After several weeks of teasing me for burying my head in the sand and stubbornly refusing to transfer my Google Reader RSS feeds elsewhere, the Beloved quietly confessed last night that he has given up on Feedly and moved himself back to Reader, too, for the time being. Once I was done milking the required apology for his weeks of mocking, I asked him why, and found that he had reached the same conclusion—that in the battle between interactivity and linearity, linearity is sometimes the better way. Here's what he didn't like about Feedly: It was too dynamic for him. Every...

Feedly has been steadily gaining users (over three million since the announcement of the death of Google Reader), and they just updated both their mobile apps and their browser plugins. So far I'm happy with the changes, which make the experience a little closer to Google Reader. The best changes in the browser version include the ability to set a title view in your subcategories (not just in the Latest view) and better integration with Pocket. When I reviewed Feedly a few weeks ago, the Save to Pocket button didn't work. Now it's flawless, just as it should be. I'm also pleased with...

One of my chief complaints about Feedly has been alleviated in the service's latest update. The Feedly app has a new vertically-focused layout that is more in line with what Google Reader users are used to. You can now view headlines and a few lines of text without getting distracted by a plethora of images. The Feedly Web app has also been updated with a “title only” layout that is designed to handle a lot bulk. This is exactly what Feedly needed to make Google Reader users feel more at home. Although the layout change is the most important part of...

Rising Android Sales Causing Worry for Digital Publishers (Good e-Reader) Reeder App to Break Free of Google Reader (The Digital Reader) Court Slams Shut ReDegi Music Locker, Saying First Sale Doctrine Does Not Apply (Paid Content) April Fool's Day Jokes for Writers and Readers (Galley Cat) Kindle Daily Deals: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (and 3 others)...

Yahoo Acquires News-Reading iPhone App Summly (Paid Content) Digg Details Google Reader Replacement Plans (Good e-Reader) What if the Google Readers Just Don't Come Back? (Tech Crunch) Evernote for Android Gets Big Update (GigaOM) Kindle Daily Deals: Burning Man by Alan Russell (and 3 others) ...

Our own Juli Monroe was first to bring Google's weak Evernote wannabe to my attention. It seemed like a weak offering (no Web clipper, no iOS app, and so on) and I didn't pay it much attention. But then the comments started rolling in. Susan, on our own site, had this to say: "Two words about Google Keep: Google Notebooks. I kept all my stuff in there for years, then Google cancelled Notebooks. I drank my coffee to iGoogle and Google Reader for years too, both of which are headed to the trash pile. I’m taking a pass on any new...

If there is one thing that writing about technology has taught me, it's that things change, fast. People lament the publishing  'power' of Amazon and they forget that before Amazon, Fictionwise was the e-book destination. Remember Hotmail? Not the leader now, are they? Remember Netscape? Also gone. Things change, fast. And here is my latest example. A week ago, I spent probably 80 percent of my online time on Google products. I used Google Drive to store documents and work on them at home and at school. I used Gmail and Google Calendar for both contacts and scheduling, YouTube for video watching, Google Reader for...

On the advice of a TeleRead commenter, I've spent the last two weeks trying out a book recommending service called Book Bub. So far, I'm enjoying it. Book Bub's premise is simple: When you register (it's free), you select from an offering of genres that interest you, and every day, Book Bub sends you an email with a few free or discounted books in your chosen genres. That's all there is to it. In general, I'm finding Book Bub's one, single email a bit easier for me to keep track of than a blog these days—I still haven't decided what I plan...

By Stephen Silver Google, as you may have noticed, discontinues stuff all the time. But when it does, my life is usually minimally affected. Remember Google Wave, which was supposed to revolutionize communications? I couldn’t tell you to this day exactly what that was or what it was supposed to do, and I just sort of shrugged when Google killed it in 2010. Google Viewer, Google Checkout, Google Health, GOOG-411, Froogle, Knol… these were all things I rather never used, or used once or twice and decided they weren’t for me. That’s part of what makes this week’s announcement of the impending...

I was finally able to register with Feedly last night to give it a try. Most of the day they'd been down, but they added server capacity and were running well later in the evening. So far, I think it'll work for me. Setting up the account was easy. I signed in with my Google account, and they imported all my feeds. They have assured users that the transition will be seamless in July. If they achieve seamless, I'll be impressed. Tech doesn't always work that way. If they manage "not too painful" for the first day or two, I'll be...

Well, that was fast. Digg announced yesterday that they are building a Reader replacement. Apparently they’ve been planning it for a while—they're just moving it up the priority list. Good for them! I’m liking this part of the announcement: We hope to identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader’s features (including its API), but also advance them to fit the Internet of 2013, where networks and communities like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and Hacker News offer powerful but often overwhelming signals as to what’s interesting. Don’t get us wrong: we don’t expect this to be a trivial undertaking. But we’re confident we...

Why I Stopped Pirating and Started Paying for Media (Lifehacker) Sherlock Holmes Copyrights are an Insane Hairball (Boing Boing) Canadian Wireless Check: Why Our Wireless Market is Still Woefully Undercompetitive (Michael Geist) Digg Developing Google Reader Replacement (Good e-Reader) Kindle Daily Deals: The Blood Sugar Solution by Mark Hyman, M.D. (and 3 others)...