iN pURSUIT

We’ve covered a bunch of RSS readers, for the Mac, iPhone, and even some web apps. Some prefer to have selected feeds on device, while others prefer to sync them over using Google Reader. Many have gotten hooked to Fever° by Shaun Innman, the self-hosted web based RSS reader with a revolutionary user interface. But what about publishing RSS feeds? Most of us take that for granted, given that most CMS platforms auto-publish ready to serve RSS feeds.

But what if you want to create a feed for something that’s not spit out of a blog. News, files, podcasts, videos, and even applications, Feeder by Reinvented Software, is the tool that does it all. Launching the app…

Feeder lets you choose from among 8 different types of feeds, which gives you a good idea of what this app is capable of: Default, iTunes podcast, iTunes U podcast, links, News, Podcast, Sparkle AppCast, Video Podcast. Once you’ve created your feed, which is listed in the sidebar, you start adding articles. Just drag in media if you want to attach media to the feed, add titles, urls, descriptions, and publish.

Feeder really shines when creating podcasts, especially for iTunes. It’s a drag and drop affair, as you set up the main feed to include album artwork and static meta data, while just dragging in your media to create new entries. You can even see what the feed will look like in iTunes by hitting the Preview button. We have been using a WordPress plugin for publishing our podcast, but Feeder is any day an easier tool to use.

Feeder will send your data over to any FTP server, MobileMe, Amazon S3, or any local disk. Tried all but Amazon S3 and they worked flawlessly. It will then ping any feed trackers like Technorati or Pinggoat, so the world knows when your feed has been updated. It can also publish a note to Facebook, twitter, or any wordpress or blogger blog.

Feeder shines in that it doesn’t confuse the user with too many options and settings. The toolbar is minimal with just 4-5 buttons for basic tasks. Everything is geared towards publishing articles with minimal noise. With a pleasant non-distracting user interface, and drag-and-drop simplicity, Feeder is one easy way to publish RSS without knowing squat about XML.

Granted most of you won’t be needing this considering that almost every internet media platform spits out an RSS feed, I myself didn’t have any real world applications other than the possibility of moving the SA podcast over to Feeder, but for those occasions where a self created RSS feed is required, Feeder can deliver. At $40 for a license, Feeder is well worth it if you have a job for it to do. A 15 day trial awaits.

Sent from my iPhone

G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc

Google’s April Fools Joke

If e-mail signatures can be put to work to help support a political candidate, just imagine the impact they could make for charity. That’s essentially the rationale behind Replyforall, a site that uses custom e-mail signatures to raise not just awareness but cold, hard cash for a select group of charitable causes.