Tag Archives: News Reader

Stream featured in the App Store

Stream, , , ,

A few weeks back Parker Ortolani mentioned Stream on Threads and Stream set a personal best for downloads at 255 over a couple days. Most of which came on day one.

After that we received a message from Apple saying they may feature Stream in the App Store. What! That was extremely exciting. So much so it was difficult to believe so we asked around and checked App Store Connect directly to verify it was the real deal. Certainly didn’t want to get fished, right?

At that point we reached out to The Iconfactory. Apple needed art work in a specific format that followed specific rules and The Iconfactory has been featured before and is full of excellent designers and illustrators. Artists all.

The process couldn’t have been easier. Reach out, get an estimate with two different options, make a decision about which works best for us, and sign the deal.

What Next?

The Iconfactory asked for any artwork I had for Stream. The honest answer is we didn’t have much, just the original icons and a hero image. With our fingers and toes crossed we sent the images over with our apologies, “Sorry, that’s all we have.” Their response was simple. Thanks, this is perfect!

After a couple days we were sent a proof of the artists design. It was absolutely stunning! Perfect! They asked for any changes we’d like to see. The answer back was easy — no changes needed!

We downloaded the final output a day or two later. It’s even better in its full Photoshop glory. To say we were exited is an understatement.

Upload to Apple

Right after downloading our gorgeous new artwork we uploaded the requested PSD to the link provided by Apple.

Now we wait thinking this may or may not happen. There was never a promise for a feature and we knew that going into it. That’s ok. We had to roll the dice on the off chance it would happen.

Fingers crossed we hit the submit button.

It’s featured!

Friday morning we checked the App Store as we’d done every day this week and would continue doing until we saw it or felt it wouldn’t happen.

Well, it did happen and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

Thank you Apple for featuring our little feed reader, it means loads! ❤️

Picture of the App Store featuring Stream

More about The Iconfactory

Why did we hire The Iconfactory? That is simple. We’re huge fans of their app and design work. They’ve delivered some of the most iconic designs in the industry all top notch. They’re a small shop with amazing talent top to bottom. Choosing them was easy.

We’d like to say thanks to three folks in particular; Ged Maheux, Anthony Piraino, and Cheryl Cicha. You made the process painless and enjoyable. It’s wonderful to work with folks who deliver amazing work ahead of schedule.

We are so grateful. ❤️

Stream 1.3

Stream, ,

I’m happy to announce a new Stream release. Version 1.3 is a minor release with one new feature and two bug fixes.

New Feature 💫

When you go to Settings you’ll notice a new section called CACHE. This feature allows you to set the number of days to maintain Feed Items in the timeline. It’s a sliding scale between 1 and 30. The original release of Stream, and every version since, has used a hard code value of 30. Now you can control how long you hold onto feed items.

Thanks to Steven Vore for the feature suggestion.

Bug Fixes 🐞

  • Timeline list items with long titles could force the date to display off the screen. Thank you Iryna for your layout mastery and support.
  • Images in the Article view that were small than the width of the screen were blown up to fill the screen. Thank you Ashur for your HTML and CSS mastery and your continued support.

I hope you enjoy this release and find Stream a valuable part of your Feed Reading workflow. 🧡

Stream - A feed reader

Stream 1.0

Stream, , , ,

First things first. You can find Stream in the App Store.

What is Stream?

Stream is a feed reader. Some folks call it a news reader, others an RSS reader.

Why do I need it?

Stream is a different take on feed readers. It displays your feeds in a timeline, similar to Twitter.

Stream doesn’t maintain a read/unread count because life is too short to stress over that kind of stuff.

Is it better than my current feed reader?

Probably not. Stream is great for casual reading. It’s a complement to your current reader.

Does it support services?

Nope. Stream treats RSS – and other feed types – as intended. When RSS was created the idea was to provide a decentralized way to get news.

Dave Winer, the man behind RSS, calls this idea a River of News. Stream is a mobile River of News. You have full control over what you subscribe to. It’s all decentralized so you don’t rely on a service to collect your feeds.

What does this marvel of software development cost?

Did we mention it’s FREE? No up front payment, no subscription, just FREE.

What if I don’t like it?

That’s ok! Stream was intentionally built to put simplicity at its core. Simplicity may make it too simple for your needs.

Here are some of my favorite alternative feed readers.

Mac

  • NetNewsWire – The granddaddy of Mac feed readers. Pure Mac.
  • Reeder – A beautifully designed feed reader.

iOS