

Caffeinated: The Beautiful Google Reader Client - tilt
http://theindustry.cc/2012/03/15/caffeinated-the-beautiful-google-reader-client-for-mac/

======
pilif
I know that there's not much to do about it, but these embedded web view OAuth
dialogs always make me cringe. There's no URL bar, there's no SSL indicator,
no way to check the certificate of the page it was hosted from.

It would be ever so easy to present a faked Google login page.

Of course, this is just a matter of trust and the issue would be the exact
same if I were to just type my Google password into a native username/password
form.

Still. What good is this OAuth stuff when it practically provides no security
advantage over a traditional native UI? It's as easy for a malicious app to
present me with a faked Google OAuth page as it is to just log whatever I type
into the native UI which would have the advantage of being easier to use and
not requiring any loading time.

OAuth is wonderful between webapps, but I really don't see justification for
it with locally installed client apps.

If at all possible, please, please if you are forced to do the OAuth dance,
try to make it go via the system default browser! THAT would allow me to check
certificates and would be a huge security advantage over any traditional
method.

Provided I can trust my browser, but frankly, I trust that much mor than
$someapp_i_just_downloaded.

~~~
Splognosticus
Well $someapp_i_just_downloaded pretty much has free reign to do whatever it
wants anyway since it's running locally, and probably even had admin rights at
some point during the installation process. If it were malicious then it's
already too late to worry about it by the time it's showing you the OAuth
dialog.

~~~
sandipc
True, but at this point I would worry more about unapproved access to my
Google account (for example) than to my computer... given the amount of
personal information Google has about me at this point.

Google search history, Gmail, Calendar, Maps history, Latitude location
history from running on my Android phone, Chrome browsing history and
bookmarks, ...

~~~
patrickaljord
If it has access to your computer then it could have access to your Google
account. It could for example install a firefox or chrome extension on your
behalf like Skype does and that extension would scrape your gmail and google
accounts and steal all your data.

------
myhf
The UI thread blocks on network access, and by default it tries to load every
feed once per minute, leaving the app completely unresponsive about half the
time. Opening article websites in-app is nice, but there's no way to pre-load
those sites for faster reading.

This could be a great reader with just a little bit more network programming.

------
alpb
He said he's working on it for 2 years and yet he has cloned Reeder exactly.
<http://reederapp.com/mac/> I thought that Reeder has changed its name to
Caffeinated when I saw the screenshots. This is scary, indeed.

------
pixelcort
Every time a new Google Reader client comes out I go check to see if it has
the "Sort by magic" feature. It appears this app doesn't have it either.

I'm curious if this isn't exposed in the API or if coincidentally none of
these apps' developers deemed it important enough to implement.

For those who haven't used it, this feature is really helpful when you don't
have time to sort through everything and just want to get to the most
interesting things.

~~~
curthard89
The reasons there is no sort by magic is that there would be no efficient way
to sync, as you cant store dates of what you currently have if its magic, as
all the dates would not be relative to each other, means you would have to
grab all of the items every single time you sync. Super bad.

------
pragmatic
Please add "For Mac" to the title.

You had me all excited.

~~~
Derbasti
So true!

Why is there no beautiful news reader for Windows?

------
chucknelson
Eh, looks so similar to Reeder that I'll keep...Reeder.

------
trustfundbaby
I was hoping this would have the feature I can't live without, clicking on the
article in the list pane opens the _actual_ article. No mac rss client has
this and it drives me nuts ... Its the reason I'm running a 1.5GB VM Ware
windows instance with Feed Demon in it.

sigh

PS: This looks and acts an awful lot like Reeder <http://reederapp.com/mac/>
... I wonder if its going to cause problems with its developer

~~~
danibx
You can shift+click on an article in the list in Reeder and the original
webpage for the article will open.

~~~
trustfundbaby
I don't want to have to do that though, I want it to open directly

~~~
danbee
So... a 1.5Gb VMWare instance just to avoid pressing shift?

~~~
trustfundbaby
yup

------
georgemcfly
It's unfortunate that the icon designer mentions iterating on handles for the
cup and how difficult it was because he still got the perpective (and color)
wrong.

~~~
cpeterso
My favorite logo with Escheresque perspective is AT&T's. Compare the globe's
north and south poles:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/AT%26T_...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/AT%26T_logo.svg/200px-
AT%26T_logo.svg.png)

------
st3fan
Looks nice but it also loos like a Reeder ripoff.

~~~
jarederondu
I'm yet to see an app that diverts from Reeder's "style." I'm beginning to
think that the look is a genre... lol

~~~
derefr
If it's a genre, can someone make one for Windows?

------
ashishgandhi
There also is cappuccino that is free. It seems to have very similar UI.
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cappuccino/id492594411?mt=12>

------
gurkendoktor
It does a good job at exposing how bad the B&W sidebar in Lion. The top half
of Caffeinated' sidebar is B&W to match Apple apps, the bottom half is
colorful as it should to provide color cues (the ones in the article's
screenshot wouldn't need them though). Looks really unbalanced IMHO.

------
twiceaday
I wish I could hide feeds with no unread items in it, and also hide the middle
panel (not sure why it's needed, in Reeder as well).

~~~
curthard89
You can hide the feeds with no unread items, under the view menu.

------
kvikramg
Damn , why do Mac users get all the cool apps :(

~~~
tikhonj
It's just the usual HN selection bias--Mac apps appear disproportionately
frequently. A cool Windows or Linux only app wouldn't get the time of day from
the large Mac-using HN contingent.

Also, for whatever reason, the majority of open source Linux programs are
actually cross-platform, whereas Mac developers seem to have no compunctions
about only supporting a single platform.

~~~
dmix
The answers could also be correlated. If you asked why there is a selection
bias among HNers with Mac usage

...because thats where all the cool apps are.

------
dfc
What is a "google reader client"? Is it a bad name for rss newsreader? Or am I
moissing server side features of google reader?

~~~
alastairpat
Google Reader provides subscription management and stuff, so it does have
server-side features. This app allows you to access those subscriptions.

------
desigooner
Any alternatives for a windows user?

~~~
arpit
I wrote a desktop Google Reader client in Adobe AIR a while back. Free and
works on Mac, Win and Linux: <http://espressoreader.com/>

------
electic
This seems to be just another reader without infinite scroll. Am I wrong?

------
Pewpewarrows
Neither this app nor Reeder seem to work behind my work proxy.

------
mdanger
The link to the 15-day trial seems to be dead?

~~~
trustfundbaby
direct link <http://cl.ly/1p1L0x3k1A29451y0A3C>

------
ChrisLTD
It's fantastic that he was able to make something so polished looking in his
spare time. Gives me hope!

