Google has done a significant upgrade of the mobile version of Google Reader, as well as the desktop version. I haven’t seen this written up anywhere yet (apologies if you wrote it up and I missed your post).
Look at the bottom of the screenshot above. There are new links for Tags, Subscriptions, Settings, Sign Out, More Google Products and Google Labs.
This is fantastic – previously Google Reader’s functionality on mobile devices was limited to viewing the 10 most recent posts in your feed.
Now you can change the number of posts displayed (5, 10, or 20) in the Settings, view your posts by Tag, view your Starred and Shared items (in the Tags page) and log into your other Google applications.
This has to be the strongest indication yet that the heavily rumoured gPhone is imminent. There is a bit of work to do on it – moving from the Google Reader to Google Calendar requires you to re-enter your Google account info, for example. This should be maintained across Google apps obviously. Other than that it seems to work flawlessy though.
I have it on very good authority that a Google phone is indeed imminent. But I wouldn’t necessarily assume it will be available in Europe, or even the US..
Never the less, I can’t help hoping that Google will produce the user enabling phone that’s been threatening to arrive for so long.
1 – Sub € 300 price.
2 – large storage / removable SD or similar
3 – support for standard video and audio formats – from MP3 to Xvid
4 – excellent & responsive user interface
5 – good camera, with good video
6 – podcatching and creation support
7 – open architecture
8 – no vendor lock in!
Right now, importing and unlocking an iPhone looks mighty tempting, despite the many restrictions imposed on the device. At under €250 inc tax (US price), it’s extremely compelling. A working software unlock is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Tom,
Google Mobile Reader has had all of this (except the Settings link) for a long time – http://www.xlml.com/aehso/2007/05/28/google-reader-on-the-n800-and-wii/
What reader URL you were using before now to miss out?
John.
John,
thanks for that. I am using the same bookmarked url as always (http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/)
What must have changed, in that case, is how they are displaying on smaller form factors (like the E65 I use) because none of that functionality was available for me until this morning!