October 29th, 2006
by NathanNewshutch Update
New stuff:
- Added an option to automatically mark items as read. This is a cookie based option, so you’ll need to set it on each computer/browser you use.
- Added a “mark read” link to the top of unread entries (many users requested this).
- Moved the option to view flagged entries to the main tab area (many, many users requested this).
- Moved the “mark everything read” button outside of the left area scroll when you have independent scrolling on.
Bug fixes:
- IE was having trouble with AJAX refreshes of new, unread items because of a conflict with the Javascript for visual effects that happens when items update. This is fixed.
- Fixed parser issues that cause sometimes very bad repeats of “read” items. This might mean that you’ll see one last set of duplicates of items you’ve already read as the parser catches up with the our new way of seeing if feed items are new.
- Fixed issue where mixed case feeds were being forced to lower case, making them impossible to add.
- Fixed parser issue that was causing feeds not to be updated. Basically the parser was choking on several blog feeds from Weblogs, Inc.
- Made several parser, backend, and other fixes.
Safari Users
Be sure to clear your cache and reload (Safari can be overly cache happy).
We have a lingering and annoying bug in Safari. When Safari receives content via AJAX, it gets the encoding wrong and things like proper quotation marks get mangled. We thought we could fix it by using the browser filters Rails plugin, but it didn’t work. This issue and other possible fixes were mentioned in the forums. Anyone know what the deal is with Safari?
Thanks to everyone who wrote in with suggestions and bug reports!
October 29th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Well done on the updates and bug fixes. I especially adore the new flagged items view. It definitely makes viewing “saved” entries flawless now.
Keep up the exceptional work that you guys are doing!
October 30th, 2006 at 1:03 am
Newshutch just keeps getting better. You prevented me from defecting to Google reader at the last minute.
October 30th, 2006 at 3:48 am
Well I have mixed feelings about this update. Here are my two cents:
1. automatically mark items as read: I’ve been rooting for this option for a long time, and I’m glad you’ve finally added it. However as it is right now, I can’t and won’t use it. There are two issues here:
- first, it breaks the “keep unread” functionality. If I want to keep an article for a later reading, my only option now is to use the flagging system (which is not its correct use).
- second, since everything is automatically marked as read, what’s the point of showing the mark read button (and the new mark read top link)? It doesn’t make sense.
As I’ve said before the whole point of this “automatically mark items as read” option is to ease the flow and remove the clutter of buttons. With this option checked, the only things needed are the flag button and a “keep unread” button / checkbox.
2. I don’t see the point of this new “mark read” top link, but I guess it’s discreet enough that I don’t notice it too much. Still it provides some visual noise that I wish I could remove.
3. New flag tab. Excellent modification.
4. New “mark everything read” position. Although I don’t use the independent scrolling option, it seems like a very good improvement.
5. Fixes. One of the three feeds in my list that didn’t work with Newshutch now works correctly. So yay! Only two to go
October 30th, 2006 at 4:07 am
Excellent guys! Seriously, this is exactly what I was looking for.
October 30th, 2006 at 6:02 am
Guys, thanks this is fantastic. Appreciate the new “Mark Read” link, too. That will save me time.
October 30th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Oh, great updates!
But is it my networks connection or does the site rendering take some extra seconds now? I at at least get a feeling that it loads a little slower in both Firefox 2 and Opera 9.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:12 am
LaurentB, which feeds don’t work for you?
Aleks, for some reason favicons are taking a little longer to download. We’ll fix it.
October 30th, 2006 at 11:25 am
I noticed a little slower loading too, it works fine once loaded though. I mean, the feeds load fast.
October 30th, 2006 at 11:26 am
You guys SO rock! I freakin’ love auto-mark-as-read! Maybe I’m just lazy but that feature will save me so much time. I’d rather mark things I want rather than mark things I don’t. And the flag tab..brilliant. I didn’t quite get the whole flag thing before.
Now if only I could get my email client to mark things for deletion unless I say so…
October 30th, 2006 at 11:34 am
Thanks so much for the flagged items view! That makes flagging much more useful, in addition to helping me fight the “RSS readers on the web (thanks to Newshutch) are way better than desktop readers battle.”
October 30th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Those two:
http://domscripting.com/blog/
http://www.lifehacker.com/
October 30th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Sorry Laurent, Lifehacker pages use a relative reference “/index.xml” that actually redirects to Feedburner, so it doesn’t work. Domscripting uses a relative reference to its own domain, which should work, but doesn’t for some reason. We’ll fix these issues, but until then try adding them directly:
http://domscripting.com/blog/rss
http://feeds.gawker.com/lifehacker/full
October 30th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Thanks a lot Nathan!
With the exception of Daring Fireball’s authenticated feed, I’m fully on Newshutch now. And I couldn’t be much happier!
Thanks again for making my news consumption so much better and productive.
November 1st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Your new Flag tab is wonderous! Great work.
November 20th, 2006 at 5:58 am
Hmm for the automatically mark as read when reading an article.. It’s kinda annoying having to reset this on each mac.. Couldn’t you simply check the db when logging on and set the cookie then??