Reading RSS or Atom feeds have become almost a routine task of daily web users to remain updated with their choice of topics. There are many desktop and online readers available to accomplish the reading task. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Desktop aggregators are also equipped with a browser. Nowadays, the popular web browsers like Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer also integrate feed reading through multiple techniques like Live Bookmarks, Favorites, or add-ons. It solely depends upon your needs which one of these aggregators suits best.
I personally have utilized many desktop feed aggregators like Feed Demon and News Crawler on Windows, akregator and liferea (Linux), and RSSOwl and BlogBridge (Platform Independent). Besides I have experienced built-in aggregators in Firefox and Opera. None of these aggregators was able to hold me intact. Currently, I use Brief add-on in Firefox and Google Reader to scan feeds. But I have just come across Readefine which brings a newspaper like interface to read articles. It is available both in desktop and web versions.
You can add any RSS/Atom, HTML, or Text File location from Web or Desktop. You have to fill the address of the desired item to be viewed and choose the type of item. It is also possible read any text in newspaper format by simply pasting the text in “VIA-COPY-AND-PASTE” tab.
Readefine also supports to view Google Reader’s subscription in a newspaper format. The keyboard shortcuts defined by Google Reader are also available to enhance the user experience with feeds. The user just needs to enter the account details in Google Reader tab.
Webcomic view is also present which will widen the text and image to maximum space. Readefine automatically supports XKCD format. The view area of the articles can also be maximized by collapsing the top and left panels. In order to collapse, you have to click respective arrow buttons.
Readefine also lets you modify text, column and paragraph settings. There are different adjustable parameters like text size, column width, line height, paragraph start and indent.
Readefine presents a graceful interface to interact with feeds, HTML and Text. Readefine Desktop is an Adobe Air application that makes it platform independent; you can use it on Windows, Linux, and MAC.
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Awesome. I was searching all along for a suitable RSS reader. It’s such an awesome idea to make it simply look like a newspaper.
Thanks for sharing!
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