Dog Cast Radio

According to the rumor mills, Apple is in discussions with some record labels to sell higher-quality versions of the music it sells in…

With the release of iOS 5, Apple has raised the bar in digital entertainment once again. iOS 5 supports a feature called AirPlay…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable…

I started using a RSS reader recently when I was faced with far too many blogs to check per day for a fitness project I’ve been a part of. Checking close to 20 blogs every day meant opening the domain, remembering if I read that article, then going on to the next one. It ended up resulting in too many bookmark folders in my browser’s bookmark bar. Then opening all of them at once resulted in a lot of memory being used by my web browser.

I then remembered a little icon I’ve see before. There should be one at the top of this page. This means that an RSS feed is available for the blog or article website you’re reading.

What’s an RSS feed? RSS (usually) stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” This means you can have your article without all the ads and spam that cover some web pages. All you need to do is find the URL, or address, for the feed you’re looking for. For Google BlogSpot blogs, this means using a special link in conjunction with the blog name. For other websites, they may need to provide it for you.

For example, take the New York Times. I would have to check this website every day, along with all the other news sites I read. What if I’m more interested in just receiving the new articles? Or even a specific category of articles? If you’d rather check the articles in this manner, you could check and see if they offer an RSS feed (most sites do now). I just searched Google for “nytimes rss” and immediately was given one of their own pages, listing their RSS feed addresses.

What program should you use for a RSS reader? I’ve tried a couple on the Mac, and I’ve settled on Shrook for the moment. It’s very simple to use, and has an iTunes-like interface. It’s a light program too, that doesn’t take up too much space or memory. If you leave it running, it will automatically check for updates every 30 minutes and alert you with a badge on the dock icon when there are new articles or blogs.

But wait! There’s more! If you prefer to keep all your updates in one place, Apple Mail can also check RSS feeds for you! Just click the little + in the lower left of the Mail window and select “Add RSS Feeds…”.

The iPad now has some pretty nifty ones, with nice touch interfaces, like Reeder.

Just about all devices have access to RSS feeds now, and with just spending a few minutes of your time adding the RSS links you read on a regular basis, you can save yourself a lot more time in the long run.

Aside from Steve Job’s health and the release of the Verizon iPhone 4, Apple news and product updates have hit a relative stand-still…

Sadly, I don’t own an iPhone. I’m not what you call an “early adopter.” I love the device, and it’s all I’ve been…