I had previously wrote about the top three RSS newsreaders for Mac. Gruml is another full featured reader that is on the top of RSS readers available for Mac. It is still in Beta phase and seems to be continually updated. Let’s dive in and see what Gruml has to offer.

The Interface

The interface is similar to Mail. The left panel contains the list of subscribed RSS feeds, the right panel contains the feed article title with a little summary of the feed, depending on the feed, some will show more of what you would see in their actual web site. If you have a feed that you would like to read more about (usually the feeds that display only a summary), hit your return key and it will open the article in the built-in browser. Unread news are bold and in the left panel, there will be small icons with numbers next to the folders for unread items. Gruml supports Growl notifications as well.

Layout

Gruml offers two different layout styles.
The 3-column style has the feed subscription on the left, the feed item with summary in the middle, and the feed article on the right.
The Preview Below Article style has the feed subscription on the left, the feed headline with summary on the top-right, and the feed article on the bottom-right.
I prefer using the 3-column style as it is easier for me to read my feeds on a smaller screen.

Styles

Gruml gives you 7 styles to choose from.
Graphite which contains a blue feed title and smaller fonts.
Greyed (default) which has a shiny black feed title and a larger font.
Lucidr has an aqua on white feed title and lucida sans style font.
Simple Sans which has a black on white feed title and sans style font.
Simple Serif has black on white all caps feed title with sans style font.
Vanilla (which I use) has black on white feed title and smaller fonts.
Write Type which has black on white all caps feed title and courier style font.
It would be nice if there were a way to add your own styles (like in NetNewsWire), but currently, there is no option to do this.

Feed List (Left Panel)

Your Stuff
All Items, when selected, displays all of your feed items.
All unread, when selected, displays your unread feed items.
Starred Items, when selected, display your starred items.
Liked Items, display items you have marked ‘liked.’
Shared Items, display items you are sharing.
Notes display any notes associated with a shared item. To add a note to a feed item, click on the note icon with the ‘+’ sign and enter a note.
Comments display feeds that have comments.
People You Follow will display a list of feeds from people you follow.
Search is where the search results are displayed when searching from search bar in the toolbar.
Feeds
This is where the list of your feed subscriptions are displayed.
Folders
A list containing folders created either in Gruml or in your Google Reader account.
Tags
A list containing articles that have been tagged in Gruml or in your Google Reader account.
To add a new folder, just click on the + sign in the lower left-hand corner, which in turn opens a window for you to name the new folder. Click the arrow button in the window to add it to a certain folder if needed.
To remove a folder, click on the – sign in the lower left-hand corner to remove the selected folder you want to remove.

The Built-In Browser

Gruml has an integrated Safari style browser, which is very useful for reading feeds that only contain text summaries. It is also useful when using the “Send Article To…” option.

Google Reader Sync and Integration

Gruml syncs any changes you do with Google Reader promptly. This includes syncing of starred items, shared, items, favorites, etc.

Adding Feeds

In preferences from the menu bar, you can enter your Google information that you want to sync with. You can also manually enter a new feed by clicking on Feed<Add Feed To Your Subscriptions from the menu bar,  which then opens a new window for you to enter the feed information. You can also remove feeds by clicking on Feed<Remove Feed From Your Subscriptions from the menu bar.

To rename a feed, select the feed to rename and either right-click and select Rename Subscription or click on Feed<Rename Subscription from the menu bar.

To rename a folder, select the folder to rename and either right-click and select Rename Folder or click on Feed<Rename Folder from the menu bar.

Send Article To…

This is a nice feature of Gruml. It allows you to share your feed with a variety of social networks and blogging platforms.

As to date, you can share your information with Twitter (using the included URL shortener included in Gruml), Facebook, and Myspace.

If you want to save an article for later reading, you can add the item to your Instapaper or ReadItLater.

To send the article to a blogging platform, your options are tumblr or posterous.

The bookmarking platforms for sharing are delicious, digg, reddit, and stumbleupon.

To ping the information, you can use ping.fm. You can also email or print a selected article.
To use the Send Article To…, right-click from your selected article and choose the service you want to use from the Send Article To menu. If you customize your toolbar, you can add your preferred services to the toolbar as well. Or, use the keyboard shortcuts: Delicious (Shift+E), Digg (Shift+D), Facebook (Shift+F), Instapaper (Shift+I), MySpace (Shift+M), ping.fm (Shift+G), Posterous (Shift+P), ReadItLater (Shift+L), Reddit (Shift+R), StumbleUpon (Shift+U), Tumblr (Shift+B), and Twitter (Shift+T).

Preferences

There are a few preferences offered in Gruml.
General Tab is where you would enter your Google account information.
Social Accounts Tab only allows the input for your Twitter, Instapaper, and ReadItLater account information. It also gives you options for URL shortening (is.gd, bit.ly, tr.im, cli.gs, u.nu, and .tk).
Appearance Tab allows you to change the fonts for the article list and sidebar.
Advanced Tab is where you would change the menu bar and icon, URL handling, Update/notification, feed behavior, and caching behavior.

Menu Bar Notification

Gruml offers a menu bar icon which will display the number of unread articles. Not only that, when you click on the icon, it displays a HUD interface displaying the articles that are available with the name of the article item and the title. If you double-click on an item,  the article will open within Gruml’s integrated browser.

Blogging Options

If you find an article that you would like to integrate into your own blog. Click on Article<Blog With…(display will show available blogging applications in your system) from your menu bar. You would need an application like BlogThing, Ecto, MarsEdit, or Xjournal.
Once you click on the application you have, Gruml opens your application and integrates the feed item into your blogging panel.

I have noticed a few quirks in the program. It crashed on me one time and it is a little sluggish at times. It is however quick to refresh, sometimes too quick for my liking. When I unstarred, unshared, or unliked an item, there was no visual cue the change had taken place, the feed still showed in my list, so this would be a nice item to fix. Maybe showing the toolbar item change color or something of that nature. Also, there were times when an article or item list that I have marked all as read would still be shown in the list, even after checking the Mark All As Read in the menu. It would be nice to see Gruml integrate with apps like Things, OmniFocus, or Evernote. Also, Gruml lacks the AppleScript dictionary. Another important item missing in Gruml is some form of Help. When you click on the Help menu bar item, it displays “Help isn’t available for Gruml.” Hopefully, in the future, this will be integrated for people who need help with Gruml.

Gruml, however is still in Beta phase and is constantly updating. I still like the overall feel of Gruml, and will continue using it as a backup to my preferred NetNewsWire. I’d like to see how Gruml will be in a few months after more updates. To give Gruml a try, click the icon at the end of this article to be directed to their web site. If you use Gruml or have used it and would like to share your experience with other readers, please leave a comment and share the wealth with us.

I really like trying out new apps when I read about them. Most of the time, I try apps that offer free trials or the ones that are completely free. I LOVE FREE. Anyways, I started seeing more articles about apps that use Adobe AIR. There are many AIR applications to choose from through the Adobe AIR Marketplace. And you can find many articles on the web about AIR apps. So, I decided to show you what AIR apps are currently my favorite and that I have on my Mac. Trust me, I have a lot more, but these are my favorite AIR apps that I use most often. The AIR apps that I have are all FREE. (To be directed to the AIR app website, simply click on its icon next to the title. To view the screenshot larger, click on the thumbnail on the right of the descriptions.) So let’s get going….

ADOBE SHORTCUT
I find Adobe Shortcut to be a really useful app for those times when you’re in, let’s say… PhotoShop and you’re tired of manually clicking in the menu bar for tools or actions when you can use shortcuts. But, what are the shortcuts? How can one remember every shortcut available? No need to do that when you have this app. Just open it up and look for what you need and Voila! there’s a shortcut for practically everything! What’s even cooler is you can save the ones you most frequently use in the ‘My Favorites’ tab for quicker access! Yay! This app literally saves time and energy.

clDESKTOP
I love shopping. I especially love shopping when I can save moolah! So, that’s where CraigsList comes in. Of course you can always use CraigsList on the web, but the clDesktop has a much nicer interface. All you do is type in your location (which can be saved), select a category (I normally check For Sale), then whatever your interest is (i.e. furniture, music instruments, housewares, etc….you get the drift) and it displays a list. Sort of like the web site…cleaner and with better pictures. You can even have the option to save certain types of searches. I have Music Instruments as one of my saved searches.

EBAY DESKTOP
As mentioned above, I love getting deals whenever I shop. Just like CraigsList, I also like checking out eBay for great deals. When I check out eBay, I use the eBay Desktop. This app has a nice user interface and I usually do searches and check my eBay account. I like how simple it is to use. Just type in a search and it displays the results and you can click on little radial buttons to narrow the search. It’s really quick and gives the same information as if you were on the eBay web site. There are many other functions, but you’ll have to check it out for yourself.

FACEDESK
I like using Facebook, but I don’t always like how the site works. This app is quick and it also saves your login information so you don’t always have to login. You can do all the pokes, updates, etc. as you do on the web site in this app also. It’s really nice when you don’t want to open your browser.

FLICKROOM
Lately, I’ve been using Flickr a lot. I’ve been posting new desktops, checking out new entries in the Appleviews pool, and checking out designs that aren’t in the pool. What I love about Flickroom is the nice interface. It is super clean and easy to use. It has the same functions as Flickr and offers other useful features like the ability to tweet about an image, upload multiple images by dragging them from your desktop, chat with other Flickroom users, view recent uploads of your contacts, etc.

READEFINE
I read Google Reader everyday. But, I read it in Readefine, which is an AIR app which uses Flex 4, creating a really nice, clean layout for your RSS feeds, text or HTML content. It displays multiple columns for easier reading and you can adjust the text size, line height, column width, etc. to your liking.
This app uses Flex 4 and creates a nice layout for your RSS feeds, Text and HTML content by displaying multiple columns for easier reading. It can read content from the web, a file on your computer (by copying and pasting), or Google Reader content. It also allows you to tweak settings like the justification, column width to your liking.

SHIFD
I used to bookmark EVERYTHING that I’d find on the Internet in my bookmarks (wish lists, sites to read later, reviews, etc.), only to forget where I bookmarked it, what the bookmark is, etc. Then, I found Shifd.  Now I just add a description and copy and paste the web site URL and add a tag as to what the information is for. I have a WISHLIST tag and a READ tag at the moment. Now I can find what I need in my bookmarks. Yay! There are many other ways to use this app, but you’d have to decide for yourself if this is an app that you’d like.

SNACKR
Sometimes, I don’t have a lot of time to read my RSS feeds in Google. When I don’t read them, they pile up and then I end up having hundreds to read. This app displays your RSS feeds in a ticker like style either on the top, bottom, left or right side. If you see an article that catches your eye, you can click on it and it brings out a little window with a snippet of information and you can read the full article by clicking on the ‘View Post’ button on the bottom right corner, which opens the web site where the article resides.

TWEETDECK
I use TweetDeck to check out what’s going on with all my friends on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. All in one app! You can adjust what you want to see. You can update your Twitter, Facebook or MySpace – all from within TweetDeck. I am currently tracking All Friends in 2 of my Twitter accounts, Full News Feed in my Facebook account and Friends Activities on MySpace. I love the idea that I can check everything in one place!

I only listed the top 9 AIR apps that I use more than any other. I have many more; but, again, this is just a small list. Anyways, if anybody uses AIR apps and has a suggestion or an app they’d like to suggest, feel free to leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

Here’s the scenario, you’re in one of your favorite stores, you know, the trendy store that always plays really hip music. You’re humming to the tunes as you’re shopping and hear a tune that you’re familiar with, but you just can’t recall the name of the group who sings it. Fear no more, Shazam is there to save you from wondering all day long, as you’re humming the tune, racking your brain out trying to figure out just who sings that tune. All you have to do is just pull out your iPhone, open up Shazam and let it do its magic.

Here is how Shazam works: when you hear a song that you want to know more about (either from the radio, TV, film, or in a store) just pop out your iPhone, open up Shazam, press the ‘Tag Now’ button, which is in the upper left corner, and hold it toward the location of the music. Keep holding it (for about 10 seconds) until you feel your iPhone vibrate, then, look at your iPhone and you will see the results.

You will be presented with the name of the song, name of artist/group, album name, genre, label and the date you tagged the song. But that isn’t it….you are then given the option to preview or purchase the song via iTunes, view any available videos in YouTube, Tweet your result, send a post card via email, view the Biography of the artist/group, and view the Discography of the artist/group. It gives you a few other options like taking a photo (I guess of the location) of where you are when you tag the song, attach a photo or just delete the song result.

What I really like about Shazam is the clean UI and its accuracy. However, it does have a difficult time identifying some underground or lesser-known artists. I have tried to hum a tune to see if it would work. It didn’t. I think only once or twice it wasn’t able to decipher a tune. But I’ve used it hundreds of times and more often than not, it usually found what I needed. Oh, I forgot to mention, the price of this app…..it’s FREE! Yay!

Technical Info: Shazam was released on July 7, 2008 with a few updates here and there. Made by Shazam Entertainment, Ltd. It is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. It is also available for use with Android and Blackberry phones. To view more information about Shazam, you can visit their website: http://www.shazam.com/music/web/home.html which contains a lot of other information. To download it from iTunes, click on the iTunes App Store button at the bottom or just type ‘Shazam’ from the App Store on your iPhone.

If anybody has used Shazam and wants to share their experiences with Shazam, leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

I like reading a variety of articles on the Internet. I admit, I LOVE learning something new. Plus, reading gives me lots of ideas of things to create, things to write about, things to read about (books), things to listen to, etc. You catch the drift. The Internet is FULL of information, and sometimes, it is hard to find what you’re looking for. I ran into an iPhone app a little while ago called Regator and I use it everyday. It is full of a variety of articles on anything you can think of (or almost anything – I don’t’ want to say anything because everything has its faults). Anyways, Regator is a FREE app based on their website.
The only difference between the two is that you don’t have the ability to use the tools available on the web site.

The Regator app contains thousands of blogs from the web, as well as a searchable archive of more than three million posts. You can browse from a large category base of topics, search Regator’s extensive archive, view the most popular blog posts on the web or for your favorite categories, view trends of the latest blog searches, keep up with the latest blog posts (which is updated frequently), read the full text of posts in the original source blog, share posts via email, Facebook, or Twitter, and in each post you read, you will find Related Posts to find more information on a story.

When you first open Regator on your iPhone, you are displayed with a list of All Topics (under the Popular tab). On the first screen, you will see a lime green line with a search button at the top left (where you can search for whatever subject you choose), the name of the app ‘regator.com’ and to the right of the app name, you can change the text size by clicking on the AA button until you achieve a text size of your choice. The next line is a darker green line showing where you are in the directory. So whenever you change the category, that category will show up in the first dark green line. This is sort of like breadcrumb navigation. Under the first dark green line is a lighter green line, which displays the main categories. In your main categories, your choices are: Academics, Arts, Business & Finance, Entertainment, Health, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Local Interest, News, Occupations, Politics, Religion, Society & Culture, Sports, Technology, and What The ?(See the list of subcategories towards the end of this article). To choose from the category list, just slide the titles until you reach a category of your interest. When you choose a category, the dark green tab displays your location in the application.  On the bottom of the screen, there are five tabs:

Popular
This is also the main screen. It displays the popular articles in the category you are in.

New
This section displays the latest blogs/articles for the category you are in.

Trends
This section displays a list of trending subjects for the category you are in.

Directory
This section displays a tree list of all the categories, sub-categories and categories in sub-categories (like the category list displayed below).

Help
This section displays contact information along with the applications FAQ’s.

CATEGORIES/SUB-CATEGORIES
Academics
Anthropology, Archaeology, Astronomy, Biology (Biomedical Research, Cell Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Marine Biology, Paleontology, and Zoology), Chemistry, General Science, Geology, History (Ancient History, Military, US History, and World History), Linguistics (Grammar), Literature, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology

Arts
Art History, Business, Ceramics, Dance, Digital Art, Drawing & Illustration, Fiber Art, General Visual Arts, Graphic Design (PhotoShop, Typography, and Web Design), Museums, Painting, Photography (Digital Photography and Equipment), Sculpture, Theater & Performing Arts, and Writing (Poetry)

Business & Finance
Career & Jobs, Economics (Career Advice, Job Hunting, and Management), Entrepreneurship, Investing (Commodities, Contrarian Investing, and General Market), Marketing (Advertising and Online Marketing), Mortgage & Banking, Personal Finance, Real Estate (Industry News and Local Market), and Venture Capital 

Entertainment
Animation (Anime & Manga), Books, Celebrity, Comic Books, Film (Bollywood, DVDs, Filmmaking, New Releases, and Reviews), Gambling (Casino, Poker, and Track Betting), Genres (Fantasy, Horror, and SciFi), Humor, Music (Blues, Broadway & Stage, Children’s, Classical, Country, Dance & DJ, Folk, Hip Hop & Rap, Indie, Jazz, Metal, Rock & Pop), Pop Culture, Television (Classic and Reality), Toys & Games (Board Games and Role Playing), Video Games, and Web (Web Videos and Webcomics)

Health
Addiction (Alcohol and Drug), Aging, Alternative Medicine (Hypnosis and Reiki), Disabilities, Diseases & Conditions (ADHD, Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, HIV & Aids, Migraine Headaches, and Multiple Sclerosis), Ears & Hearing, Epidemiology, Fertility & Reproductive Health, Fitness (Hiking, Running and Yoga), Men’s Health, Mental Health(Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and Postpartum Depression), Nutrition, Pregnancy, Stress, Toxicology, and Weight Loss

Hobbies
Aviation, Beekeeping, Birding, Camping, Chess, Collecting (Currency, Stamps, Toys, and Trading Cards), Crafts, Fishing, Gardening, Hunting, Knitting, Model Rail, Origami, Quilting, Robotics, and Scrapbooking

Lifestyle
Beauty (Cosmetics, Nails and Perfume), Etiquette, Fashion (Bags, Glasses, and Men’s), Food & Drink (Beer, Cooking, Fine Dining, Recipes, Restaurant Reviews, Tea, Vegetarian, and Wine), House & Home (Home Improvement and Interior Design), Parenting (Fatherhood, Infants, and Special Needs), Pets & Animals (Alpacas, Birds, Cats, Dogs, Horses, and Rabbits), Productivity (Happiness), Relationships (Dating, Divorce, and Weddings), Shopping, Travel (Asia, Cruises, Europe, Family, Hotels, and  North America), and Vehicles (Aircraft, Boats, Cars, Industry News, and RV)

Local Interest
Africa (Cape Town), Antarctica, Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney), Austria, Azeroth, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Canada (Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver), China (Shanghai), Cuba, France (Paris), Germany (Berlin), India, Ireland, Japan (Tokyo), Malaysia, New Zealand (Auckland), Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), United Kingdom (Grimsby, London, and Scotland), and United States (Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Scranton, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.)

News
Crime, Independent, and International Affairs

Occupations
Agriculture, Construction (Architecture), Customer Service (Food Service), Education (Education Tech, ESL/EFL, Learning, Library & Research, News & Policy, and Students With Disabilities), Entertainment, Law, Manufacturing, Media (Accuracy and Ethics, Industry News, New Media, Publishing, Sports Media, and Television), Medical (Pharmaceutical), Military (Australia, Defense Industry, Iraq War, United Kingdom, United States, and War Journals), Public Safety (EMS, Fire Protection, and Law Enforcement), Retail, Tourism, Transportation (Commercial Aviation and Railway & Trains), and Utilities (Communication)

Politics
Conservative, International (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, United Kingdom, and Wales), Liberal, Libertarian, Other Parties, and US Elections

Religion
Atheism, Buddhism, Catholic, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism

Society & Culture
Age Groups (Baby Boomers and Seniors), Environment & Nature (Climate Change, Environmentalism, Green Living, and Nature), Ethnicity & Race (African American, Asian American, and Latino), Expats (Americans Abroad), Issues & Causes (Animal Rights & Welfare, Feminism, Pro Choice, and Pro Life), Lifestyle Choices (Goths, Hipsters, and Survivalists), Men’s Interest, Paranormal (Ghosts & Hauntings and Psychic), Sexuality (Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered), and Skepticism

Sports
American Football (College and NFL), Baseball (MLB), Basketball (NBA and NCAA), Cheerleading, College, Cricket, Extreme (Climbing, Dirt Biking, Paintball, and Skateboarding), Golf, Hockey, Martial Arts (Aikido, Judo, Karate, and MMA & UFC), Motorsport, NASCAR, Olympics, Rugby (Womens), Soccer, Tennis, Water (Sailing, Surfing, Swimming, and Windsurfing), Weightlifting, and Winter (Curling, Skating, Skiing, and Snowboarding)

Technology
Gadgets, Hardware, Industry News (Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Start Ups), Internet (Blogging, File Sharing, SEO, Social Media, and Usability), Mobile (Apps), and Programming (Business Application, Database, Linux, Macintosh, Mobile, Open Source, Web, and Windows)

What the ?
Variety of Miscellaneous Blogs/Articles.

As you can see, this app has a plethora of information, tons of categories to choose from, and even more articles in each category you choose. And it is really useful when researching a subject along with the related posts in a story you are reading. I like that function and I like the fact that I can share the information via email, Facebook or Twitter.

If you would like to download the Regator iPhone app, click on the iTunes App Store button to be directed to their location in iTunes, otherwise, you can search under Regator on your iPhone App Store. I know that I really like this app and if anybody out there has tried the Regator iPhone app or the Regator web site, feel free to leave comments about your experience with the app, share the wealth with our fellow readers!

Last week (10-23-09 Friday), NASA released an app for the iPhone. This app is perfect for those who are space fanatics – including me. I have downloaded the app and I must say, it is impressive. Especially for a FREE app. The first screen of the app provides up-to-the-minute current and future NASA missions directly from NASA resources. On the bottom of the screen are buttons for missions, images (which contains a HUGE database of photos) that you can email or save to your iPhone, videos (obtained from NASA TV consisting of science updates, mission activity, rocket launches and other activities), and updates (from @NASA twitter feeds). The app also allows you to search for any specific mission, and find information, images or videos for whatever you search. You can also access countdown clocks, image of the day, astronomy image of the day, online videos, NASA’s twitter feeds, and more. Not only that, you can track where the International Space Station is at any moment, as well as other spacecraft orbiting the planet, all in three different views (maps with labels/borders, available visible imagery of satellites, and satellite positions overlaid on maps with country labels/borders). Overall, I really like what NASA has done with this app. It is extremely informative. To download the app on your iPhone, you can click the iTunes App Store Button or search on your iPhone (NASA). If anybody has tried this app and find it useful, comment below to share the wealth with our fellow readers!