Yesterday,  Brad did an update on my current favorite RSS reader– Byline. I moved to Byline from NetNewsWire a number of weeks ago and have found that it’s an excellent RSS reader. The main reason for the switch?  My desire to be able to access clipped/saved articles remotely. 

I like NetNewsWire. I like it’s tight integration with the desktop version of the software. I like the layout of the iPhone application and the fact that it includes a "next post" button in the middle of the bottom of the iPhone since I find it to be the best placement for it. And I like the price– it is free.

Unfortunately, I was getting increasingly frustrated at the inability to access my clipped articles from my iPhone after they have been clipped. That’s right, once I had clipped an article the only way to access it was through my desktop browser or by going to the NewsGator web application. This was a huge issue for me since my "system" has me look through all my RSS feeds as quickly as possible, mark those I want to read in more depth, and then return to those I had marked. The system didn’t work with NetNewsWire.

As a result, I decided to try out Byline. I found that I really like it. It integrates with Google Reader, which was, for quite some time, my RSS reader of choice. Tell you the truth, I’m really happy to be back to it and not quite sure why I left in the first place.

The blogosphere has been widely reporting the fact that Google now has optimized the search results delivered to the iPhone even more.

That means that when using Google on the iPhone or the iPod Touch results will be returned in an easy-to-read optimized manner.

Nothing new here. Google has been increasingly working toward making all of their services and features fully available and optimized on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. I love the fact that when I go Google on the iPhone I’m offered a rich experience of being able to choose from either Google’s search feature, calendar, reader, or even more. Fact is, as much excitement as there has been with regard to the first Android-based phone, the G1, with the many offerings that work so well on the iPhone one could make an argument that the first "Google phone" is actually from Apple.

So Google improve the quality of the results that a return to the iPhone. That’s great. Here’s what I don’t get…

There are many applications out there for reading RSS feeds.  However, the one which has been repeated to me as the cream of the crop when it comes to iPod Touch/iPhone apps is Byline.  An earlier incarnation of this application had already been reviewed here at Whats on iPhone, but I thought I would add my thoughts about the current generation.

For those who are fans of the previous app, the price has been halved to five dollars (granted, that’s more than the recent price drop to four dollars, but it’s still better than it was), so you’re probably feeling a little ripped off right now.  You can still recommend to friends and those who live on news feeds.  Obviously, Phantom Fish listened to all the criticism of the high cost from the last release.

Now I have to give a little confession:  I’ve never used news feed programs before.

The iDict Series is a series of "primary language oriented" dictionaries. That means that most of their offerings begin with your primary language (in this case English) and then offer translations of words to a number of different languages.

Their Quick Deluxe version offers translation to and from 157 different languages. While it normally costs $9.99 it is free for the next three days.

If you have the need to translate words from one language to another this is a great utility and might well be worth picking up. Moreover, for the next three days, if you might EVER need to translate words from one language to another this is something you should DEFINITELY pick up while it is free.

You can get iDict Deluxe for free HERE in the App Store.