Get notified of updates automatically by subscribing to this feed!

If you are interested in translating this application into other languages, please contact me at dev@ebessette.com.

Recently the T-Mobile G1, Android v1.0, and the Android Market were unleashed upon the world.  I was lucky enough to get the G1 the first day it was sold in T-Mobile stores.  It is a great phone and mobile platform.

After using it for a while, I realized that I wanted to move to a totally mobile online lifestyle.  This means not relying on Microsoft Outlook or checking web sites for common things like email, IM, and RSS feeds.  Android and the G1 make it quite easy and enjoyable to have a totally mobile online lifestyle, with one notable exception: no feed notifications for Google Reader.

I use Google Reader to combine all my RSS feeds into one destination.  The web browser on the G1 uses the mobile version of the reader and it's pretty slick.  Unfortunately you have to manually check the site to see if you have any new feed articles.  This is why I created the Google Reader Notifier.  It's a simple Android application, available now in the Android Market, that will notify you when you have unread feed articles.

The preferences allow you to turn notifications on or off, specify a ring tone, vibrate the phone, and how often to check.  Once you enable notifications and enter in your account info (please see the Known Issues below), the application will check your Google Reader feeds and notify you just like an email when you have unread feed articles.

This application is now available for free in the Android Market from the G1.  If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to send them to me at dev@ebessette.com.

Instructions

First, install the application from the Android Market on your Android phone.  You can find it quickly by pressing the Search button, then entering "greader" into the search field, and pressing Enter.

After you have installed the application, open it from the download notification or from the Application Tab on the Home screen.  Once open, the preferences will be displayed.  First enter your Google account username (i.e. something@gmail.com) and password.  Please make sure they are entered correctly otherwise you will not receive the notifications.  Next, enable the application by checking the "Enable Notifications" checkbox.  Return to the Home screen, or select "Save and Close" from the menu, and you will see the GReader Notifier starting up.

Note, you must go to http://www.google.com/reader/ and subscribe to one or more feeds for this application to give you any notifications.  The application will only notify you if you have unread articles on that web site, otherwise it will do nothing.

To change the ring tone, vibrate settings, or time between when the application checks Google Reader, please reopen the application and update the corresponding preferences.

If you ever want to turn the application off, just uncheck the "Enable Notifications" checkbox.

When you receive a notification, select it and you will be taken to the mobile version of Google Reader.  From here you can read RSS feed articles, naviagate to the full version, and, using the menu, go to the application's preferences.

Known Issues

• The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) has not released access to the user's Google authentication information (not their username and password, but the "random" value that tells Google you're logged in when viewing their site).  This means you will have to enter in your Google username and password into the application's preferences.  As defined in the Android Market Terms of Use, your account information is only used to gain access to Google Reader and for no other reason.  Hopefully the next SDK update will give me a way to access Google Reader without needing you to enter your account information into the preferences of this application.

Future Features

• Use internal Google authentication token instead of requesting the user's username and password. Issue 1073
• Allow the user to choose to receive notifications or not to for each feed they are subscribed to.  The default will be all feeds.  Note, this will not change the web browser destination when a user selects the notification, it will just prevent notifications for those feeds that the user has not selected.