions, but this adobe AIR application has a lot more capabilities. I believe it could come up with some *exclusive features* that Google Reader might lack - Prism, possibly, isn’t capable of at this moment - it’s just bare.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am
[...] mentioned before, you can access Google Reader from your desktop using this Adobe AIR application. ReadAIR’s [...]