Unread — RSS for iOS 7 & Giveaway!

Jared Sinclair is mostly known for his previous offerings in the App Store: Pillboxie is a medication management app (Jared’s a registered nurse), and Riposte is an innovative App.net client — co-created with Jamin Guy — that demonstrates some incredibly original mechanics that make it a favorite among users of the ADN platform. Some time ago, Jared announced that he was working on his own RSS app specifically for the iPhone. All he teased was a splash page, but folks who were familiar with Jared’s previous work immediately grew excited. For good reason. Released today, Unread enters the RSS arena, which is largely dominated by the darling Reeder. That could change today because Unread is far and away the best RSS app I’ve used on iOS.

It’s fair to ask how Unread could possibly unseat Reeder for the RSS crown. It’s hard to put into words, honestly. Reeder 2.x feels like an update that is trying to fit in on iOS 7, and does so admirably, while Unread is made for iOS 7. There’s no legacy cruft to deal with or think about.

The gestures-driven UI is a joy to use. As Jared himself said, you "swipe-to-do." Swiping left goes back, right brings up various options, and pulling down refreshes. It’s all incredibly intuitive, and it’s something you have to use to appreciate. The app sports gorgeous typography — mainly Whitney — and has multiple themes, some of which you’re going to work really hard to get.

Unread has most of the features you’d come to expect from a modern RSS client. Feed Wrangler, Feedly, and my personal favorite, Feedbin are all supported in Unread 1.0. There are tons of sharing options that take advantage of Sinclair’s custom Overshare. You’ll also find an in-app browser that shows off more original gesturing. But with Unread, none of that is the focus. Sure, you have loads of features to play with, but the true beauty of the app lies in the unobstructed reading view. RSS can quickly become a chore, and Unread does a great job of making me want to read again. I won’t describe every feature in detail as I think you need to try it for yourself, but suffice it to say, it does everything I need it to. The attention to detail, from animations to user experience, is something I haven’t seen since the days of Tweetie 2.

Maybe I’m praising it too much, but I’ve become a superfan of Unread in just a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait to see how the app grows. You can get Unread in the App Store for $2.99 for a limited time.

UPDATE:

We’re doing a giveaway! Follow the tweet, win one of three codes for the app!