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Migrating blog from Tumblr to Jekyll. Still needs a better footer.

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Samuel Clay 2021-06-21 18:22:37 -04:00
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commit 005d2a2ac6
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blog/.bundle/config Normal file
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---
BUNDLE_PATH: "vendor/bundle"

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blog/.gitignore vendored Normal file
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_site
.sass-cache
.jekyll-cache
.jekyll-metadata
vendor

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---
permalink: /404.html
layout: default
---
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
.container {
margin: 10px auto;
max-width: 600px;
text-align: center;
}
h1 {
margin: 30px 0;
font-size: 4em;
line-height: 1;
letter-spacing: -1px;
}
</style>
<div class="container">
<h1>404</h1>
<p><strong>Page not found :(</strong></p>
<p>The requested page could not be found.</p>
</div>

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blog/Gemfile Normal file
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source "https://rubygems.org"
# Hello! This is where you manage which Jekyll version is used to run.
# When you want to use a different version, change it below, save the
# file and run `bundle install`. Run Jekyll with `bundle exec`, like so:
#
# bundle exec jekyll serve
#
# This will help ensure the proper Jekyll version is running.
# Happy Jekylling!
gem "jekyll", "~> 4.2.0"
# This is the default theme for new Jekyll sites. You may change this to anything you like.
gem "minima", "~> 2.5"
# If you want to use GitHub Pages, remove the "gem "jekyll"" above and
# uncomment the line below. To upgrade, run `bundle update github-pages`.
# gem "github-pages", group: :jekyll_plugins
# If you have any plugins, put them here!
group :jekyll_plugins do
gem "jekyll-feed", "~> 0.12"
gem "jekyll-redirect-from", "~> 0.16"
gem "jekyll-paginate", "~> 1.1"
end
# Windows and JRuby does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem
# and associated library.
platforms :mingw, :x64_mingw, :mswin, :jruby do
gem "tzinfo", "~> 1.2"
gem "tzinfo-data"
end
# Performance-booster for watching directories on Windows
gem "wdm", "~> 0.1.1", :platforms => [:mingw, :x64_mingw, :mswin]

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GEM
remote: https://rubygems.org/
specs:
addressable (2.7.0)
public_suffix (>= 2.0.2, < 5.0)
colorator (1.1.0)
concurrent-ruby (1.1.9)
em-websocket (0.5.2)
eventmachine (>= 0.12.9)
http_parser.rb (~> 0.6.0)
eventmachine (1.2.7)
ffi (1.15.3)
forwardable-extended (2.6.0)
http_parser.rb (0.6.0)
i18n (1.8.10)
concurrent-ruby (~> 1.0)
jekyll (4.2.0)
addressable (~> 2.4)
colorator (~> 1.0)
em-websocket (~> 0.5)
i18n (~> 1.0)
jekyll-sass-converter (~> 2.0)
jekyll-watch (~> 2.0)
kramdown (~> 2.3)
kramdown-parser-gfm (~> 1.0)
liquid (~> 4.0)
mercenary (~> 0.4.0)
pathutil (~> 0.9)
rouge (~> 3.0)
safe_yaml (~> 1.0)
terminal-table (~> 2.0)
jekyll-feed (0.15.1)
jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0)
jekyll-paginate (1.1.0)
jekyll-redirect-from (0.16.0)
jekyll (>= 3.3, < 5.0)
jekyll-sass-converter (2.1.0)
sassc (> 2.0.1, < 3.0)
jekyll-seo-tag (2.7.1)
jekyll (>= 3.8, < 5.0)
jekyll-watch (2.2.1)
listen (~> 3.0)
kramdown (2.3.1)
rexml
kramdown-parser-gfm (1.1.0)
kramdown (~> 2.0)
liquid (4.0.3)
listen (3.5.1)
rb-fsevent (~> 0.10, >= 0.10.3)
rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.10)
mercenary (0.4.0)
minima (2.5.1)
jekyll (>= 3.5, < 5.0)
jekyll-feed (~> 0.9)
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.1)
pathutil (0.16.2)
forwardable-extended (~> 2.6)
public_suffix (4.0.6)
rb-fsevent (0.11.0)
rb-inotify (0.10.1)
ffi (~> 1.0)
rexml (3.2.5)
rouge (3.26.0)
safe_yaml (1.0.5)
sassc (2.4.0)
ffi (~> 1.9)
terminal-table (2.0.0)
unicode-display_width (~> 1.1, >= 1.1.1)
unicode-display_width (1.7.0)
PLATFORMS
universal-darwin-20
DEPENDENCIES
jekyll (~> 4.2.0)
jekyll-feed (~> 0.12)
jekyll-paginate (~> 1.1)
jekyll-redirect-from (~> 0.16)
minima (~> 2.5)
tzinfo (~> 1.2)
tzinfo-data
wdm (~> 0.1.1)
BUNDLED WITH
2.2.20

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blog/_config.yml Normal file
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# Welcome to Jekyll!
#
# This config file is meant for settings that affect your whole blog, values
# which you are expected to set up once and rarely edit after that. If you find
# yourself editing this file very often, consider using Jekyll's data files
# feature for the data you need to update frequently.
#
# For technical reasons, this file is *NOT* reloaded automatically when you use
# 'bundle exec jekyll serve'. If you change this file, please restart the server process.
#
# If you need help with YAML syntax, here are some quick references for you:
# https://learn-the-web.algonquindesign.ca/topics/markdown-yaml-cheat-sheet/#yaml
# https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/yaml/
#
# Site settings
# These are used to personalize your new site. If you look in the HTML files,
# you will see them accessed via {{ site.title }}, {{ site.email }}, and so on.
# You can create any custom variable you would like, and they will be accessible
# in the templates via {{ site.myvariable }}.
title: The NewsBlur Blog
email: blog@newsblur.com
description: >- # this means to ignore newlines until "baseurl:"
NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world.
A new sound of an old instrument.
baseurl: "" # the subpath of your site, e.g. /blog
url: "https://blog.newsblur.com" # the base hostname & protocol for your site, e.g. http://example.com
twitter_username: newsblur
github_username: samuelclay
# Build settings
theme: minima
plugins:
- jekyll-feed
- jekyll-redirect-from
- jekyll-paginate
paginate: 10
paginate_path: "/page:num"
# Exclude from processing.
# The following items will not be processed, by default.
# Any item listed under the `exclude:` key here will be automatically added to
# the internal "default list".
#
# Excluded items can be processed by explicitly listing the directories or
# their entries' file path in the `include:` list.
#
# exclude:
# - .sass-cache/
# - .jekyll-cache/
# - gemfiles/
# - Gemfile
# - Gemfile.lock
# - node_modules/
# - vendor/bundle/
# - vendor/cache/
# - vendor/gems/
# - vendor/ruby/

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{%- if page.comments != false and jekyll.environment == "production" -%}
<div id="disqus_thread"></div>
<script>
var disqus_config = function () {
this.page.url = '{{ page.url | absolute_url }}';
this.page.identifier = '{{ page.url | absolute_url }}';
};
(function() {
var d = document, s = d.createElement('script');
s.src = 'https://{{ site.disqus.shortname }}.disqus.com/embed.js';
s.setAttribute('data-timestamp', +new Date());
(d.head || d.body).appendChild(s);
})();
</script>
<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="https://disqus.com/?ref_noscript" rel="nofollow">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript>
{%- endif -%}

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<footer class="site-footer h-card">
<data class="u-url" href="{{ "/" | relative_url }}"></data>
<div class="wrapper">
<h2 class="footer-heading">{{ site.title | escape }}</h2>
<div class="footer-col-wrapper">
<div class="footer-col footer-col-1">
<ul class="contact-list">
<li class="p-name">
{%- if site.author -%}
{{ site.author | escape }}
{%- else -%}
{{ site.title | escape }}
{%- endif -%}
</li>
{%- if site.email -%}
<li><a class="u-email" href="mailto:{{ site.email }}">{{ site.email }}</a></li>
{%- endif -%}
</ul>
</div>
<div class="footer-col footer-col-2">
{%- include social.html -%}
</div>
<div class="footer-col footer-col-3">
<p>{{- site.description | escape -}}</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</footer>

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<script>
if(!(window.doNotTrack === "1" || navigator.doNotTrack === "1" || navigator.doNotTrack === "yes" || navigator.msDoNotTrack === "1")) {
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', '{{ site.google_analytics }}', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
}
</script>

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<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://newsblur.com/media/img/favicon.ico" type="image/png" />
<link rel="icon" href="https://newsblur.com/media/img/favicon_32.png" sizes="32x32"/>
<link rel="icon" href="https://newsblur.com/media/img/favicon_64.png" sizes="64x64"/>
{%- seo -%}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ "/assets/main.css" | relative_url }}">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://cloud.typography.com/6565292/711824/css/fonts.css" />
{% comment %} debug {% endcomment %} <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://cloud.typography.com/6565292/731824/css/fonts.css" />
{%- feed_meta -%}
{%- if jekyll.environment == 'production' and site.google_analytics -%}
{%- include google-analytics.html -%}
{%- endif -%}
</head>

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<header class="site-header" role="banner">
<div class="wrapper">
{%- assign default_paths = site.pages | map: "path" -%}
{%- assign page_paths = site.header_pages | default: default_paths -%}
<a class="site-title" rel="author" href="{{ "/" | relative_url }}">
<div class="site-title-image">
<img src="/assets/newsblur_logo_512.png" width="78" height="78">
</div>
<div class="site-title-text">{{ site.title | escape }}</div>
</a>
{%- if page_paths -%}
<nav class="site-nav">
<input type="checkbox" id="nav-trigger" class="nav-trigger" />
<label for="nav-trigger">
<span class="menu-icon">
<svg viewBox="0 0 18 15" width="18px" height="15px">
<path d="M18,1.484c0,0.82-0.665,1.484-1.484,1.484H1.484C0.665,2.969,0,2.304,0,1.484l0,0C0,0.665,0.665,0,1.484,0 h15.032C17.335,0,18,0.665,18,1.484L18,1.484z M18,7.516C18,8.335,17.335,9,16.516,9H1.484C0.665,9,0,8.335,0,7.516l0,0 c0-0.82,0.665-1.484,1.484-1.484h15.032C17.335,6.031,18,6.696,18,7.516L18,7.516z M18,13.516C18,14.335,17.335,15,16.516,15H1.484 C0.665,15,0,14.335,0,13.516l0,0c0-0.82,0.665-1.483,1.484-1.483h15.032C17.335,12.031,18,12.695,18,13.516L18,13.516z"/>
</svg>
</span>
</label>
<div class="trigger">
{%- for path in page_paths -%}
{%- assign my_page = site.pages | where: "path", path | first -%}
{%- if my_page.title -%}
<a class="page-link" href="{{ my_page.url | relative_url }}">{{ my_page.title | escape }}</a>
{%- endif -%}
{%- endfor -%}
</div>
</nav>
{%- endif -%}
</div>
</header>
<header class="site-subheader" role="banner">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="top">
NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world.
</div>
<div class="bottom">
A new sound of an old instrument.
</div>
</div>
</header>

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<a href="https://github.com/{{ include.username }}"><span class="icon icon--github">{% include icon-github.svg %}</span><span class="username">{{ include.username }}</span></a>

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<svg viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16px" height="16px"><path fill="#828282" d="M7.999,0.431c-4.285,0-7.76,3.474-7.76,7.761 c0,3.428,2.223,6.337,5.307,7.363c0.388,0.071,0.53-0.168,0.53-0.374c0-0.184-0.007-0.672-0.01-1.32 c-2.159,0.469-2.614-1.04-2.614-1.04c-0.353-0.896-0.862-1.135-0.862-1.135c-0.705-0.481,0.053-0.472,0.053-0.472 c0.779,0.055,1.189,0.8,1.189,0.8c0.692,1.186,1.816,0.843,2.258,0.645c0.071-0.502,0.271-0.843,0.493-1.037 C4.86,11.425,3.049,10.76,3.049,7.786c0-0.847,0.302-1.54,0.799-2.082C3.768,5.507,3.501,4.718,3.924,3.65 c0,0,0.652-0.209,2.134,0.796C6.677,4.273,7.34,4.187,8,4.184c0.659,0.003,1.323,0.089,1.943,0.261 c1.482-1.004,2.132-0.796,2.132-0.796c0.423,1.068,0.157,1.857,0.077,2.054c0.497,0.542,0.798,1.235,0.798,2.082 c0,2.981-1.814,3.637-3.543,3.829c0.279,0.24,0.527,0.713,0.527,1.437c0,1.037-0.01,1.874-0.01,2.129 c0,0.208,0.14,0.449,0.534,0.373c3.081-1.028,5.302-3.935,5.302-7.362C15.76,3.906,12.285,0.431,7.999,0.431z"/></svg>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/{{ include.username }}"><span class="icon icon--twitter">{% include icon-twitter.svg %}</span><span class="username">{{ include.username }}</span></a>

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<svg viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16px" height="16px"><path fill="#828282" d="M15.969,3.058c-0.586,0.26-1.217,0.436-1.878,0.515c0.675-0.405,1.194-1.045,1.438-1.809c-0.632,0.375-1.332,0.647-2.076,0.793c-0.596-0.636-1.446-1.033-2.387-1.033c-1.806,0-3.27,1.464-3.27,3.27 c0,0.256,0.029,0.506,0.085,0.745C5.163,5.404,2.753,4.102,1.14,2.124C0.859,2.607,0.698,3.168,0.698,3.767 c0,1.134,0.577,2.135,1.455,2.722C1.616,6.472,1.112,6.325,0.671,6.08c0,0.014,0,0.027,0,0.041c0,1.584,1.127,2.906,2.623,3.206 C3.02,9.402,2.731,9.442,2.433,9.442c-0.211,0-0.416-0.021-0.615-0.059c0.416,1.299,1.624,2.245,3.055,2.271 c-1.119,0.877-2.529,1.4-4.061,1.4c-0.264,0-0.524-0.015-0.78-0.046c1.447,0.928,3.166,1.469,5.013,1.469 c6.015,0,9.304-4.983,9.304-9.304c0-0.142-0.003-0.283-0.009-0.423C14.976,4.29,15.531,3.714,15.969,3.058z"/></svg>
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<ul class="social-media-list">
{%- if site.dribbble_username -%}<li><a href="https://dribbble.com/{{ site.dribbble_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#dribbble' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.dribbble_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.facebook_username -%}<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/{{ site.facebook_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#facebook' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.facebook_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.flickr_username -%}<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/{{ site.flickr_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#flickr' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.flickr_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.github_username -%}<li><a href="https://github.com/{{ site.github_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#github' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.github_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.instagram_username -%}<li><a href="https://instagram.com/{{ site.instagram_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#instagram' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.instagram_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.linkedin_username -%}<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/{{ site.linkedin_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#linkedin' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.linkedin_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.pinterest_username -%}<li><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/{{ site.pinterest_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#pinterest' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.pinterest_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- for mst in site.mastodon -%}{%- if mst.username and mst.instance -%}<li><a href="https://{{ mst.instance| cgi_escape | escape}}/@{{mst.username}}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#mastodon' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ mst.username|escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}{%- endfor -%}
{%- if site.twitter_username -%}<li><a href="https://www.twitter.com/{{ site.twitter_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#twitter' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.twitter_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.youtube_username -%}<li><a href="https://youtube.com/{{ site.youtube_username| cgi_escape | escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#youtube' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.youtube_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.googleplus_username -%}<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/{{ site.googleplus_username| escape }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#googleplus' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span class="username">{{ site.googleplus_username| escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
{%- if site.rss -%}<li><a href="{{ 'feed.xml' | relative_url }}"><svg class="svg-icon"><use xlink:href="{{ '/assets/minima-social-icons.svg#rss' | relative_url }}"></use></svg> <span>{{ site.rss | escape }}</span></a></li>{%- endif -%}
</ul>

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="{{ page.lang | default: site.lang | default: "en" }}">
{%- include head.html -%}
<body>
{%- include header.html -%}
<main class="page-content" aria-label="Content">
<div class="wrapper">
{{ content }}
</div>
</main>
{%- include footer.html -%}
</body>
</html>

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---
layout: default
---
<div class="home">
{%- if page.title -%}
<h1 class="page-heading">{{ page.title }}</h1>
{%- endif -%}
{{ content }}
{%- if site.posts.size > 0 -%}
{% comment %} <h2 class="post-list-heading">{{ page.list_title | default: "Posts" }}</h2> {% endcomment %}
<ul class="post-list">
{%- for post in paginator.posts -%}
<li>
{%- assign date_format = site.minima.date_format | default: "%b %-d, %Y" -%}
<span class="post-meta">{{ post.date | date: date_format }}</span>
<h3>
<a class="post-link" href="{{ post.url | relative_url }}">
{{ post.title | escape }}
</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-content e-content" itemprop="articleBody">
{{ post.content }}
</div>
</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>
<!-- Pagination links -->
<div class="pagination">
{% if paginator.previous_page %}
<a href="{{ paginator.previous_page_path }}" class="previous">
Previous
</a>
{% else %}
<span class="previous">Previous</span>
{% endif %}
<span class="page_number ">
Page: {{ paginator.page }} of {{ paginator.total_pages }}
</span>
{% if paginator.next_page %}
<a href="{{ paginator.next_page_path }}" class="next">Next</a>
{% else %}
<span class="next ">Next</span>
{% endif %}
</div>
<p class="rss-subscribe">subscribe <a href="{{ "/feed.xml" | relative_url }}">via RSS</a></p>
{%- endif -%}
</div>

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---
layout: default
---
<article class="post">
<header class="post-header">
<h1 class="post-title">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1>
</header>
<div class="post-content">
{{ content }}
</div>
</article>

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---
layout: default
---
<article class="post h-entry" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
<header class="post-header">
<h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1>
<p class="post-meta">
<time class="dt-published" datetime="{{ page.date | date_to_xmlschema }}" itemprop="datePublished">
{%- assign date_format = site.minima.date_format | default: "%b %-d, %Y" -%}
{{ page.date | date: date_format }}
</time>
{%- if page.author -%}
• <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span class="p-author h-card" itemprop="name">{{ page.author }}</span></span>
{%- endif -%}</p>
</header>
<div class="post-content e-content" itemprop="articleBody">
{{ content }}
</div>
{%- if site.disqus.shortname -%}
{%- include disqus_comments.html -%}
{%- endif -%}
<a class="u-url" href="{{ page.url | relative_url }}" hidden></a>
</article>

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---
layout: post
title: A New Logo for a New Blog
date: '2011-03-15T08:39:00-04:00'
tags:
- design
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/3877923741/a-new-logo-for-a-new-blog
redirect_from: /post/3877923741/a-new-logo-for-a-new-blog
---
We’ve come a long way, readers. What started as a fun project to scratch an itch has become a fun project that pays for its ever-increasing self. This week I’m going to show how motivated I am about turning NewsBlur into a serious blog reader. And it starts with a collection of a circles:
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="500" data-orig-width="500"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/7bc39090e65c93d25c183d34feef0697/9acad7bd3a38ca12-aa/s540x810/af26a4e5fc93ac78867704956f89508c2bfc3a3d.png" data-orig-height="500" data-orig-width="500"></figure>
What may take you, somebody who has done more than only crop images in an image editor, only a few minutes took me on the order of 1-2 hours a day over 5 days. It’s always like this. Slow as sin until you start to pick up how the editor wants you to work. Then it’s gravy. I could, in fact, completely redo the logo in 10 minutes on a blank canvas. That’s how it goes.
The biggest difference is not the new logo, which sits comfortably underneath your sites when reading, but the new favicon.
<figure data-orig-height="16" data-orig-width="16"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/d1157d27999b31a8e085ac6ad7180523/9acad7bd3a38ca12-51/s540x810/7a0ffd42b679efab43f012e6323092835c2e9ff2.png" data-orig-height="16" data-orig-width="16"></figure>
This little guy sits there, staring at you the whole time, and reminding you where you are. He had to be created separately, but once you know what the hell a mask is, resizing and showing exaggerated pixels is child’s play.

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---
layout: post
title: Explaining Intelligence
date: '2011-04-01T11:11:33-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/4262089560/explaining-intelligence
redirect_from: /post/4262089560/explaining-intelligence
---
If you’re not using intelligence classifiers, you’re only getting half the value out of NewsBlur.&nbsp;
Intelligence classifiers are the phrases, tags, and authors that you like and dislike. Training your sites by choosing classifiers for each feed will automatically highlight the stories you want to read and hide the stories you don’t want to see.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="298" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="http://f.cl.ly/items/1J1N2e2Q0E133N3R0r3m/slider_states.png"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/6f765c2891c6e2aea2511a3471140ae0/1a17e4479e9a96eb-aa/s540x810/d24d428873e3e73481150cb1ecafeef529bf7dee.png" data-orig-height="298" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="http://f.cl.ly/items/1J1N2e2Q0E133N3R0r3m/slider_states.png"></figure>
## How to train intelligence
To train your feeds, you have four options:
1) Train everything at once using the intelligence trainer, linked to from the Dashboard:
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="95" data-orig-width="471"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/cd8ffc2728c10f595c7fac06ce4f42b4/1a17e4479e9a96eb-0d/s540x810/d068b09f480a0052176b5a146e87761b13e08489.png" data-orig-height="95" data-orig-width="471"></figure>
2) Train a feed individually:
<figure data-orig-height="272" data-orig-width="266"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/32a74af0de7004dbfceee0632e014f35/1a17e4479e9a96eb-62/s540x810/c27823f31bb1d19c39d9a1a05fdffa8a54958ca1.png" align="middle" data-orig-height="272" data-orig-width="266"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure data-orig-height="71" data-orig-width="264"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/6cdfff509662b28d905a2b9d59c07b43/1a17e4479e9a96eb-f6/s540x810/878ded95af12fc01e5c699422bb64bdc04aae1e3.png" align="middle" data-orig-height="71" data-orig-width="264"></figure>
3) Train a story:
![](http://f.cl.ly/items/3G1w0X3P2i0T2J1L2D2K/story_trainer.png)
4) Choose tags and authors in the Feed view:
![](http://f.cl.ly/items/2o2x0b1E3I0F2Z273i0F/story_tags.png)
## What’s happening under the hood
To get a better picture of how stories are being classified into the red, yellow, and green states, we need to take a look at how NewsBlur is using your intelligence classifiers and applying them to stories.
When you select a tag, author, or phrase, NewsBlur looks for an exact match in all other stories in the same feed. It’s a very simple match, and nothing mysterious is happening without you being explicit about what you want to see.
Green always wins. If you have 2 green classifiers and 3 red classifiers on a single story, the story will show up green, since it’s clear there is at least \*something\* you like about the story.
However, classifying the publisher (i.e. the feed itself) works slightly differently. If you specify that you like or dislike the feed, all stories are automatically classified according to this preference, unless there is a tag, author, or title phrase that is classified, in which case it wins over the feed’s classification.
This offers a neat trick to hide most stories from a feed, even in the yellow intelligence state, except for the few stories that you want to watch. Simply train the feed to dislike the feed itself, but give a thumbs up to the tags/authors/phrases in the stories you want to read. This will result in all stories being either red or green, which keeps the site out of your yellow intelligence setting.
## What’s in store for the future
Right now the intelligence classifiers are pretty naive. But the impetus for building NewsBlur was to passively train your feeds, just based on your implicit preferences. There’s a lot of work to be done to make this happen, and you can follow NewsBlur’s progress over on GitHub at [http://github.com/samuelclay](http://github.com/samuelclay).

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---
layout: post
title: Where We Are in April
date: '2011-04-23T14:57:02-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/4876823380/where-we-are-in-april
redirect_from: /post/4876823380/where-we-are-in-april
---
Hi readers, I want to take a moment to share what I’m working on for the month of April:
- The API: This is the biggest and baddest update since the River of News and premium accounts. The API includes some lightweight rewrites of how NewsBlur communicates to the back-end server. It’s going smoothly, and you can watch the progress on the less-than-aptly named branch [dashboard\_tweaks on GitHub](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/commits/dashboard_tweaks).
The goal for the API is to have users build Android and iPhone apps on top of NewsBlur. Heck, even web apps which use NewsBlur data sound just fine. Whatever it is, I want to support it.&nbsp;
- Graphs on the Dashboard: I want to add some transparency to how the NewsBlur service is doing, both in terms of user growth and server status. I am adding a few graphs and numbers to the dashboard to show off how many premium and standard users have logged in during the past day, as well as how many feeds have been loaded, the response time for those feeds, and if there is a backlog for feed fetching.
- Bug fixes: If you watch how often I’m committing to NewsBlur on GitHub, you may notice that a handful of bugs are fixed every single day. If you see a bug and it hasn’t been fixed, let me know on Twitter at [@samuelclay](http://twitter.com/samuelclay), or email me at [samuel@ofbrooklyn.com](mailto:samuel@ofbrooklyn.com).
- Press page: Along with the API there will be a press page to showcase the nearly 40 articles and reviews written about NewsBlur. This page will also have a press kit, since one of the easiest ways to get reviewed is to have a number of materials at the ready.
- Publisher information: If you’re a publisher and you want to make sure the NewsBlur experience is tip-top for your readers, this new page will highlight how to make the Original view work best.
The work is progressing and it won’t be long now until everything above is ready for you to use and enjoy. There are a few other features that may make it out if I find myself working through everything else quickly enough.
I recently launched a feature to show an aggregation of the intelligence classifiers that users are using on their sites. Soon, this data may come back to implicitly recommend stories for you. But in order for there to be enough data to make recommendations useful, more users needs to classify stories they like and dislike.
The chart below shows the growth of different intelligence classifiers. The trend is up for tags, authors, feeds, and titles. That’s very good news.
![](http://cl.ly/6D0o/classifiers.png)
I’m also happy to say that as NewsBlur continues to grow, and with a few hundred premium users, it is becoming quite a big network of readers.

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---
layout: post
title: Make your own feed reader with NewsBlur's new API
date: '2011-04-26T06:41:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/4955915076/make-your-own-feed-reader-with-newsblurs-new-api
redirect_from: /post/4955915076/make-your-own-feed-reader-with-newsblurs-new-api
---
_Please vote for this blog post on Hacker News: [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2485377](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2485377)._
It’s a big news day here at NewsBlur HQ. For those of you who don’t know, NewsBlur HQ is a comfy seat on the A train, part of the NYC subway system, since that’s where most of the code gets written anyhow.
I’m happy to announce [NewsBlur’s brand-spanking-new API](http://www.newsblur.com/api). It’s free, it comes with tons of juicy data, and it can be used to create your own feed reader. Let’s look at what this all means.
[NewsBlur](http://www.newsblur.com) is a visual feed reader with intelligence. This API gives you access to all the moving parts that make up the flagship newsblur.com site. This includes the original site, stories, intelligence classifiers, statistics, and a really neat River of News view that aggregates multiple feeds into a single view.
## Juicy Data from the API
Let’s take a quick look at a visualization of the data you can get out of the API. This is a screenshot from the Statistics dialog from a single feed:
![](http://cl.ly/6FN3/statistics.png)
To get this data, you would need to make two calls:
$ curl http://www.newsblur.com/rss_feeds/search_feed?address=techcrunch
{
"feed_address": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechCrunch",
"updated": "4 minutes",
"subs": 2514,
"feed_link": "http://techcrunch.com",
"favicon_fetching": false,
"feed_title": "TechCrunch",
"favicon": "[BASE64 FAVICON GOODNESS DATA]",
"favicon_color": "90b490",
"id": 12,
"result": "ok"
}
$ curl http://www.newsblur.com/rss_feeds/statistics/12
{
"premium_subscribers": 66,
"average_stories_per_month": 490.33333333333331,
"subscriber_count": 2514,
"last_load_time": 40,
"update_interval_minutes": 4,
"last_update": "5 minutes",
"feed_fetch_history": [...],
"result": "ok",
"stories_last_month": 501,
"active_subscribers": 43,
"story_count_history": [["2010-11", 455.0], ["2010-12", 500.0],
["2011-1", 500.0], ["2011-2", 500.0],
["2011-3", 487.0], ["2011-4", 500.0]],
"next_update": "3 minutes",
"classifier_counts": {
"feed": [{
"neg": 5,
"feed_id": 12,
"pos": 40
}],
"title": [
{
"neg": 4,
"tag": "techcrunch tv",
"pos": 14
},
{
"neg": 3,
"tag": "iphone 4",
"pos": 11
}
...
],
"author": [{
"neg": 2,
"pos": 24,
"author": "MG Siegler"
},
{
"neg": 3,
"pos": 25,
"author": "Michael Arrington"
},
{
"neg": 4,
"pos": 13,
"author": "Paul Carr"
}
...
]
}
}
How about the intelligence classifiers for a site?
![](http://f.cl.ly/items/1o3V3D2K1u1Q1P2N2B42/Screen%20shot%202011-04-26%20at%2010.09.33%20AM.png)
$ curl http://www.newsblur.com/rss_feeds/search_feed?address=louisgray
{
"feed_address": "http://blog.louisgray.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss",
"updated": "2 minutes",
"subs": 130,
"feed_link": "http://blog.louisgray.com/",
"favicon_fetching": false,
"feed_title": "louisgray.com",
"favicon": "[FAVICON GOES HERE]",
"favicon_color": "f96402",
"id": 172,
"result": "ok"
}
$ curl http://www.newsblur.com/reader/feeds_trainer?feed_id=172
[{
"stories_last_month": 24,
"feed_id": 172,
"feed_tags": [["android", 13.0], ["google", 12.0], ["apple", 12.0],
["iphone", 9.0], ["twitter", 7.0], ["facebook", 5.0],
["sxsw", 5.0], ["media", 5.0], ["spotify", 4.0],
["itunes", 4.0], ["ipad", 4.0], ["silicon valley", 4.0],
["personal", 3.0], ["apple tv", 3.0], ["quora", 3.0],
["social networking", 3.0], ["yobongo", 3.0],
["entertainment", 3.0], ["seesmic", 3.0], ["search", 3.0],
["music", 3.0], ["beluga", 3.0], ["work", 3.0],
["chat", 3.0], ["samsung", 3.0]],
"classifiers": {
"authors": {},
"feeds": {},
"titles": {},
"tags": {
"personal": 1,
"android": -1,
"facebook": -1,
"twitter": 1,
"rss": 1
}
},
"feed_authors": [["louisgray@gmail.com (Louis Gray)", 62]]
}]
Without going too deep into explaining various parts of the API, you can dive right into it by viewing the various API endpoints at [http://www.newsblur.com/api](http://www.newsblur.com/api). The API is meant to be used with an authenticated account, which can be created directly from the API. I spent a lot of time polishing the look and readability of the API, so I hope you like it, since if you’re going to be developing on top of it, you will probably spend a looong time working with the 30 endpoints.
I’d like to briefly note that I work on NewsBlur in my free time, and it’s entirely open-source on GitHub: [http://github.com/samuelclay](http://github.com/samuelclay). This API is the result of 22 months of work and thought. But it’s not corporate, not funded, and certainly not battle-tested. Go easy on it for the time being. And [offer feedback on Twitter](http://twitter.com/samuelclay).
## Is making a NewsBlur client cannibalism?
Woah! How does that even work? There’s no endpoint for _cannibalism_. (OK, there is, it’s `/reader/delete_feed`.) But what does this API mean for you?
Twitter has a web client, but the real iceberg is the ecosystem built on their API. Google Reader has a website, but more than a handful of enormous venture-engorged companies make their living by using the Reader API.
If you choose to use the NewsBlur API, you are building complements to the website. You can mix-and-mash data as you please. But more importantly, you can use NewsBlur data in ways that are not even possible on the website today.
Want to mix up a social layer with the subscriptions in your NewsBlur account? Just use `/reader/feeds`, `/reader/feed/:id`, and `/rss_feeds/statistics`. Got an Android device and want to make a mobile client that you can _charge money_ for and make a profit? The NewsBlur API supports that.
What you can’t do is wrap advertisements around NewsBlur data. Why? Because NewsBlur preserves the original site, so there are already ads on the page if the publisher chooses to have them. Additionally, ads degrade the NewsBlur experience. NewsBlur is not some fly-by-night air-ride-equipped service out to make a buck. NewsBlur is built to make life better, a small net-enabled reading experience at a time. Profit is great, but not at the cost of ads.
## If you build it, they will come, and there’s no hard scaling part
You’re building on an API, not a service end-to-end. If you want to handle the scaling part, use the raw NewsBlur code on GitHub: [http://github.com/samuelclay](http://github.com/samuelclay). NewsBlur.com will take care of the scaling and infrastructure, and you can take care of building a new layer that might make you famous/well-off/existentially-happy.
The API is ready for you at [http://www.newsblur.com/api](http://www.newsblur.com/api).
Questions? Feedback? Want to stay up to date when I drive cross country and take photos of the beautiful countryside between New York and California? Follow [@samuelclay on Twitter](http://twitter.com/samuelclay).
- Samuel Clay, innocent Founder of NewsBlur

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---
layout: post
title: 'Blar: A new Android app for NewsBlur'
date: '2011-08-09T09:44:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/8693301787/blar-a-new-android-app-for-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/8693301787/blar-a-new-android-app-for-newsblur
---
This Summer is shaping up to be the season for mobile apps. Blar, a new Android client for NewsBlur, has just been released. It’s available on the Android Market here: [https://market.android.com/details?id=bitwrit.Blar](https://market.android.com/details?id=bitwrit.Blar). It is created by Harris Munir, who you can contact [through his site](http://harrism.com/).
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="700" data-orig-width="420"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/5022e90b07be6d54d1798dc7036e72fa/e520a0dc9c3b17fb-4e/s540x810/11513499eba16ad5eb2bc3af9dc6e36b853218ae.png" data-orig-height="700" data-orig-width="420"></figure>
The source code to Blar is also released under [a fair license](https://bitbucket.org/harris/blar/src/f9f8458a73c6/license.txt) on Bitbucket: [https://bitbucket.org/harris/blar/](https://bitbucket.org/harris/blar/).
In other news, the official NewsBlur iPhone app is nearly finished and is ready to be beta tested. If you are a premium user, [email me your UUID and username](mailto:samuel@ofbrooklyn.com) and I will send you your own free copy of the NewsBlur iPhone app. Just know that it is under heavy development and might change for the better in the near-term future.
Blar was created using the just released [NewsBlur API](http://www.newbslur.com/api). If you create your own mobile app, bookmarklet, browser extension, or even desktop client, I’ll feature it either on the dashboard of every user or the Goodies section. I’m also happy to assist you in making the app, and even making new API endpoints for you if you wish. Just let me know and keep the NewsBlur apps rolling.

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---
layout: post
title: 'Customizing the reader, step 1: story titles'
date: '2011-09-30T09:40:30-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/10850960896/customizing-the-reader-step-1-story-titles
redirect_from: /post/10850960896/customizing-the-reader-step-1-story-titles
---
The iPhone app is now only a few days away from launching. But it took 3 weeks of sitting around in the App Store approval queue before getting here. During that time, I started working on the new customizations that folks have been asking for.
The first of these customizations is the story title pane. Most other readers allow you to position it wherever you like, and NewsBlur is now joining them in giving you that freedom.
You can change the positioning under Manage \> Preferences.
![](http://cl.ly/AZwr/story_titles_pane_1.png)
## Left positioning
![](http://cl.ly/AYS0/story_titles_pane_2.png)
## Top positioning
![](http://cl.ly/AZ2J/story_titles_pane_3.png)
## Bottom positioning
The old tried and true, this is the default and what you’re already used to.
![](http://cl.ly/AZ3q/story_titles_pane_4.png)
I hope you like these new positions. There are a few other niceties in this release, namely that resizing window panes is now a live operation, showing you the content stretching in realtime.
There’s a lot more customizations coming out soon. Follow me on GitHub to watch them happen: [http://github.com/samuelclay](http://github.com/samuelclay).

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---
layout: post
title: A Social Feed Reader
date: '2011-10-26T11:41:23-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/11956240785/a-social-feed-reader
redirect_from: /post/11956240785/a-social-feed-reader
---
NewsBlur was released exactly one year ago. You can read the initial reaction on Hacker News: [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1834305.](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1834305.) Since then, so much has changed and all for the better. Usage is up—way, way up. Premium users are helping the site run. Load times are approaching the goal of less than 100 ms (0.10 sec) per page. In short, things couldn’t be better.
Recently, my main competitor, Google Reader, announced plans to decommission the social features of the site and integrate them into Google+. While Google is busy refocusing on what’s important to them, many users feel left behind. My goal with NewsBlur is to make a better, complete experience for reading sites. This includes social features that make reading a social experience.
Social is a major planned feature. It’s highly prioritized right after I build two other big ticket items: mobile and search. The mobile iPhone app is wrapping up and is already at version 1.1 on the App Store, although I have not publicly launched it because it still needs a few more features (specifically, training and the river of news) to be considered feature-complete.
Once that’s out the door, I have to build search to be able to support social. Search won’t be impossible, since the UI design decisions are fairly straight-foward, and the backend is a no-brainer in terms of design. But it’ll take some time to get right, make fast, and get integrated into the massive database that is quickly accumulating.
After that, I have so many social ideas swimming in my head that I’m ready to drown. I’ve had these social features planned since day one. But I never built them because I needed to make a proof-of-concept first, to be sure that social features would be even feasible.
Also, you can’t discount the immense network effort that building social features would bring. I’m a solo indie developer working on this part-time. Having social features would crush my servers if used as much as I think they would. But know that I am planning some wonderful features to be released as soon as the pieces are in place. Look for the first inkling in the new year.
Let me know on Twitter what your ideas of a good social experience are: [@samuelclay](http://twitter.com/samuelclay).
Sam Clay

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---
layout: post
title: '2011: Year in Review'
date: '2012-01-16T20:47:00-05:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/15993667293/2011-year-in-review
redirect_from: /post/15993667293/2011-year-in-review
---
Twelve months can be a quick flyby if you don’t stop to write everything down. Luckily, a habit I’ve kept since July 2009, when I started recording monthly goals for my project, is still going strong.
This gives me the opportunity to review everything that we’ve accomplished in the past year. There were numerous new features, about half of which were created as a result of feedback from the community. You asked for it, I found the time.
It’s been a pretty good cycle that looks like it’s going to keep going for years.
## Premium accounts are keeping NewsBlur alive
At only a $1/month, nearly 800 people have subscribed to NewsBlur. Not much of it goes back to me, since the servers, between the eight of them, cost $650 every month. But that gap is increasing and my prediction is that these servers should be good for more than a doubling of traffic.
## Social is coming
In October Google Reader dropped its social features and there was an enormous influx of new users. Unfortunately, NewsBlur doesn’t have any social features that could be considered a replacement for the community lost in the Reader sunsetting.
But that’s changing soon. There’s only a couple more weeks of development needed before the Social branch is ready for beta testers. And I’ll be taking feedback on the changes, iterating until sharebro communities are able to form. It’ll be a great time, watching a favorite service evolve into a social community.
If you’re a developer, you might enjoy watching the development of [NewsBlur on GitHub](http://github.com/samuelclay).
## 2011 Calendar
The biggest features built this year were the River of News, the iPhone app, and the API. There were tons of other big features, but these three top the list for their importance.
### January 2011
- River of News - read all stories in a folder
- “Show N hidden stories” button
- [Bookmarklet](http://www.newsblur.com/?next=goodies) - browser bookmark that allows you to subscribe to a site from the site itself
- Favicon fetching and color decomposing - the color gradient that matches the site’s favicon.
### February 2011
- New dashboard
- Replicated PostgreSQL - a slave relational DB for redundancy
- [Firefox browser extension](http://www.newsblur.com/?next=goodies) - handles RSS feeds by forwarding them to NewsBlur
- [Fabric scripts](http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/fabfile.py) - bootstrapping new servers now takes 5 minutes vs. 3 hours
- Hiding the sidebar - hit the `u` key
### March 2011
- Recommended sites - built entirely to be able to link to the hilarious [Ten Sexy Ladies](http://www.tensexyladies.com)
- [New logo](http://www.newsblur.com/press) - actually, a logo, period.
- Inline classifiers - click on an author or tag in the Feed view
- Create a new folder directly from the bookmarklet
### April 2011
- [The NewsBlur API](http://www.newsblur.com/api)
- Hide and show story changes - see the story being modified after being published
- Graphs on the dashboard
- Upgraded to Django 1.3
- Feed fetch histories in Site Statistics
### May 2011
- Send story by email - the original social network
- Community feedback on the dashboard
- The tutorial - built because blogger Louis Gray didn’t easily grasp how to get started with NewsBlur, and he’s an early adopter, so good luck to any regular users without the help of a tutorial
### June 2011
- Prototype mobile site - using jQuery UI, was a disaster in terms of performance
- Took a 2 week long vacation to the [Yucatan](http://www.flickr.com/photos/conesus/sets/72157626885528004/)
### July 2011
- Account dialog
- Major work on the iPhone app
### August 2011
- the iPhone app work continues
- [Python API](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/blob/master/api/newsblur.py)
- Major speed-ups in feed loading and fetching
### September 2011
- Submit the iPhone app to the App Store - still version 1.0, not polished enough to launch
- New users and new premium users now get emailed a pretty template
- Allowing the moving of the story titles pane - [detailed on the blog](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2011-09-30-customizing-the-reader-step-1-story-titles.html)
### October 2011
- iPhone App version 1.1 - adding sites from the app
- Planning out Social - [see the blog post](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2011-10-26-a-social-feed-reader.html)
### November 2011
- Mark story as unread - #1 feature request since 2010
- Move to folder - moving folders and sites to other folders without having to drag-and-drop.
- Sharing stories - added Pinboard and Google+
- Site settings - change a site’s feed address
### December 2011
- [Launched the iPhone App](http://www.newsblur.com/iphone) - polished enough at version 1.2
- MongoDB is now replicated - for higher availability
- Lots of backend changes to account for increased load - increased speed with more load using better code
You can follow updates in real-time on Twitter by following both [@samuelclay](http://twitter.com/samuelclay) and [@newsblur](http://twitter.com/newsblur). Lots more to come.
Keep the feedback, ideas, praise, and bugs coming. I couldn’t do this without the external motivation coming from dozens of your voices talking about NewsBlur.

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---
layout: post
title: SSL & Stripe.js
date: '2012-02-29T15:45:00-05:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/18518935773/ssl-stripejs
redirect_from: /post/18518935773/ssl-stripejs
---
Two big announcements today:
1. SSL is now available. You can use [**https** ://www.newsblur.com](https://www.newsblur.com) if that’s your thing.
2. Stripe.js integration means you can use a credit card to pay for a premium account.
In order to integrate [Stripe.js](http://www.stripe.com) into NewsBlur, I had to add SSL support, which was not the easiest task. Generating signing requests, signing certifications, and providing additional security is no basic task.
Since you’re reading this, it would be a safe assumption that you have already gone premium. To which, firstly, I thank you. And secondly, if you’re invested in the success of a product, you want to watch it grow. But that means you also will not have a chance to see the new payment form, so here’s the new premium upsell:
![](http://f.cl.ly/items/39232n0X213R0v241e3q/Premium%20Upsell.png)
And the new payment form:
![](http://f.cl.ly/items/0Y1v1X060i453A1z2o2Q/Stripe%20Payment%20Form.png)
I’m extraordinarily pleased with how much easier this was relative to setting up PayPal about a year ago for recurring payments. Thanks to Stripe.js for being such a hassle-free payment provider.

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---
layout: post
title: 'From project to profession: going indie on NewsBlur'
date: '2012-03-01T11:48:00-05:00'
tags:
- meta
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/18561597889/going-full-time
redirect_from: /post/18561597889/going-full-time
---
Exactly four months ago, Jason Kottke found my project, [NewsBlur](http://www.newsblur.com), and tweeted:
> Looking like @[newsblur](https://twitter.com/newsblur) is the @[pinboard](https://twitter.com/pinboard) of Google’s deliciousing of Reader.
>
> — Jason Kottke (@jkottke) [November 1, 2011](https://twitter.com/jkottke/status/131434505947979776)
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In that time, every measure of traffic, paid subscriptions, and community feedback has cleared new heights on my revered munin charts. But I kept my full-time job and only worked on NewsBlur as a side-project, as I have been doing for the past two years.
I’m at a slow but steady trickle of users, enough of whom convert into paying premium subscribers to pay for the increasing number of servers (now costing almost $800/month!). But a vocal support forum and an ever-increasing trickle of payments aren’t what convinced me to dedicate myself full-time to my humble project.
What convinced me is that life’s too short.
## The only way to do great work is to love what you do
> Yesterday was my last day at Tasty Labs. Today is my first day as a full-time indie developer.
>
> — Samuel Clay (@samuelclay) [February 23, 2012](https://twitter.com/samuelclay/status/172737665182076928)
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I’m following the better-half of my inner-Jobs and choosing to follow the path of doing what I love to do.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> It’s going to be expensive on my part. There will be no paycheck, health insurance runs out in a few months, and even on an exceptionally good day, premium subscriptions bring in only about half of my former salary.
## Paying customers are keeping things afloat
It’s not that big a risk. Users are choosing to pay and choosing how much to pay. Some users opt to pay a $12/year at a buck a month, while some choose to pay $36/year at $3/month. The servers cost roughly .75x what premium subscriptions bring in. That gap between cost and revenue is growing steadily, as the servers I have are running at 25% capacity.
Maciej Ceglowski, of Pinboard fame, has written extensively about the scourge of free services not taking payments from users. From a recent February 2012 presentation, he [writes of the three types of services](http://pinboard.in/talks/biz.pdf) [pdf]:
> ### Business Model #1: Charge Money
>
> This is a groundbreaking new approach where a site accepts fungible tokens of value in return for a product or service.
>
> ### Business Model #2: Burn Money
>
> Find a sponsor with deep pockets and run at a loss indefinitely.
>
> ### Business Model #3: Offer a Free Service and Fail
>
> The most popular business model has been to offer a free service and then shut down (or transition to model #1).
You can look forward to new features, bug fixes, and an unending stream of progress, all because you’re paying me for the work I do. It’s a simple setup that helps me sleep at night. I’m building an honest product. You know what you’re paying for. And NewsBlur will continue to be ad-free, because ads are not part of the product that I want to use myself.
## So much time, so little to do. Strike that! Reverse it.
In what I can only consider a bizarrely wonderful coincidence, I see this the morning after I declared freedom:
> @[samuelclay](https://twitter.com/samuelclay) Good luck!
>
> — Google Reader (@googlereader) [February 24, 2012](https://twitter.com/googlereader/status/173084829880037376)
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The wind’s at my back, and I’m feeling pretty good about this.<sup id="fnref:2"><a href="#fn:2" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup>
* * *
1.
The worse-half of my inner-Jobs insists on perfection and never gets anything shipped. The balancing act between better and done is about the only constant in this crazy dream to be a self-sustaining indie dev.&nbsp;[↩︎](#fnref:1)
2.
You should [follow NewsBlur’s development on Github](https://github.com/samuelclay). I live on props, so that’d make me feel even better.&nbsp;[↩︎](#fnref:2)

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---
layout: post
title: 'New mobile app for NewsBlur: Web Feeds for Nokia MeeGo'
date: '2012-03-14T13:14:00-04:00'
tags:
- mobile
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/19302812544/mobile-app-web-feeds-nokia-meego
redirect_from: /post/19302812544/mobile-app-web-feeds-nokia-meego
---
And what a gorgeous mobile app it is. App developer Róbert Márki just released [Web Feeds](http://store.ovi.com/content/261063), the first NewsBlur app for Nokia MeeGo. Take a look at these screenshots:
<style>
.nokia td img {
width: 280px;
margin-right: 24px;
}
</style><table class="nokia"\><tr\><td\>
### Feed list
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/newsblur_view.png)</td\> <td\>
### Story list
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/feed_view.png)</td\> </tr\><tr\><td\>
### Story view
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/story_view_large_image2.png)</td\> <td\>
### Intelligence training
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/inteligence_trainer_feed_view.png)</td\> </tr\><tr\><td\>
### Adding a site
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/add_feed_sheet.png)</td\> <td\>
### Intelligence control
![](http://projects.developer.nokia.com/feed_reader/files/filter_dialog.png)</td\> </tr\></table\>
Just stellar work and it has all the features of the website. Web Feeds is free and [available from the Nokia Store](http://store.ovi.com/content/261063).

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---
layout: post
title: 'Knight News Challenge: NewsBlur'
date: '2012-03-16T11:29:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/19405157834/knight-news-challenge
redirect_from: /post/19405157834/knight-news-challenge
---
[Knight News Challenge: NewsBlur](http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19397311604/newsblur)
Hey NewsBlurians, I’m applying for a grant from the Knight Foundation. In a previous life I worked on DocumentCloud, a successful Knight grantee, building [open-source libraries](http://www.documentcloud.org/opensource). I’m looking to continue the fine tradition of building for both users and for other developers.
I’m asking for enough to fund a year of development with the help of another engineer. Please vote for the NewsBlur grant application on Knight’s website, reblogged below.
[Knight News Challenge Entry](http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19397311604/newsblur):
> ### 1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]
>
> To build an intelligent social news reader for web and mobile called NewsBlur.
>
> ### 2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]
>
> RSS feed readers exist, none have the sharing model, original site view, and intelligence classifiers of NewsBlur. Since Google Reader phased out sharing, there’s a sizable community looking to share and discuss news.
>
> ### 3. Describe the network with which you intend to build or work. [50 words]
>
> NewsBlur will surface stories shared by friends and friends of friends by combining the imported networks of Twitter/Facebook with communities on NewsBlur. These communities make it easy to expand your network by showing popular comments from outside your network. NewsBlur also has intelligence classifiers which allow the user to filter and highlight comments across all networks.
>
> ### 4. Why will it work? [100 words]
>
> Because it’s worked before, just under a different model in Google Reader’s now defunct all-or-nothing community. NewsBlur’s network will be oriented more towards showing relationships and distance between you and the other active commenters on a story. NewsBlur will capitalize on the value of pre-existing networks with an intuitive and clean interface that highlights the distance between users. Surfacing relative connections between people will result in a more active community and increased engagement between like-minded readers. NewsBlur further benefits newspapers, publishers, and individual writers by showing the original site (including ads and design), as well as encouraging reading through NewsBlur’s intelligence filters.
>
> ### 5. Who is working on it? [100 words]
>
> I started working on NewsBlur as a side project in June 2009. Over the past 2.5 years, NewsBlur has become self-sustainable through organic growth (word-of-mouth, blog posts, github activity). Because NewsBlur is open-source, a number of contributors from the NewsBlur community have developed their own pet features which have been integrated back into the website. This also works well for finding typos in documentation and allowing users to submit a simple pull request to get it fixed.
>
> ### 6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]
>
> On the back-end: distributed feed fetchers and parsers. On the front-end: the feed reader itself, intelligence training, and an iPhone app. There is an actively used API, on top of which NewsBlur’s users have built a mobile website, an Android app, a Windows Phone app, and a Nokia MeeGo app. What’s not built is the entire social layer. A prototype has already been developed to surface any network relationships on comments and shared stories.
>
> ### 7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]
>
> NewsBlur is free, but there is also a premium subscription that costs between $1 - $3 per month. Users can choose how much they’d like to pay, but that means that NewsBlur is able to pay for its 8 servers. The gap between costs and revenue (also known as profit) is increasing every day.
>
> Requested amount from Knight News Challenge: $150,000
> Expected amount of time required to complete project: 1 year

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---
layout: post
title: Building real-time feed updates for NewsBlur with Redis and WebSockets
date: '2012-04-02T17:52:00-04:00'
tags:
- code
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/20371256202/building-real-time-feed-updates-for-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/20371256202/building-real-time-feed-updates-for-newsblur
---
Today, NewsBlur is going real-time. Blogs using the PubSubHubbub protocol (PuSH), which includes all Blogger, Tumblr, and many Wordpress blogs, will instantaneously show new updates to subscribers on NewsBlur. Making this happen, while not for the faint of heart, was straight-forward enough that I’m sharing the recipe I used to get everything hooked up and running smoothly.
Every user, both premium and standard, will now receive instantaneous updates. I’ve been beta-testing this feature for the past few weeks, and I’ve been quite pleased in knowing that I’m now reading on the bleeding-edge.
If you are a developer, you may be interested in how this was done. There are two components in a real-time feed: detecting updates and then informing users of those updates.
## Get blog updates in real-time
If you are building a system that consumes an RSS feed and you want it to push to you, you’ll have to subscribe to a special PubSubHubbub hub url that the RSS feed gives you in the original RSS feed.
Take a look at the `<feed>` section in the NewsBlur Blog’s RSS feed:
>>> # Python
>>> from utils import feedparser
>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> fp = feedparser.parse('http://blog.newsblur.com/rss')
>>> pprint(fp.feed)
{'generator': u'Tumblr (3.0; @newsblur)',
'generator_detail': {'name': u'Tumblr (3.0; @newsblur)'},
'link': u'http://blog.newsblur.com/',
'links': [{'href': u'http://tumblr.superfeedr.com/',
'rel': u'hub',
'type': u'text/html'},
{'href': u'http://blog.newsblur.com/',
'rel': u'alternate',
'type': u'text/html'}],
'subtitle': u'Visual feed reading with intelligence.',
'subtitle_detail': {'base': u'http://blog.newsblur.com/rss',
'language': None,
'type': u'text/html',
'value': u'Visual feed reading with intelligence.'},
'title': u'The NewsBlur Blog',
'title_detail': {'base': u'http://blog.newsblur.com/rss',
'language': None,
'type': u'text/plain',
'value': u'The NewsBlur Blog'}}
If there’s a `rel="hub"` node under `links`, then the RSS feed is advertising its PubSubHubbub abilities. If you make a subscription request to that address, then the feed will push out updates to your callback URL.
The code for sending the subscription requests, along with generating the verification token, can be found on GitHub: [the PuSH views for handling updates and the initial callback](http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/apps/push/views.py) and [the PuSH models used to store subscriptions in the DB](http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/apps/push/models.py). Here’s the main request that your server has to send:
# Python
response = self._send_request(hub, {
'hub.mode' : 'subscribe',
'hub.callback' : callback,
'hub.topic' : topic,
'hub.verify' : ['async', 'sync'],
'hub.verify_token' : subscription.generate_token('subscribe'),
'hub.lease_seconds' : lease_seconds,
})
The publisher will then ping your server back to confirm the subscription. Once the publisher is configured to send blog updates to your server, you just have to let users know when there’s a new story, and that’s takes some COMET/push technology with the help of WebSockets.
## Serving updates to visitors in real-time
When a publisher pushes a new story to your server, apart from dupe detection and storing it in your database, you need to alert users who are currently on the site.
[Redis](http://redis.io) is your new best friend. One of its primary data structures, apart from hashes, sets, sorted sets, and key-value, is a pubsub type that is perfect for this kind of update. Users subscribe to the updates of all of the feeds to which they subscribe. When these sites have a new story, they publish a simple notification to each of the feed’s subscribers.
Here the feed fetcher is publishing to any listening subscribers.
# Python
def publish_to_subscribers(self, feed):
try:
r = redis.Redis(connection_pool=settings.REDIS_POOL)
listeners_count = r.publish(str(feed.pk), 'story:new')
if listeners_count:
logging.debug(" ---> [%-30s] Published to %s subscribers" % (
feed.title[:30], listeners_count))
except redis.ConnectionError:
logging.debug(" ***> [%-30s] Redis is unavailable for real-time." % (
feed.title[:30],))
These subscribers have subscribed via Redis. To know that a user is currently connected and wants to be notified of updates, [Socket.io](http://socket.io) is used to connect the browser to a Node.js server that will subscribe to updates via Redis.
The browser opens up a WebSocket and listens for updates for the feeds that they care about:
// JavaScript
setup_socket_realtime_unread_counts: function() {
if (!this.socket) {
var server = window.location.protocol + '//' +
window.location.hostname + ':8888';
this.socket = this.socket || io.connect(server);
this.socket.on('connect', _.bind(function() {
var active_feeds = this.send_socket_active_feeds();
console.log(["Connected to real-time pubsub with " +
active_feeds.length + " feeds."]);
this.socket.on('feed:update', _.bind(function(feed_id, message) {
console.log(['Real-time feed update', feed_id, message]);
this.force_feeds_refresh(false, false, parseInt(feed_id, 10));
}, this));
this.flags.feed_refreshing_in_realtime = true;
this.setup_feed_refresh();
}, this));
this.socket.on('disconnect', _.bind(function() {
console.log(["Lost connection to real-time pubsub. Falling back to polling."]);
this.setup_feed_refresh();
}, this));
}
},
The app server is ready to handle thousands of concurrent subscription requests, being Node.js and asynchronous:
# CoffeeScript
fs = require 'fs'
io = require('socket.io').listen 8888
redis = require 'redis'
REDIS_SERVER = if process.env.NODE_ENV == 'dev' then 'localhost' else 'db01'
client = redis.createClient 6379, REDIS_SERVER
io.sockets.on 'connection', (socket) ->
console.log " ---> New connection brings total to" +
" #{io.sockets.clients().length} consumers."
socket.on 'subscribe:feeds', (feeds, username) ->
socket.subscribe?.end()
socket.subscribe = redis.createClient 6379, REDIS_SERVER
console.log " ---> [#{username}] Subscribing to #{feeds.length} feeds"
socket.subscribe.subscribe feeds
socket.subscribe.on 'message', (channel, message) ->
console.log " ---> [#{username}] Update on #{channel}: #{message}"
socket.emit 'feed:update', channel
socket.on 'disconnect', () ->
socket.subscribe?.end()
console.log " ---> [] Disconnect, there are now" +
" #{io.sockets.clients().length-1} consumers."
That’s all there is to it. There a lot going on, but it’s effectively a small circle composed of subscribers and publishers, using Redis to maintain pubsub connections between the many clients and their many feeds.
<script src="http://yandex.st/highlightjs/6.1/highlight.min.js"></script><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://yandex.st/highlightjs/6.1/styles/github.min.css">
<script type="text/javascript">
hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();
</script>

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---
layout: post
title: Introducing Blurblogs, Roy, and Y Combinator
date: '2012-07-30T11:22:00-04:00'
tags:
- meta
- news
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/27033939756/introducing-blurblogs-roy-and-y-combinator
redirect_from: /post/27033939756/introducing-blurblogs-roy-and-y-combinator
---
What a difference a few months make. NewsBlur was a side-project of mine for two years. In March of this year, [I committed myself full-time]([http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2012-03-01-going-full-time.html](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2012-03-01-going-full-time.html)) and went from developing NewsBlur almost entirely on the NYC subway to writing code every waking minute of the day. And now there are three big announcements to make. # 1. NewsBlur is now a \*social\* news reader The big news of the day is that you can now share stories on NewsBlur. When you share a story, your comments and the original story are posted to your blurblog. Your blurblog is a simple and customizable website. People can comment and reply directly on your blurblog, and you can follow your friends to read the news stories and blog posts that they care about.<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="869" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="http://f.cl.ly/items/3e1r202n3I232M473J2b/blurblog%20screenshot.png"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/e6e0622f0090d294ad1e790b0fc3049a/c3a0661d97716fb7-f7/s540x810/5cf1f20ec34b032be184d0092a71e466769381fe.png" style="margin: 0 auto;width: 600px; height: 869px; border: 1px solid #A0A0A0" data-orig-height="869" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="http://f.cl.ly/items/3e1r202n3I232M473J2b/blurblog%20screenshot.png"></figure>Since you’re good at picking your friends, and your friends are good at picking their friends, you will see friends of friends show up, expanding your network with shared stories that you will enjoy. It’s a new way of sharing the news. And because NewsBlur is already an easy to use news reader, it’s simple to find and share stories that your friends will care about. Every NewsBlur user has their own blurblog. All you have to do is signup for an account on [www.newsblur.com]([http://www.newsblur.com](http://www.newsblur.com)) and share interesting stories. # 2. Y Combinator For those of you who work with computer science, you may know that a Y-combinator generalizes recursion, abstracting its implementation, and thereby separating it from the actual work of the function in question.[^1] [<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="81" data-orig-width="500"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/97d36e865086575a3b131e7ec928534e/c3a0661d97716fb7-14/s540x810/172c7f8b8367a623b61a3f26e3d95ff5214b5e2c.png" style="margin: 12px auto;width: 200px;border: none" data-orig-height="81" data-orig-width="500"></figure>](http://www.ycombinator.com)I’m pleased as punch to announce an investment in NewsBlur by Y Combinator, the investment firm. Over the past two months, we’ve been humbled by the roster of experienced partners giving us candid advice. It’s their tough love that is the catalyst for the next few months of transitioning NewsBlur from side project to world-class news reader. Expect NewsBlur to become simpler and more refined. # 3. Introducing Roy Yang When Y Combinator accepted me as a solo founder, their first piece of advice was to find a co-founder. Looking at every successful startup, a common pattern emerges. Every great startup has multiple people carrying the load when the company takes off. There is one person on this planet that I would trust as a co-founder. His name is Roy Yang and we have been friends since we met in New York four years ago. We worked together for nearly two years at Daylife, another news startup. I attended his wedding last year in Mexico, and he was the only person I called when I knew I needed somebody talented, focused, and able to complement me on a project that demands enormous time and effort.[<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="334" data-orig-width="500"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/88d3942183371de8e848da2416f28e29/c3a0661d97716fb7-c9/s540x810/028ee543cc6fd18a9daff3b46fbaaf1408994f25.jpg" style="margin: 12px auto;border: none" data-orig-height="334" data-orig-width="500"></figure>](http://roy.newsblur.com)Roy is now responsible for both iOS apps and is instrumental in challenging me when I think I’m right and am clearly not. He’s got the patience of a monk and the determination of a true New Yorker. [Follow Roy’s blurblog]([http://roy.newsblur.com](http://roy.newsblur.com)) to keep up with him. # A glimpse into the future of NewsBlur This summer marks the beginning of NewsBlur as a full-time startup. Look forward to new mobile apps, new designs, and new features. Here’s a quick idea of what we’re working on for the next few weeks:
<figure data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/976b01805af2f28072b5fda19b03553e/c3a0661d97716fb7-2e/s540x810/3d07b12c76cc63bfcb21cee6d866c27dacd129f0.png" style="clear: none; float: left;margin: 0 24px 24px 0;border: 1px solid #A0A0A0;" data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"></figure><figure data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/62efdc1b56ca49a5df863ae0ff79b9af/c3a0661d97716fb7-89/s540x810/1b25ff57ad8c97ee62d3d0f621fde66005f5ffc1.png" style="clear: none; float: left;margin: 0 0 24px 0;border: 1px solid #A0A0A0;" data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"></figure><figure data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/aa7923057b5317a73d25d587f52b1a9b/c3a0661d97716fb7-74/s540x810/d09e1cbe95c3915f99a9b7b4e29e73c63fda0f4e.png" style="clear: none; float: left;margin: 0 24px 24px 0;border: 1px solid #A0A0A0;" data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"></figure><figure data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/430031fdbde97cfda01b197653885cd6/c3a0661d97716fb7-98/s540x810/97b2fb0e47f2b1cf3a1a69ad3dd6aebae0ec4c2d.png" style="clear: none; float: left;margin: 0 0 24px 0;border: 1px solid #A0A0A0;" data-orig-height="216" data-orig-width="284"></figure>
Until then, follow [@newsblur](http://twitter.com/newsblur) on Twitter and start sharing news and blogs on [NewsBlur](http://www.newsblur.com).
— Samuel Clay, [@samuelclay](http://twitter.com/samuelclay)

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---
layout: post
title: Take it to the couch with the NewsBlur iPad app
date: '2012-09-05T08:21:00-04:00'
tags:
- mobile
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/30619496363/newsblur-ipad-app
redirect_from: /post/30619496363/newsblur-ipad-app
---
There’s no wrong way to hold an iPad loaded with [the brand new NewsBlur iPad app](http://www.newsblur.com/ipad), provided it’s facing you and turned on.
[![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iPad.png "The NewsBlur iPad app in revealing positions")](http://www.newsblur.com/ipad)
This brand new iPad app is not just an accessory to the web. It’s a full blown reading experience. Here are some of the many features now available in the palm of your hands:
- All your sites, folders, and friend’s blurblogs
- Super-fast everything, from near-instant downloading of stories to the mouthfeel of the app itself
- Commenting on stories and sharing them on your blurblog
- New users can easily get started by importing directly from Google Reader, so you can tell friends about the app without having them to go the website first
The biggest new feature is all about sharing stories with people. Blurblogs, those shared story feeds, are now part of your feed list. And you can expand your network by following more people directly from the app. Following more people means being exposed to stories from sites you may not have even heard of. And because the NewsBlur iPad app is so fast, you can traverse between stories quickly, settling on the ones that look interesting. And better yet, see contribute to a discussion between friends, all on the app.
But wait, there’s more! In fact, there’s a whole lot more, because this is a universal iOS app, which means there’s an iPhone app to boot. Everything you can do on the iPad app is available on the iPhone app.
[![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iPhone.png "NewsBlur iPhone app to boot")](http://www.newsblur.com/ipad)
The iPad app and latest version of the iPhone app were built by my good friend Roy. Now that the Y Combinator summer has ended, we wish him well as he’s moving on to pursue his non-news dreams. So long buddy, and thanks for all the hard work this summer. Roy [wrote about his impression](http://roycyang.tumblr.com/post/30118352382/what-ive-learned-during-my-summer-in-yc) of Y Combinator and the past summer.
Go [download the NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ipad) and forget about sitting at your desk.

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---
layout: post
title: Giving Life to "The People Have Spoken"
date: '2012-10-01T17:52:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/32704916860/giving-life-to-popular
redirect_from: /post/32704916860/giving-life-to-popular
---
For a long time, we’ve maintained [The People Have Spoken](http://popular.newsblur.com), the blog of what’s popular on NewsBlur, with a simple algorithm that measured how often something was shared. While that’s a great way to see the stuff our users really like ([Randall Munroe](http://xkcd.com/) would probably win the NewsBlur equivalent of the Oscar), it makes it harder for everyone to find new stuff that they might not have seen or heard of before. So we’ve decided to throw a human into the mix. I’ll let Allie introduce herself in her own words:
[![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/BigShot.jpg)](http://alliepape.com)
Hi, I’m [Allie Pape](http://alliepape.com). I’m a journalist here in San Francisco, and I met Sam when he e-mailed me about [an article I wrote about making friends in the city](http://www.thebolditalic.com/alliepape/stories/2206-friend-me). I love to read and spend most of my day paging through articles on the Internet, so I was excited to use NewsBlur as a way to manage and share my discoveries.
Sam’s given me the keys to the Popular account, so I’m going to be following as many active NewsBlur users as possible, and re-posting 3-4 articles per day that I think are particularly notable. I’ll also sprinkle in some things that I find outside of NewsBlur, if I think they’re interesting enough.
This is an experiment, and since I’m just one person, you will probably find some biases in the kind of stuff I like to post. I prefer long pieces to short, and I definitely have a few areas that are of major interest to me (food, pop culture, feminism and women’s issues, and socioeconomic trends) and a few that aren’t (sports, tech). I’ll try to read outside of my comfort zone when I can, but I can’t promise that I can be all things to all people. The hope is, though, that I can get more people reading NewsBlur, which means Sam can afford to hire other people with different interests to do additional curation for the community. And even if you think my taste is terrible, it’s probably more interesting than seeing the same three or four blogs’ posts over and over again.
If you want to know more about me or have comments or feedback, you can write to me at [allie@newsblur.com](mailto:allie@newsblur.com).
I hope you’ll subscribe to the Popular blurblog, and that I’m able to introduce you to something new and cool you haven’t seen before.

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---
layout: post
title: 'Do the robot: the official NewsBlur Android app is here'
date: '2012-10-18T11:47:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/33845808817/do-the-robot-the-official-newsblur-android-app-is
redirect_from: /post/33845808817/do-the-robot-the-official-newsblur-android-app-is
---
You’ve been bugging us for two years about it, and now it’s finally here: NewsBlur’s expansion to mobile is complete, with our first-ever [official Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android) ready and waiting for your device. Thanks to the gifts of money and time from Y Combinator and the programming prowess of Papermill creator Ryan Bateman (otherwise known as [@secretsquirrel](http://twitter.com/secretsquirrel)), you can now join your iOS brethren on the couch with your daily dose of RSS goodness. Level of accompanying smugness is up to you.
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/v1%20-%201.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/v1%20-%203.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/v1%20-%203.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/v1%20-%204.png)
The Android app has all the features of the iOS app, including:
- All your sites, folders, and friends’ blurblogs
- Speedy downloading of sites and general alacrity of use
- The ability to share and comment on stories on your blurblog
- Direct imports from Google Reader: download the app without ever having to hit the Web to set up an account
- Follow new people, read their shares, and generally expand your knowledge, worldview, and personal magnetism
Plus, it has that delicious Android flavor, with half the calories.
Download the official [NewsBlur Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android). Tell your friends! Tip your waitstaff. Try the veal. Floss twice a day. Call your mom, she misses you.

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---
layout: post
title: 'Extreme makeover: NewsBlur iOS app edition'
date: '2012-10-26T14:37:00-04:00'
tags:
- iOS
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/34370988162/ios-update-1-6
redirect_from: /post/34370988162/ios-update-1-6
---
Now that NewsBlur has joined the wonderful world of Android, we’re turning our attention back to the iOS app, with a full-scale feature parity push for the new iPhone 5 and iOS 6. It’s perfect for catching up on your reading when you realize that Apple Maps has sent you to the wrong address. Again.
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iOS%20v1.6%20-%20Folders.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iOS%20v1.6%20-%20Menus.png)
We’ve tried to incorporate as many of your suggestions as possible, and here are some of the new features you’ll find:
- Collapsible folders: Check out folders one at a time (and save your scrolling fingers some work)
- Saved stories: Access all your saved stories from the Web or other devices, and save other stories for later
- Mark stories as unread: For that fresh new-story feeling
- Send stories to Instapaper for reading later, or e-mail them to your friends/enemies
- Share stories on Twitter and Facebook, and crush social-media naysayers who think you’re just telling people what you ate for breakfast
- New app-wide menus: An interface almost as stylish as your new device, and far less vulnerable to breakage and theft
- Bug fixes, improvements, speed-ups, fine-tuning, and other things that aren’t particularly noticeable (but done because we love you)
Check out the update, and be sure to let us know if anything isn’t working the way it should. And Android folks, don’t feel left out; an update with bug fixes is in the pipeline, so stay tuned (and thanks for the feedback!).

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---
layout: post
title: Time for some free NewsBlur swag!
date: '2012-10-29T15:38:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/34595143667/free-newsblur-swag-time
redirect_from: /post/34595143667/free-newsblur-swag-time
---
That’s right, t-shirts, stickers, buttons, and magnets. I’ve got a whole lot of good stuff to send out, so give me some critical info and I’ll get you hooked up with the latest in startup love.
**The t-shirt entry form has been taken down as of Thursday, November 29th. Hopefully you’ve ordered your t-shirt by now.**

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---
layout: post
title: 'The sharing bookmarklet: bringing your online explorations to NewsBlur'
date: '2012-12-17T12:04:00-05:00'
tags:
- blurblogs
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/38164413369/sharing-bookmarklet
redirect_from: /post/38164413369/sharing-bookmarklet
---
There are lots of reasons not to post a cool article you’ve seen to your blurblog. Maybe you already follow too many blogs, and don’t have room to add any more to your feed (in which case, may we humbly recommend a Premium account?) Maybe you don’t want everyone to know just how crazy you’ve gotten about jai-alai or aerotrekking or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Or maybe you found a cool article on Facebook or Twitter or through an e-mail from a friend, and don’t want to go through the hassle of adding the site’s whole feed to your NewsBlur dashboard just to post one piece.
That’s what the [NewsBlur bookmarklet tool](http://www.newsblur.com/?next=goodies) is for. Whether it’s a great article from a site that you don’t like enough to follow regularly, or a first glimpse at an intriguing new site, the bookmarklet makes it easy to post anything you find around the Web to your blurblog.
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Screen%20Shot%202012-12-17%20at%20Dec%2017%2011.58.26%20AM.png)
Setting up the bookmarklet tool is easy: Click on the little sprocket in the bottom left of your dashboard, and choose “Goodies & Extras” from the menu. You’ll see “Add Site & Share Story Bookmarklet,” and next to that, a button that says “Share on NewsBlur.” Drag the button to the Bookmarks Bar in your browser, and you’re in business.
[![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Screen%20Shot%202012-12-17%20at%20Dec%2017%2011.56.14%20AM.png)](http://www.newsblur.com/?next=goodies)
The next time you see an article that strikes your fancy, just click the bookmarklet and the NewsBlur window will open. (If you click it by accident or decide you don’t want to share, just click anywhere outside of the box, and you’ll be back where you started.) The bookmarklet automatically selects all text on a page by default, but if you only want to blog a certain chunk of a story, just highlight it beforehand, and it’ll appear solo in the box.
You can also type within the box to edit the headline and text or delete any extraneous junk that may have wandered in. Add a comment of your own, click “Share This Story,” and you’re on your way. It’s frankly almost too easy, so be sure you’re in the right browser tab when you launch it– [Allie](http://alliepape.newsblur.com) once accidentally posted the contents of her Gmail inbox to her blurblog when she wasn’t paying attention. If any of you happened to be on there in those two minutes, she hopes you enjoyed the sneak peek into her darkest secrets, like all the books she has on hold at the library.
Using the bookmarklet is awesome and makes NewsBlur’s content (and by extension, [the Popular blog](http://popular.newsblur.com)) far more interesting and diverse, so get out there and drag back the best of the Web to share with your fellow users. [As Richard Marx would put it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE): Wherever you go, whatever you do (on the Internet, at least), the NewsBlur bookmarklet will be right here waiting for you.

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---
layout: post
title: 'A blurblog of one''s own: new privacy controls'
date: '2013-01-03T00:00:00-05:00'
tags:
- blurblogs
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/39552384708/privacy-controls
redirect_from: /post/39552384708/privacy-controls
---
Here at NewsBlur HQ, we love greeting each new day by seeing what everyone posts on their blurblogs, but we understand that not everyone might want to have their reading preferences broadcast to the public (or have the public broadcast its opinions on said preferences). So we’re introducing a special new service for premium account holders that allows you to protect your posts from prying eyes.
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Screen%20Shot%202012-12-17%20at%20Dec%2017%2012.17.51%20PM.png)
Just click the little sprocket in the bottom left of your dashboard and select “Profile & Blurblog,” where you’ll be given one of three options:
- Public (default): The good old-fashioned oversharing you’ve come to know and love.
- Protected: Everyone can see your stories, but only approved NewsBlur followers can reply or comment to your shares. Continue to drop knowledge for a grateful public, minus the peanut gallery.
- Private: Only your approved followers can see your shares and comment. The outside world will never know about your love of bunny photos and animated GIFs. If you choose one of the latter two options, you’ll receive an e-mail every time someone requests to follow you, allowing you to carefully curate your inner circle. Want to remove any of your existing followers? Just visit their profile to boot them from blurblog access.
Go forth and privatize! It’ll be our little secret, at least until we discover that one of you is having an affair with your biographer.

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---
layout: post
title: Three Months to Scale NewsBlur
date: '2013-03-17T17:24:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/45632737156/three-months-to-scale-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/45632737156/three-months-to-scale-newsblur
---
At 4:16pm last Wednesday I got a short and to-the-point email from Nilay Patel at The Verge with only a link that started with the host “googlereader.blogspot.com”. The sudden spike in NewsBlur’s visitors immediately confirmed — Google was shutting down Reader.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="800" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Late%20night%20at%20the%20office.jpeg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/dc500604b62727c6c60e524288dbe628/cbd62d98f8f668c6-18/s540x810/9c8ffd4621c86ae4d240ec81860221c59edcd411.jpg" width="500" style="margin: 0 auto;" data-orig-height="800" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Late%20night%20at%20the%20office.jpeg"></figure>
##### Late night at the office
I had been preparing for a black swan event like this for the last four years since I began NewsBlur. With the deprecation of their social features a year ago I knew it was only a matter of time before Google stopped supporting Reader entirely. I did not expect it to come this soon.
As the [Storify history of the Reader-o-calypse](http://storify.com/mattrose/reader-o-calypse-from-the-pov-of-a-competitor), NewsBlur suffered a number of hurdles with the onslaught of new subscribers.
## A few of my challenges and solutions
I was able to handle the 1,500 users who were using the service everyday, but when 50,000 users hit an uncachable and resource intensive backend, unless you’ve done your homework and load tested the living crap out of your entire stack, there’s going to be trouble brewing. Here’s just a few of the immediate challenges I faced over the past four days:
- My hosting provider, Reliable Hosting Services, was neither reliable, able to host my increasing demands, or a service I could count on. I switched to Digital Ocean and immediately got to [writing new Fabric scripts](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/blob/master/fabfile.py#L934-L970) so I could deploy a new app/task server by issuing a single command and having it serve requests automatically within 10 minutes of bootstrapping.
- It didn’t take long to max out my Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) account’s quota of 10,000 emails a day. So a few hours into the melee I switched to Mailgun, which unfortunately resulted in emailing myself 250,000 error reports. If you tried to email me and couldn’t get through, it’s because 50,000 emails about lost database connections made their way ahead of you in line.
- Eventually, I was just plain blacklisted on SES for sending too many emails.
- Fortunately, when the PayPal fraud department called because of an unprecedented spike in payments, I was prepared.
> Paypal’s fraud department just called, asked me what’s going on. Asked the rep from Omaha if she’s heard of Reader, and then a big Ohhh.
>
> — NewsBlur (@NewsBlur) [March 17, 2013](https://twitter.com/NewsBlur/status/313354032083259394)
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
- HAProxy would serve errors (site is down, maintenance, timeouts, etc) with a 200 OK status code instead of the proper 500 Exception status code because of a ridiculous undocumented requirement to [include HTTP Headers at the top of the error template](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/blob/master/templates/502.http#L1-L4). When your webapp uses status codes to determine errors, you get extremely strange behavior when it loads utter crap into your DOM.
- The inevitable file descriptor limits on Linux means that for every database connection you make, you use up one of the 1,024 file descriptors that are allocated to your process by default. Changing these limits is not only non-trivial, but they don’t tend to stick. This is responsible for bringing down Mongo, PostgreSQL, and the real-time Node servers, all at different times of the night.
- The support queue is enormous and I’ve had to spend big chunks of my 16 hour days reassuring paying customers that eventually Stripe will forgive me and my unresponsive servers and will send the payment notification that is responsible for automatically upgrading their accounts to premium.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="450" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/St%20Pattys%20Day%20Desk.jpeg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/0aa39f3318786c24443d4a6b3b8bf368/cbd62d98f8f668c6-51/s540x810/7749917ca17e4eddcfbe42fec51226da3d5d1f57.jpg" width="500" style="margin: 0 auto;" data-orig-height="450" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/St%20Pattys%20Day%20Desk.jpeg"></figure>
##### The sad extent of my St. Patrick’s Day
As a one-man-shop it has been humbling to receive the benefit of the doubt from many who have withheld their judgment despite the admittedly slow loadtimes and downtime NewsBlur experienced. Having the support of the amazing NewsBlur community is more than a guy could ask for. The tweets of encouragement, voting NewsBlur up on [replacereader.com](http://replacereader.com) (If you haven’t yet, please tweet a vote for [“#newsblur to #replacereader”](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?source=webclient&text=I%20think%20%23NewsBlur%20should%20%23replacereader.%20http://replacereader.com)), and the many positive comments and blog posts from people who have tried NewsBlur is great.
It has also been a dream come true to receive accolades from the many who are trying NewsBlur for the first time and loving it. Since the announcement, NewsBlur has welcomed 5,000 new premium subscribers and 60,000 new users (from 50,000 users originally).
<table cellpadding="12" cellspacing="12" width="100%"\><tr\><td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%201.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/ba34253d464e8e6241cca55c3c48ed0b/cbd62d98f8f668c6-c7/s540x810/b6adc5bcc4afcfefef325133d03cc9e8324e34c0.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%201.jpg"></figure></td\> <td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="200" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%202.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/cd49fb0ecbb92bc1229ad04fe35c9195/cbd62d98f8f668c6-69/s540x810/1d888f4ba921acb32fbe26b6abf42e7f34cd55aa.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="200" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%202.jpg"></figure></td\> </tr\><tr\><td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%203.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/63cbc8aad166dfa5fbd1d99306914b9b/cbd62d98f8f668c6-f6/s540x810/dcfb5c4ea6a9b2219722d989357e286c8eddff61.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%203.jpg"></figure></td\> <td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%204.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/4e307538ea860fe90ab2296eceb6fb2a/cbd62d98f8f668c6-33/s540x810/6253fcb3e8b1c79b067f8e70dcbc013a84c99afe.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="225" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%204.jpg"></figure></td\> </tr\><tr\><td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="400" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%205.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/f6567def39096ce4c10521c5b8b58d9d/cbd62d98f8f668c6-87/s540x810/3eaffaab990ea941e8d0e16accdc9d9044be2906.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="400" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%205.jpg"></figure></td\> <td\><figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="405" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%206.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/eabf56cdb6a4f89c93159afe80b912d2/cbd62d98f8f668c6-10/s540x810/bdca58d87d1370b367bb8b285c92fa37c0d189d4.jpg" width="300" data-orig-height="405" data-orig-width="300" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shirt%206.jpg"></figure></td\> </tr\></table\>
##### NewsBlur users are intelligent, kind, and good looking!
# The next three months
Over the next three months I’ll be working on:
- Scaling, scaling, scaling
- Launching the redesign ([which you can preview](http://dev.newsblur.com))
- Listening to all of you
For those of you who are still trying to decide where to go now that you’re a Reader refugee let me tell you a few of the unique things NewsBlur has to offer:
1. Radical transparency. [NewsBlur is totally open source](https://github.com/samuelclay) and will remain that way.
2. It still feels like RSS, just with a few more bells and whistles. NewsBlur provides actual list of posts, as opposed to the more curated magazine format of some of the other popular replacements. This clean interface makes it easy to see the stories you want. One innovation however is the four different view options you have. NewsBlur can show you the original site, feed, text or story view.
3. It has training. NewsBlur hides stories you don’t want to read based on tags, keywords, authors, etc. It also highlights stories you want to read, based on the same criteria. This allows you to find the stories you care about, not just the stories that the hive cares about. And best of all, NewsBlur will show you why stories are either highlighted or hidden by showing the criteria in green or red.
4. NewsBlur has rebuilt the social community that Google had stripped out of Reader. Users can share stories through their Blurblog and discover new content by following friends’ Blurblogs. [The People Have Spoken](http://popular.newsblur.com) is the blurblog of popular stories.
5. Because NewsBlur is entirely open-source, if you don’t want to pay you can host your own server. [Instructions are on GitHub](http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur), where you can also find the source code for the [NewsBlur iPhone + iPad app](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/media/ios) and [Android app](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/tree/master/media/android/NewsBlur).
6. Most importantly, NewsBlur is not entirely a free app. The immediate benefits of revenue have been very clear over the past few days. Not only are NewsBlur’s interests aligned with its users, but as more users join NewsBlur, it makes more revenue that can be used to directly support the new users. Not convinced that paid is better than free? Read Pinboard’s Maciej Ceglowski’s essay [Don’t Be a Free User](http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/).
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="450" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shiloh%20in%20good%20times.jpeg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/0ef77ca11839711e1c1ee847b2723b2e/cbd62d98f8f668c6-fc/s540x810/3587b6fd97c21473c4d5daae3668a395fcdb5c6c.jpg" width="500" style="margin: 0 auto;" data-orig-height="450" data-orig-width="600" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/Shiloh%20in%20good%20times.jpeg"></figure>
##### Shiloh during better times. Your premium subscription goes to both server costs and feeding her
With NewsBlur’s native iOS app and Android app, you can read your news and share it with your friends anywhere. And with the coming improvements over the next three months, you bet NewsBlur will be the #1 choice for Google Reader refugees.
[Join NewsBlur for $24/year](http://www.newsblur.com) and discover what RSS should have been.

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---
layout: post
title: The NewsBlur Redesign
date: '2013-05-20T22:47:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/50689286246/the-newsblur-redesign
redirect_from: /post/50689286246/the-newsblur-redesign
---
Not to say that NewsBlur was _ugly_ before today, but it certainly didn’t have the loving embrace of a talented designer. So without waiting another moment (or month) I proudly present the NewsBlur redesign.
![image](http://dev.newsblur.com/media/img/welcome/header-web.png)
It’s a full scale redesign, too. And not just one of those redesigns where the icons get glossier and fonts, bolder. Every moving piece of machinery got more than a coat of paint. A number of new crucial reading features have been added. Some features were merged, some were repaired, and some were scrapped.
Dashboard before & after:
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/before_dashboard.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/after_dashboard.png)
Reading before & after:
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/before_feed.png) ![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/after_feed.png)
In no particular order, here’s what’s new:
- Unified interactions/activities popover. Gets out of your way and gives the dashboard more room to breath.
- Rewritten feed loader, offering incredible performance, even at the 20x scale of today vs 2 months ago before the Google Reader announcement.
- Custom vector graphics, retina-fying the entire site.
- Increased transparency of sites by showing more detail in feed fetching/statistics.
- A new List view to complement the Split view for stories.
And that’s just for the website. The iOS app, Android app, and blurblogs all got the update goodness that has graced the web app.
![image](http://dev.newsblur.com/media/img/welcome/header-ios.png)
As for what’s happening these days, post-Reader:
- Took some extra time to scale out my backend, now completed.
- Running on 48 servers, serving 20x traffic
- Because I had the foresight to charge users for premium service, I’m now confident that NewsBlur will be standing tall a few years from now.
- Working on the next few big ticket features: saved story search and tagging, batch editing organizer, keyboard shortcut manager, and more.
> Biggest unanticipated consequence of the Reader shutdown – I no longer have to wear a jacket in SF because my core temperature has risen.
>
> — Samuel Clay (@samuelclay)
>
> [March 28, 2013](https://twitter.com/samuelclay/status/317111582817660929)
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
And if you’re new to NewsBlur, here’s the six core benefits to using the one with the Sun:
1. **Training** - hide the stories you don’t like and highlight the stories you do. Make mincemeat out of heavy feeds and make sure to never miss stories from the feeds you love.
2. **Original site** - read a publisher’s stories the way they wanted you to read it - on the original website. NewsBlur embeds the publisher’s site in an iframe, and marks what you read as read as you scroll.
3. **Text view** - conveniently extracts the story text from articles, necessary for reading truncated rss feeds.
4. **Blurblogs / sharing** - a social community where you can share and discuss stories with friends.
5. **Speed** - A dedication to fast load times, graphed on your dashboard.
6. **Mobile** - native, first-class iOS and Android apps, with all of the functionality of the website.
Now that the redesign has launched, I plan to blog about how to best use the intelligence trainer efficiently, all new [future] features, and how I was able to successfully scale out the four databases (count ‘em: postgresql, mongodb, redis, elasticsearch) to handle more than 10,000 users and 4 million site updates a day. It’s no Tumblr, but it’s still way more traffic than you can fit on a single machine.
Thanks for using NewsBlur and turning my passion project (four years running) into a full-time dream.

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---
layout: post
title: Keyboard Shortcuts Manager
date: '2013-05-23T09:01:00-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/51153471296/keyboard-shortcuts-manager
redirect_from: /post/51153471296/keyboard-shortcuts-manager
---
Hot on the heels of the redesign launch, I’m already putting out new features. There are a number of post-redesign priorities on my list, but one of the most requested features is to customize the keyboard shortcuts.
After looking into the common refrain of customizable keyboard shortcuts, I identified the five keys that folks are talking about 99% of the time: the four arrow keys and the space bar. These keys can now be configured well beyond what you would expect.
![image](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/preferences_keyboard.png)
- By default, the horizontal arrow keys control the view in which you are reading a site or folder. But there are a few keyboard shortcuts that allow you to temporarily read a story in the Text view (shift+enter) or the Story view (enter). So having other dedicated keys may not be necessary. And navigating between sites requires a two-key combination (shift+up and shift+down or shift+j and shift+k). You can now choose to make the left and right arrow keys navigate between sites.
- The vertical arrow keys navigates between stories, but some users want them to scroll up and down by a small amount. You can customize exactly how much of a scroll distance you want to use.
- The space bar, like the new up and down arrow keys, scrolls the page, but it does so by screen-load. So instead of scrolling by a set amount like the arrow keys, it works on a percentage of the screen. It’s a subtle difference that will allow you to more easily navigate the longer stories and the shorter stories with ease.
These features are only available to premium subscribers and I hope you like them. If you have additional customization suggestions, hop on [the support forum](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur) and let me know.

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---
layout: post
title: Read NewsBlur on your Mac with the new ReadKit
date: '2013-05-30T12:12:16-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/51740798196/read-newsblur-on-your-mac-with-the-new-readkit
redirect_from: /post/51740798196/read-newsblur-on-your-mac-with-the-new-readkit
---
[ReadKit](http://readkitapp.com), a native Mac app for reading Instapaper, Pocket, and NewsBlur on your desktop, completes the RSS reading trifecta. NewsBlur has a web app, native iOS app, and now a native Mac app.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/readkit.jpg)](http://readkitapp.com)
While this is not an official app, it’s certainly the best desktop app for NewsBlur. In time more NewsBlur-specific features will be added, such as shared stories (blurblogs), training and separate unread counts in focus mode, and saved stories.
If you’re a developer and want to make your own NewsBlur app, use the free [NewsBlur API](http://www.newsblur.com/api). You can charge for your app and enjoy all of the benefits of the NewsBlur backend.
[Download ReadKit](http://readkitapp.com) to enjoy offline reading on your Mac.

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---
layout: post
title: Text view comes to the NewsBlur iOS app
date: '2013-06-04T08:31:18-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/52143504033/text-view-comes-to-the-newsblur-ios-app
redirect_from: /post/52143504033/text-view-comes-to-the-newsblur-ios-app
---
The iOS apps are finding themselves host to a whole slew of additions and enhancements. Today I get to tell you about the iOS app’s newest feature: the Text view.
You can already use the Text view on the web. It’s great for extracting the story’s content on demand and helps you stay on a single tab to do all of your reading.
If you have an iPad or iPhone, you can now use the Text view by hitting the Text/Story button on the bottom left of the story detail pane.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios_text_view.jpg)
On Android? Don’t you worry, major updates are finishing up as we speak, and soon the Android app will reach full feature parity with the iOS app. It’s just a matter of time.

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---
layout: post
title: NewsBlur Puzzle T-shirt 2013
date: '2013-07-24T15:49:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/56370336836/newsblur-puzzle-t-shirt-2013
redirect_from: /post/56370336836/newsblur-puzzle-t-shirt-2013
---
Last year I was proud to be able to send a free t-shirt and handwritten note to every single user who requested one. It took a few days of writing, stuffing, and mailing to send out a couple hundred t-shirts.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/tshirt%202012.JPG)
I’m pleased to announce that [this year’s t-shirt](http://teespring.com/newsblur) is a puzzle with every single letter being part of a 4+ letter word. I’m using Teespring for fulfillment and order processing. While it’s not free, I am making absolutely zilch profit, so I can keep the t-shirt price to the absolute minimum.
[![](http://images.teespring.com/shirt_pic/82496/front.jpg?v=2013-07-24-18-29)](http://teespring.com/newsblur)
Impress your friends with your esoteric yet exquisite taste in t-shirts. But you’d better move quickly, you only have until July 31st, one week from now, to order the t-shirt. [Order the 2013 NewsBlur t-shirt on Teespring](http://teespring.com/newsblur).

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---
layout: post
title: Simple Search for Feeds, Saved Stories, and Blurblogs
date: '2013-07-30T12:38:23-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/56899019169/simple-search-for-feeds-saved-stories-and-blurblogs
redirect_from: /post/56899019169/simple-search-for-feeds-saved-stories-and-blurblogs
---
Search, which can easily be considered one of the most important features of a world-class news reader, is also one of the most difficult features to build.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/search2.png)
While working on the feature, I came across a great method that allows searching through story titles, authors, and tags on a per-feed basis. It’s not perfect and it’s not the full feature, but this will get us 80% of the way there.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/search.png)
Also comes with a handy keyboard shortcut (and a refactored keyboard shortcut dialog).
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/keyboard.png)
You can also search your saved stories and shared stories. This feature will soon find it’s way to both Android and iOS, and is available today to all premium users.

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---
layout: post
title: Mark as read by number of days and other improvements
date: '2013-09-13T17:05:55-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/61154381229/mark-as-read-by-number-of-days-and-other
redirect_from: /post/61154381229/mark-as-read-by-number-of-days-and-other
---
Here’s a few big improvements for the NewsBlur website.
- The site title bar is now mounted to the bottom of the screen. This will allow you to mark a site/folder as read at any time.
- Marking as read can go back a configurable amount: 1, 3, 7, and 14 days back.
- If you’re reading in newest-first order, when you mark a site as read, any newer stories that have come in since you’ve loaded the site will no longer be marked as read.
- When you add, move, or delete a site or folder, all of your open web browsers will reload to correctly show the change. This allows you to have NewsBlur open at home and at work, knowing they will be synced when you change or add sites.
You may be thinking to yourself, 1, 3, and 7 days back makes sense, but why 14 if the unread limit is at 14 days? Why, having 14 days as an option would only make sense if the full limit was… (stay tuned).

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layout: post
title: Upping unread stories to 30 days for premium accounts
date: '2013-09-16T17:09:14-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/61451693579/upping-unread-stories-to-30-days-for-premium
redirect_from: /post/61451693579/upping-unread-stories-to-30-days-for-premium
---
While I love shipping new features and fixing bugs, the single largest user request was neither a feature nor a bug. NewsBlur allows for two weeks of unread stories. Once a story is more than 14 days old, it would no longer show up as unread. The justification for this was simple: you have a week to read a story, and have a second week as a grace period.
But after scaling out to tens of thousands of users, a new pattern emerged. Some users would go on vacation for two weeks at a time and then want to catch up on everything they missed. Some users only check RSS once a month. Some users just want to leave lightly updated feeds alone until they have free time to read them, and that can take a few weeks to get to.
Starting today, all premium users are automatically upgraded to 30 days of unread stories. Free standard users will remain at 14 days. I wish I could have offered the full 30 days to everybody, but after testing that out, my server and performance graphs all made a very scary movement up.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/30d_mongodb_page_faults-day.png)
With the new 30 day unread interval in place, NewsBlur has a great track record in listening to user feedback and working out a solution, however large the task may be.

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---
layout: post
title: Offline reading with the NewsBlur iOS app
date: '2013-09-17T12:46:00-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/61520013611/offline-reading-with-the-newsblur-ios-app
redirect_from: /post/61520013611/offline-reading-with-the-newsblur-ios-app
---
Today I’m launching [version 3.0 of the iPhone and iPad app for NewsBlur](http://www.newsblur.com/ios). This major update brings loads of big features that combine to make the world’s best iOS news reader with the fastest sync in town.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios_offline.png)
- Offline support - stories and images are downloaded quickly and in parallel.
- Syncing - read stories offline or with little connectivity.
- Preferences - override global order/read filter settings, configure offline, and other options.
- Send to - rewritten to include single-tap Instapaper/Readability/Pocket integration.
- Saved and shared stories now show the proper icon.
- Activities/interactions have been rewritten to be easier on the eyes.
- A major performance improvement when returning to the app and when initially syncing.
The biggest feature since this Spring’s redesign is finally here. As always, [the iOS app is a free download](http://www.newsblur.com/ios).

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---
layout: post
title: The NewsBlur iPhone and iPad app meets iOS 7
date: '2013-10-28T09:53:00-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/65346067024/the-newsblur-iphone-and-ipad-app-meets-ios-7
redirect_from: /post/65346067024/the-newsblur-iphone-and-ipad-app-meets-ios-7
---
Apple’s latest operating system for iOS is a departure from their old aesthetic. So I’ve decided to give [the NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios) a slightly new look. But even more than how the app looks is how the app works. Tons of new features made it into this mega-release.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iOS%20v3.5.png)
- Entire interface has been redesigned for iOS 7.
- Gestures galore: mark stories as read/unread, save stories, mark feeds as read, train feeds.
- Long press a feed or folder to choose a mark as read date: 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days. Works offline, too!
- Long press a story title to send it to a third-party read later service.
- New view layout for iPad: move story titles to the bottom in portrait.
- Significantly improved scrolling speeds on the feed list and story list.
- You can now unread stories that were read while offline.
- Faster marking of folders as read.
- Fixed numerous bugs related to reading stories while offline.
The iPad app also has a new view for extra-wide reading while in portrait orientation.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/iOS%20v3.5%20iPad.png)
I hope you enjoy this latest update. And stay tuned for the next update coming soon which will include even more iOS 7 features: Dynamic Text Size and Background Updates. [The NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios) is and will always be free.

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---
layout: post
title: Version 3.0 of the NewsBlur Android App
date: '2013-11-18T16:51:00-05:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/67417470051/version-3-0-of-the-newsblur-android-app
redirect_from: /post/67417470051/version-3-0-of-the-newsblur-android-app
---
Hot on the heels of [version 3.0 of the NewsBlur iOS app](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2013-10-28-the-newsblur-iphone-and-ipad-app-meets-ios-7.html) comes [the next version of the Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android). A bunch of new features have made it into this release, including the new story navigation pane and the text view.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Android%20v3.png)
Here’s what you can see today in the Android app:
- New story traversal buttons make it easy to flip between stories.
- New text view fetches and parses the story from the original site.
- New logo.
- Public comments are now be hidden in preferences.
- Ability to unsave stories.
- Numerous bugs squashed and crashes fixed.
Thanks to our Android developer [Daniel](http://twitter.com/ojiikun), the next version is already starting development, so shout out to [@newsblur](http://twitter.com/newsblur) with your feedback and ideas for new features.

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---
layout: post
title: Background updates and dynamic font sizing on the NewsBlur iOS app
date: '2013-12-19T10:38:00-05:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/70505345720/background-updates-and-dynamic-font-sizing-on-the
redirect_from: /post/70505345720/background-updates-and-dynamic-font-sizing-on-the
---
This week brings us a minor, but major, update for [the NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios). Several new features, some due to new APIs in iOS 7, have made it into the app.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios3.6.png)
Here’s what’s new:
- Background updates so NewsBlur can download stories while you sleep
- Custom text sizes for feeds and stories
- Dynamic text sizes based on your system preferences
- The story title is now linked to the original story
- New preference to use either the in-app browser, Safari, or Chrome
- Major iPad fixes include better transitions, bugs squashed, and improved performance
Coming up I have a big ticket feature that is just about ready to launch. Stay tuned for saved story tagging, which will also make its way into the Android and iOS app soon.
Download the latest and free [NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios).

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---
layout: post
title: Faster parallel network requests for version 3.5 of the NewsBlur Android app
date: '2014-01-03T11:35:00-05:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/72112436519/faster-parallel-network-requests-for-version-35
redirect_from: /post/72112436519/faster-parallel-network-requests-for-version-35
---
The single biggest criticism I’ve heard of the Android app is that it can be slow when loading feeds and then loading stories. That changes today with the release of version 3.5 of the [NewsBlur Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android).
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Android%20v3.5.png)
Here’s what’s new:
- Completely rewritten parallel network stack
- All network requests are now much, much faster
- Bugs fixed when marking as read and saved
And remember that only a month and a half ago, version 3.0 hit the Play Store and the Kindle Store with these great features:
- New story traversal buttons make it easy to flip between stories.
- New text view fetches and parses the story from the original site.
- New logo.
- Public comments are now be hidden in preferences.
- Ability to unsave stories.
There’s more coming to the [NewsBlur Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android), now that it’s reached speed parity with the iOS app. Look forward to lots of updates, improvements, and new features.

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---
layout: post
title: 'Three new features for the web: syntax highlighting for source code, adjustable
video widths, and footnotes'
date: '2014-01-06T12:46:00-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/72471675355/three-new-features-for-the-web-syntax
redirect_from: /post/72471675355/three-new-features-for-the-web-syntax
---
A few small new features to get your first full week of the new year started off right.
### Syntax highlight for source code
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/syntax%20highlighting.png)
A common feature request has been automatic syntax highlighting in blog posts. This feature uses auto-detection to highlight code. For short snippets of code, this means that they could have inaccurate highlighting, although in testing it’s not so bad to have a few words in various colors. But for any substantial amount of code, you’ll have an easier time following along with syntax highlighting.
### Video fitting
Videos from Youtube and Vimeo (and a few others) are now stretched to fit the window, resulting in bigger video previews.
### Footnotes
Previously, if you clicked the little footnote reference<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>, you would be taken to a new window. The Feed view now smoothly scrolls you to the footnote, where you can then return back to the footnote. Easy!
* * *
1.
Like this.&nbsp;[↩︎](#fnref:1)

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---
layout: post
title: 'Saved story tagging '
date: '2014-01-14T10:39:00-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/73323646275/saved-story-tagging
redirect_from: /post/73323646275/saved-story-tagging
---
It’s one thing to follow a handful of sites and use NewsBlur’s training to only read the stories you want to read. But sometimes you want to come back to stories long after you’ve read them. You could save the story, but then you would have to either scroll down your saved story list to find the story, or use the [new search feature](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2013-07-30-simple-search-for-feeds-saved-stories-and-blurblogs.html) to find it by title or author.
Today I would like to introduce a big new feature: saved story tagging. It works like this. When you save a story, it is automatically tagged with all of the folders that the site is part of.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/saved%20story%20tags.png)
After the story is auto-tagged by folder, you can then add your own tags, which are autocompleted by previously used tags. You can also click a button to auto-tag the story with its own tags, easily clicking on the tags you want to remove.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/story_tags.jpg)
You can also search per-tag and soon you will be able to rename and delete tags. There are more plans to integrate tagging into both iOS and Android apps.
Saved story tags also have RSS feeds. This is a big deal, since this allows you to save stories and have them automatically ingested by [IFTTT](http://www.ifttt.com) for use elsewhere. You already could share stories over your blurblog, but now you have a private RSS feed that gives you far greater control.
Stay tuned because there are even more big features coming soon. Telling your friends about NewsBlur, whether on Twitter and Facebook or when spying over their shoulder and noticing that they’re hitting the same dozen sites over and over again without letting the sites come to them with new stories, goes a long way towards getting new features built. More users means more premiums which means more features getting built. It’s a vicious cycle.

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---
layout: post
title: Connect NewsBlur to dozens of web services with IFTTT
date: '2014-02-20T09:11:28-05:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/77288045682/connect-newsblur-to-dozens-of-web-services-with
redirect_from: /post/77288045682/connect-newsblur-to-dozens-of-web-services-with
---
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to automatically copy your saved stories over to Evernote or Twitter or Pinboard? What about an automatic way to keep track of your unread focus (trained) stories in Buffer or Delicious or Dropbox?
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ifttt-logo-large.png)](https://ifttt.com/newsblur)
[IFTTT](https://ifttt.com/newsblur) (if this then that) is a free web service that automates the movement of data from NewsBlur to dozens of other web services. It also handles movement of data from dozens of other web services back into NewsBlur. [Today IFTTT is launching a NewsBlur channel](http://blog.ifttt.com/post/77287507657/introducing-the-newsblur-fiverr-and-boxcar-2-channels) where you can take advantage of their incredible glue that binds dozens of web service like NewsBlur in unique and customizable ways.
## Customizable IFTTT triggers
The best part about these IFTTT recipes is that the triggers can be customized to fit a specific saved story tag or blurblog or folder or feed. When you create a recipe using NewsBlur, you can choose which of your own feeds or tags you want to use.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ifttt-blurblogs.png) ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ifttt-tags.png)
You can also choose to only use unread focus (trained) stories. So you can filter out stories you don’t want to read and highlight the stories you do want to read using the Intelligence Trainer.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ifttt-training.png)
## Create tasks and recipes with IFTTT
Here’s a sample of IFTTT recipes that you can use today for moving your data from NewsBlur out to other services:
[![IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, it will get saved for later on Instapaper. connects newsblur to instapaper](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147729)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147729-when-you-save-a-story-on-newsblur-it-will-get-saved-for-later-on-instapaper)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: Saving a story on NewsBlur also saves it to Pocket connects newsblur to pocket](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147727)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147727-saving-a-story-on-newsblur-also-saves-it-to-pocket)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, it will create a new link note on Evernote. connects newsblur to evernote](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147737)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147737-when-you-save-a-story-on-newsblur-it-will-create-a-new-link-note-on-evernote)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, add a private bookmark to Pinboard. connects newsblur to pinboard](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147742)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147742-when-you-save-a-story-on-newsblur-add-a-private-bookmark-to-pinboard)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: Save a story on NewsBlur → Add to Buffer connects newsblur to buffer](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147757)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147757-save-a-story-on-newsblur-add-to-buffer)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: New saved story → tweet it connects newsblur to twitter](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147761)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147761-new-saved-story-tweet-it)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: New saved story → post it on Facebook connects newsblur to facebook](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147762)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147762-new-saved-story-post-it-on-facebook)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
You can also take data from other services and move it into NewsBlur:
[![IFTTT Recipe: If you post anything on your Tumblr blog, share it on your NewsBlur blurblog. connects tumblr to newsblur](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147740)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147740-if-you-post-anything-on-your-tumblr-blog-share-it-on-your-newsblur-blurblog)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
[![IFTTT Recipe: New public photo in your 500px photo stream → share a link to it on your NewsBlur blurblog connects 500px to newsblur](https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/147755)](https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/147755-new-public-photo-in-your-500px-photo-stream-share-a-link-to-it-on-your-newsblur-blurblog)<script async type="text/javascript" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js"></script>
Mix and match and [create your own IFTTT recipes using the NewsBlur channel](https://ifttt.com/newsblur). And if you put together a good recipe, it’ll get featured both on IFTTT and on NewsBlur.

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---
layout: post
title: NewsBlur iOS 4.0 features a new dashboard, gestures and sharing controls
date: '2014-03-10T10:48:08-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/79178171658/newsblur-ios-40-features-a-new-dashboard
redirect_from: /post/79178171658/newsblur-ios-40-features-a-new-dashboard
---
Today marks [the release of version 4.0 of the NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios). To illustrate the significance of this release I’d like to talk about where the app has been.
The first version of the NewsBlur iOS app was actually just an iPhone app. It [launched in October 2011](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2012-01-16-2011-year-in-review.html) and only allowed you to read your feeds individually. Within months the river of news (reading by folder) was added, along with better sharing controls, intelligence training, sharing to your blurblog, and the May 2013 re-design.
But similarly to the web, I wasn’t particularly proud of the app until I hit a major milestone. On the web, I hit that milestone with the May 2013 re-design. In [the blog post announcing the wide ranging re-design](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2013-05-20-the-newsblur-redesign.html), I wrote:
> Not to say that NewsBlur was ugly before today, but it certainly didn’t have the loving embrace of a talented designer. So without waiting another moment (or month) I proudly present the NewsBlur redesign.
Fast forward to today where I am finally releasing an iOS app that I’m proud of. This one comes with a ton of great features, both for iPhone and iPad.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%20v4.jpg)
<table style="margin: 0 auto; padding: 0; width: 600px"\><tr\><td\> ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%20v4%20-%202.jpg)</td\> <td\> ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%20v4%20-%203.jpg)</td\> </tr\></table\>
- New dashboard for the iPad app: All Site Stories are now on the dashboard for easy access to stories. More to come with this new dashboard.
- Tons of new gestures: double tap, 2 finger double tap, long press.
- New gestures for the iPad app: swipe to dismiss the original story view.
- Brand new sharing controls work with Facebook, Twitter, Email, iMessage, Instapaper, Pocket, Readability, App.Net, Pinboard, OmniFocus, Safari, Chrome, and Airdrop.
- Inline images show a preview of the story in the story title.
- Inline descriptions show a preview of the story’s content in the story title.
- Improved landscape support for the iPad app.
- Improved video support: videos are now fit better for each device.
- Numerous bugs fixed resulting in speed improvements and cleaned up code.
If you want to tweet something along the lines of “Holy crap, the NewsBlur iOS app is nice! Only took four years” that would be alright. [Download the free NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios), and if you find yourself enjoying it, please leave a positive five star review on the App Store.

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---
layout: post
title: Google Reader announced its shutdown exactly a year ago
date: '2014-03-13T14:27:00-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/79491002325/google-reader-announced-its-shutdown-exactly-a-year-ago
redirect_from: /post/79491002325/google-reader-announced-its-shutdown-exactly-a-year-ago
---
In this industry, you gotta be tough.
I’m just kidding. We’re a bunch of literates who enjoy reading so much that we built our own news readers. But when a behemoth like Google makes a call that places you at the business end of 100,000 frantic power users, reminding yourself how tough you are is one way of dealing with the madness.
[Google announced Reader’s sunset at 4pm on March 13th, 2013](http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2013/03/powering-down-google-reader.html). At that point I had spent three and a half years building my vision of a better news reader. I clearly wasn’t doing it for the money, since my paltry salary didn’t even cover my market rate rent in San Francisco. RSS was a decidedly stupid technology to piggyback off of to try and cover that financial disconnect.
Take a look at this graph. It shows NewsBlur’s income versus its expenses for the past 16 months. Just look at those few months before the Google Reader shutdown announcement in March 2013.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2013%20revenue.png)
It was never hard to justify to others why I worked on a news reader for three-some years, partially because I’d been justifying it to myself for so long. I had the delusion that it would all work itself out in the end, so long as I kept pushing my hardest and shipping features users wanted. And, at the time, with 1,000 paying subscribers, it certainly felt like I was getting somewhere.
If you’re curious about why expenses are so high, think about what it takes to run a modern and popular news reader. This graph breaks down expenses for an average month from the past year.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2013%20expenses.png)
###### Why spend all that money on subcontractors and new tools? Because I’m investing in building an even better news reader.
Fast forward a year and let hindsight tell you what’s what. I was irrational to think that I could make it on my own in a decaying market, what with all the air sucked out by Google. But that three year hallucination kept me persevering to build a better product, which positioned NewsBlur well as a strong candidate for a Reader replacement. When the sunset announcement dropped, it didn’t take long to fortify the servers and handle all the traffic. NewsBlur permanently ballooned up to 20X the number of paid users. People flocked to NewsBlur because it was among the furthest along in creating real competition. As we say on NewsBlur, [the people have spoken](http://popular.newsblur.com).
## The post-Google Reader landscape
I run a very opinionated news reader. If you think somewhat like I do, you couldn’t be more pleased with the direction NewsBlur goes. But this is still a power tool, and in a world of casual readers who don’t care where their news is coming from so long as it’s in their interests and matches their biases, NewsBlur is the coffee equivalent of the AeroPress. Most people want drip coffee and they don’t bother wasting mental energy on caring about the difference in taste or quality. It’s a binary to them: coffee or no coffee. There’s nothing wrong with that, they just choose to focus on other things more important to them than the sourcing or control they have of their coffee.
Many competing news readers are visual and offer a similar experience. When you want to give up control in exchange for the digested output of sophisticated and heartless algorithms, they’re your best bet. When you want to exert control and know what you want and from which sources, NewsBlur is the only option. No other reader gives you training, statistics, and sharing in one multi-platform app. Nobody else cares so much about RSS as to work on a news reader when it was still a financial inevitability of failure.
## Future work on NewsBlur
If the past is any indication, NewsBlur is going to continue to see many more improvements. This graph of contributions from the past 365 days shows my level of unwavering dedication.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2013%20contributions.png)](http://github.com/samuelclay)
###### One way people speak is by committing code to [NewsBlur’s GitHub repo](http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur). Try developing your own pet feature. I’ll even do some of the hard work for you, so long as you give it a good try and submit a pull request.
Meanwhile, I’m using the windfall to develop a secret project that will complement NewsBlur in a way that hasn’t been tried before with any reader. And if that fails, I’ll find an even better way to make my users happy with their purchase. If you thought I was relentless before March 13th, 2013, just wait until you see what I’m capable of with the finances to build all the big ticket features I’ve been imagining for years.
And while you’re here, do me a favor and tweet about NewsBlur. Tell your followers, who are probably looking for a better way to read news, about how much you rely on NewsBlur. Reading positive tweets about NewsBlur every morning (and afternoon and evening and before bed) make this the best job I’ve ever had.

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---
layout: post
title: The new font and style manager
date: '2014-04-10T11:53:11-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/82310530327/the-new-font-and-style-manager
redirect_from: /post/82310530327/the-new-font-and-style-manager
---
This is not just any font and style manager. You now have control over font size, line spacing, story layout, and type faces directly in the reading view. This nifty popover gives you quick access to all of these customizable features.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/style%20popover.png)
The type faces come from [Hoefler & Co.](http://www.typography.com) (née Hoefler & Frere-Jones) which is the premier web type foundry. It’s also one of the most expensive, but that’s where the incredible font quality comes from.
The four new fonts are:
### Gotham Narrow
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/gotham.png)
### Sentinel
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/sentinel.png)
### Whitney
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/whitney.png)
### Chronicle
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/chronicle.png)
These new fonts are available immediately for premium users. Another great reason to pay for NewsBlur.

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---
layout: post
title: Unread is a new iOS app with NewsBlur support
date: '2014-04-24T11:56:00-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/83737741948/unread-is-a-new-ios-app-with-newsblur-support
redirect_from: /post/83737741948/unread-is-a-new-ios-app-with-newsblur-support
---
NewsBlur has a [free and open API](http://www.newsblur.com/api) that all of the native mobile apps and website are built on. But the API is not just for official apps. Numerous third-party developers have built apps on the API and today I’m proud to announce a new native iOS app has launched with NewsBlur support.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/unread_app_logo.png)](http://jaredsinclair.com/unread/)
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/unread_app_screenshot.jpeg)
[Unread](http://jaredsinclair.com/unread/), by [Jared Sinclair](https://twitter.com/jaredsinclair), is a unique RSS reader, with a focus on simplicity and cleanliness. Sinclair built Unread because he wanted to see a different kind of reading experience, one where he could focus more on reading well written stories than consuming lots of content. Unread app has a different feel than any other news reader I’ve seen and I think many of the choices made by Sinclair work in a quiet harmony.
In Sinclair’s own words:
> Most RSS apps are patterned after email. Noisy parades of dots, dates, and tags trample over their screens. Their source lists look like overflowing inboxes instead of stately tables of contents. Toolbars bristling with options obscure the text. Putting it bluntly, using these apps feels like work.
NewsBlur’s native iOS app certainly does fit this description. And if you want an incredibly well-made alternative, look no further than Unread, [available on the App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unread-an-rss-reader/id754143884).
<style>
.NB-unread-app-post p {
clear: none;
}
.NB-unread-app-post blockquote {
color: #606060;
}
</style>

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---
layout: post
title: 'Full text search across all of your subscriptions and folders '
date: '2014-04-29T04:45:28-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/84216757845/full-text-search-across-all-of-your-subscriptions-and
redirect_from: /post/84216757845/full-text-search-across-all-of-your-subscriptions-and
---
Last Summer [Simple Search was launched](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2013-07-30-simple-search-for-feeds-saved-stories-and-blurblogs.html), giving you the ability to search a single feed at a time. Obviously not ideal, but it was far less effort than the big enchilada: full text search across every site you subscribe to. It took a few months to come back to attack the full problem, but that means I could also take the time to do it right.
Full text search works just like the old simple search did. Open a folder or site and search at the top of the screen. Results come back instantly as you type. And this will automatically search in story titles, full text content, authors, and tags.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/search%20screenshot.jpg)
Because you’re searching for a story, hidden stories are also shown in the results, albeit with a red unread mark (as shown above). Also, in order to handle the demands of full text search, the first time you perform a search the system will index all of your feeds, which can take a couple minutes. It’s a one time process and you will see a progress bar that will update automatically when finished.
Since this was one of the most requested features since day one, I’m now looking to decide on the next big feature. There’s a few big ones to hit: an organizer that surfaces inactive feeds that no longer get read, a discovery platform that helps you find users, stories, and feeds related to what you like and what you may not even know you like yet, and porting many of these web-only features to Android and iOS.

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---
layout: post
title: Use the new Saved Stories view to find saved stories by site
date: '2014-06-03T15:40:00-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/87736720756/use-the-new-saved-stories-view-to-find-saved
redirect_from: /post/87736720756/use-the-new-saved-stories-view-to-find-saved
---
After launching [Saved Story Tagging](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2014-01-14-saved-story-tagging.html) earlier this year, I realized that there is an inherent categorization to every saved story: the site. But instead of just allowing you to search by site, I created a new view that you can now use to see stories saved by site.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/saved_stories_view.png)
The neat thing about this new view is that it works for folders, too. If you click on a containing folder, you’ll see the saved stories from all of the sites inside that folder. And thanks to last month’s full text search, you can search all of these saved stories.
And you should expect that these features will eventually make their way to iOS and Android.

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---
layout: post
title: Temporarily mute sites
date: '2014-06-17T12:09:59-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/89081130216/temporarily-mute-sites
redirect_from: /post/89081130216/temporarily-mute-sites
---
You can now temporarily turn off sites by going to Manage \> Mute Sites. This is for those feeds you want to keep but ignore for a while.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/mute_sites.png)
I use this to mute craigslist feeds that I no longer want to see in my unread stories list, but I want to keep just in case I need to perform a specific craigslist search without having to go through the whole process of recreating the RSS feed.
It’s also useful for subscribing to high volume sites and only reading them when you want to know what’s happening but without having to remember to re-subscribe. Such a simple feature but with a ton of utility.

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---
layout: post
title: Read what you've read recently with the new recently read stories feed
date: '2014-06-27T07:00:36-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/90060336492/read-what-youve-read-recently-with-the-new
redirect_from: /post/90060336492/read-what-youve-read-recently-with-the-new
---
Like it says on the tin, you can now go back and see what you’ve read with the Recently Read Stories feed. It’s on the bottom of your feed list, just above the saved stories.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/read%20stories.png)
This feed records all of the stories you’ve read in feeds, shared blurblogs, and even in feeds you’re not subscribed to. It does not record stories that are marked read as part of a mark all/previous as read action.

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---
layout: post
title: Adjust the font size of feed and story titles
date: '2014-07-22T06:30:26-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/92530987612/adjust-the-font-size-of-feed-and-story-titles
redirect_from: /post/92530987612/adjust-the-font-size-of-feed-and-story-titles
---
It was only a few months ago back in April that I launched [the new font and style manager](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2014-04-10-the-new-font-and-style-manager.html). Today I’m coming back to finish the job.
The style manager now has a new control for choosing the font size of feed titles and story titles.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/feed_size_style.png)
Choose from extra small to extra large. These new font sizes not only give you extra customization, but they allow you to have bigger touch sizes for folks using touch screen monitors.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/feed_size_xl.png) ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/feed_size_xs.png)
If you spot anywhere else that you’d like to see additional customization, please shout out to the [@newsblur account on Twitter](http://twitter.com/newsblur) or post an idea on [NewsBlur’s Get Satisfaction support site](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur).
And please continue to talk about how much you use NewsBlur. [Every tweet that talks positively about NewsBlur](https://twitter.com/newsblur/favorites) makes all of this work worthwhile.

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---
layout: post
title: Reeder and NewsBlur, sitting in a tree...
date: '2014-07-23T12:45:57-04:00'
tags:
- mac
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/92656879521/reeder-and-newsblur-sitting-in-a-tree
redirect_from: /post/92656879521/reeder-and-newsblur-sitting-in-a-tree
---
…S-Y-N-C-I-N-G.
First comes feeds, then comes training, then comes social for those days when its raining.
That’s not it! That’s not all! Runs on [iOS](http://reederapp.com/ios/) and [Mac](http://reederapp.com/mac/), so have a ball!
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/reeder-mac.png)](http://reederapp.com/mac/)[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/reeder-ios.png)](http://reederapp.com/ios/)
The world’s most popular RSS feed reader now supports the world’s best RSS feed reader backend. [Download Reeder 2 for Mac and iOS](http://reederapp.com/).

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---
layout: post
title: A Downtime Irony
date: '2014-08-21T21:08:24-04:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/95431965676/a-downtime-irony
redirect_from: /post/95431965676/a-downtime-irony
---
So many things can go wrong and often do, but I spend a good third of my time working on infrastructure, monitoring, and analytics so that they don’t.
Here’s what happened: At approximately 4:30pm PT feed fetching ceased. The feed fetchers were still working, which is why my monitors didn’t fire and alert anybody. But I have a second large Mongo database server used exclusively for collecting data about feeds being fetched. There are approximately 75 servers dedicated to feed fetching. These analytics look at average fetch times on a per task server basis. I use these analytics to ensure that my task servers are humming along, as they each use a ton of network, cpu, and memory.
This Mongo analytics servers works in a curious way. If you right-click on a feed and go to Statistics you’ll see the feed fetch history for a feed, stretching back a hundred fetches if the feed has had any issues in fetching. I keep these statistics on an analytics server separate from the regular Mongo server. I do this so that if the mongo analytics server goes down, everything will operate normally.
But the mongo server didn’t go down. It merely gave this error:
OperationError: Could not save document (Can't take a write lock while out of disk space)
Mongo continues serving read queries while not allowing write queries. I didn’t plan for that! And it gets worse. The way MongoDB stores data is that is just keeps growing, even as you delete data. NewsBlur only saves the last few fetches, but deleting old fetches doesn’t give you back any disk space. Every other database server I use has an autovacuum process that takes care of this maintenance work (PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, but not MongoDB). It’s unfortunate that this is yet another instance of MongoDB being the cause of downtime, even though the fault lies with me.
The server that is meant to only be used to ensure things are working correctly was itself the culprit for feeds no longer being fetched. This is the ironic part.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Big%20Sur.jpg)
###### NewsBlur’s developer during happier times wearing the 2013 NewsBlur t-shirt in Big Sur
Now comes the painful part. On Wednesday morning (yesterday) I packed my car and headed down to Big Sur to go backpack camping for the first time. I’ve car camped plenty of times, but I felt confident enough to pack my sleeping bag and tent into a big bag and head ten miles into the woods of coastal California.
I headed out, away from cellular service, at 4pm PT, half an hour before the analytics server ran out of disk space. And then returned nearly 24 hours later to a bevy of alarmed tweets, emails, direct messages, and a voicemail letting me know that things were haywire.
But the real problem is that I set a vacation reply on both my personal and work email accounts to say that I’d be out until September 3rd. Now, I hired a firm to watch the servers while I’m at Burning Man starting this Saturday. But I figured I could get away with leaving the servers for twenty four hours. And I neglected to tweet out that I’d be gone for a day, so theories cropped up that I was injured, dead, or worse, ignoring the service.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Brittany%20in%20Big%20Sur.jpg)
###### Brittany, NewsBlur’s developer’s girlfriend, can handle any situation, including driving a hysterical developer three hours back to San Francisco without breaking a sweat.
If you’re wondering, I think about NewsBlur first thing in the morning and last thing at night when I check Twitter for mentions. It’s my life and I would never just give up on it. I just got cocky after a year and a half of nearly uninterrupted service. NewsBlur requires next to no maintenance, apart from handling support requests and building new features (and occasionally fixing old ones). So I figured what harm could 24 hours of away time be? Boy was I wrong.
If you made it this far then you probably care about NewsBlur’s future. I want to not only assure you that I will be building better monitoring to ensure this never happens again, but to also offer anybody who feels that they are not getting their money’s worth a refund. Even if you are months away from payment, if you aren’t completely satisfied and think NewsBlur’s just about the best thing to happen to RSS since Brent Simmons released NetNewsWire back in 2004, then I want to give you your money back and let you keep your premium account until it expires.
I would like to also mention how much I appreciate the more light-hearted tweets that I read while on the frenetic three hour drive back to San Francisco from Big Sur. I do this for all of your happiness. If I did it for the money I’d probably find a way to juice the data so that I could at least afford to hire an employee. This is a labor of love and your payment goes directly into supporting it.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Tent%20in%20Big%20Sur.jpg)
###### Big Sur is where a good many new ideas are thought.

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---
layout: post
title: NewsBlur's 2014 t-shirt on sale for this week only
date: '2014-09-22T12:20:20-04:00'
tags:
- t-shirt
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/98163169831/newsblurs-2014-t-shirt-on-sale-for-this-week-only
redirect_from: /post/98163169831/newsblurs-2014-t-shirt-on-sale-for-this-week-only
---
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/tshirt%202014.png)](http://teespring.com/newsblur2014)
NewsBlur is more than just a website. It’s a daily link to the far away world. This t-shirt captures the essence of NewsBlur’s appeal. For those days when you’re planing adventures and reading about what’s happening where you’re not, NewsBlur is your guide.
[Buy the 2014 NewsBlur t-shirt for only $16.30](http://teespring.com/newsblur2014).
Unlike Teespring’s preview, the graphics on this t-shirt are crisp. And this t-shirt is being sold at cost. Also know that this is a premium blend t-shirt. That means it’s a bit stretchy and will make you look pretty good in a t-shirt. It will look great today and for years to come. Well, at least one year to come. If you wear this t-shirt as often as I’m planning to, it may only get a couple good years and then will have to come out only for special events. But then 2015’s NewsBlur t-shirt will be there for you.
This year’s t-shirt is designed by [Meg Robichaud](http://meg-draws.com).

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---
layout: post
title: 'NewsBlur iOS v4.5: iPhone 6 and iOS 8, full bleed images, alt text, and more'
date: '2014-10-15T15:25:12-04:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/100109971956/newsblur-ios-v45-iphone-6-and-ios-8-full-bleed
redirect_from: /post/100109971956/newsblur-ios-v45-iphone-6-and-ios-8-full-bleed
---
This week’s update to the [official NewsBlur iOS app](http://www.newsblur.com/ios) brings a whole lot of oft-requested features and improvements. Here’s what’s new this month:
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"\><tr\><td\> ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%204.5%20-%20full%20bleed.png)</td\> <td\> ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%204.5%20-%20alt%20text.png)</td\> </tr\></table\>
- iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are now fully supported
- iOS 8 is also now fully supported (as well as iOS 7)
- Moving between the feed list, story list, and story detail is now much faster
- Images are now “full bleed”, extending to the entire width of the screen
- New preference for hiding feeds after they are read
- Long press images in a story to read the alt text
- Long press images in a story to save it to your camera roll
- Long press images in a story to zoom into it
- Long press links in a story to get an actions menu (safari, instapaper, bookmark, etc)
- Fixed all iOS 8 issues (preference panes, profile popovers)
- OvershareKit updated for iOS 8
- Pull to refresh updated to match theme
- Pull to refresh date is now localized
Next to come will be a native iOS share dialog, saved story tag editing, search, and possibly some features requested by users like you. If you have a feature request, post it as an idea on [the NewsBlur forum on Get Satisfaction](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur).

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---
layout: post
title: A new way to use the Story view while on https (SSL)
date: '2014-10-31T07:00:36-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/101418566769/a-new-way-to-use-the-story-view-while-on-https
redirect_from: /post/101418566769/a-new-way-to-use-the-story-view-while-on-https
---
Modern browsers are taking your privacy and security seriously with new restrictions for sites that use https. You can choose to use NewsBlur over https, which will encrypt your communications with NewsBlur and prevent eavesdroppers—hackers, the government, other people on the same wireless network as you—from seeing what you see. While that’s not necessary for everybody, SSL/https is a priority for some and NewsBlur supports this beautifully.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/SSL%20labs.png)](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=newsblur.com)
However, what modern browsers like Chrome and Firefox do is not allow you to embed an insecure http-only site in an iframe from a secure https site. That means that the Story view in NewsBlur does not load a thing for many users who are reading NewsBlur over an https connection.
Today I’m launching a fix for this. It’s not perfect, but this will allow you to still get at some of the content while getting around the https-only issue. This feature will proxy http-only sites in the Story view, resulting in a hacked-together but workable view of the original story.
At best, the Story view will look like this:
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Story%20Proxy%20view.png)
At worst, the Story view will look like this:
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/Story%20Proxy%20view%20truncated.png)
While it’s not ideal, it’s a whole lot better than a blank page. Let me know how this new proxied Story view works for you. And if you want it to work flawlessly and are willing to use an unencrypted connection, just use the http version of NewsBlur instead of the https version.

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---
layout: post
title: Offline reading and a dark theme on the Android app
date: '2014-11-18T05:00:50-05:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/102954904310/offline-reading-and-a-dark-theme-on-the-android
redirect_from: /post/102954904310/offline-reading-and-a-dark-theme-on-the-android
---
This is a huge release for the NewsBlur Android app. So much has happened in the last six months. We’ve had a big backend rewrite that makes the app feel like new. It’s faster, which is necessary to make the new offline reading feature really shine. Now you can read on your Android phone or tablet while on the train, underground, or just in airplane mode to save battery.
Better yet, not only can you read while offline, but you can better read at night with the new dark theme. Take a look.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="1920" data-orig-width="1200" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/android%20v4.png"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/10de3bcf7c5bfa3b0bfb9ee1748c2df1/2a155b2326c7d2ed-c2/s540x810/6e02e6d138b774073e0a3c211384f83cca96d054.png" data-orig-height="1920" data-orig-width="1200" data-orig-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.newsblur.com/blog/android%20v4.png"></figure>
Here’s what’s new in version 4.0:
- Offline reading and story syncing. Stories read while offline will sync as soon as you’re back online.
- Option to also store images from stories for offline reading. They do take space, though.
- A dark theme for reading at night.
- The Text mode can be set to automatically fetch, so you can get to the full text quicker.
- An option to mark stories newer than a story as read.
- Major backend improvements for faster story loading and transitions. This app should feel like new.
The NewsBlur Android app is a [free download](https://www.newsblur.com/android). And as always, there’s more big ticket features coming soon for Android.

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---
layout: post
title: The iOS app gets search and saved story tagging
date: '2014-12-15T12:01:23-05:00'
tags:
- ios
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/105287842606/the-ios-app-gets-search-and-saved-story-tagging
redirect_from: /post/105287842606/the-ios-app-gets-search-and-saved-story-tagging
---
This month’s new iOS features are big, big features. Search made it on the web only a few months ago and is now available on the iOS app. You can also now easily add tags to saved stories, making it easier to organize and save stories you read for re-reading later.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%204.6%20tagging.png) ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios%204.6%20search.png)
Here’s the full list of new features:
- Search feeds and folders.
- Fixing rotation issues so you can watch a video and rotate without losing position.
- Saved story tagging: add and remove tags with a handy tagging popover.
- Native controls for sending a story to other services (mail, safari, chrome, evernote, instapaper, etc).
- Progress bar for the Story view when loading a story using the in-app browser.
- Further UI cleanups and memory fixes/speedups for iOS 8.
It’s a [free download](https://www.newsblur.com/ios) from the App Store. And if you are enjoying the app, please leave a 5 star review on the App Store. Every positive review, tweet, and share on Facebook helps.

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---
layout: post
title: Organize your subscriptions with the new Organizer
date: '2015-01-07T06:00:33-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/107407692738/organize-your-subscriptions-with-the-new-organizer
redirect_from: /post/107407692738/organize-your-subscriptions-with-the-new-organizer
---
The beauty of NewsBlur is that you can start off with only a handful of subscriptions and naturally work your way up. This is actually the reason that free accounts cut off at 64 sites. When I started building NewsBlur in 2009 I only subscribed to 42 sites. Nowadays it’s closer to 200 sites.
Because NewsBlur makes it so easy to pare down individual stories with the intelligence trainer, you can follow more blogs without feeling overwhelmed. But that also leads to oversubscribing to sites that just don’t publish anymore. Or even subscribing to sites that publish too often.
Launching today is the Organizer. This organizer helps you identify sites that may be posting too much or too little and then gives you the power to move and delete them all at once. Sure, you can do this one-by-one, but that takes time, and only in the new Organizer is everything right in front of you.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/organizer.png)
You can sort sites, both in and out of your folders, with the following orders:
- By name
- By number of subscribers
- By frequency of updates (stories per day)
- By last story posted
- By the number of times you’ve opened the site
You can multi-select sites and move/delete them in one single batch edit. You can even move a bunch of sites to a new folder that you can create right in the Organizer. This makes moving sites around so much easier. You can even click on the folder title to select every site underneath that folder.
Try out the new Organizer and let me know how it works. And go hog wild because you will be emailed a backup of your sites after you move or delete anything. You will only be emailed a backup a max of once per day, as to not overwhelm you when you’re making a bunch of edits.

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---
layout: post
title: Bigger story previews with the new Grid view
date: '2015-03-13T11:03:38-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/113525539506/bigger-story-previews-with-the-new-grid-view
redirect_from: /post/113525539506/bigger-story-previews-with-the-new-grid-view
---
There are currently three ways to read stories on NewsBlur:
- List view: every story is a single line and read inline
- Split view: two panes of stories, one for story titles and the other for story content
- Full view: every story is fully expanded and ready for reading
Each of these views has its own benefits and drawbacks, and each of these views can be further customized. The Split view, for instance, can place story titles on top, below, or to the left of the story content. The Full view can auto-truncate stories so that you only see a couple paragraphs at a time so long stories don’t overwhelm you.
Today I’m launching a new view: the Grid view.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/grid%201.png)
The Grid view is half-way between the Full view and the List view. It provides big previews of the images from a story as well as several lines of content. It’s not as overwhelming as the Full view and it doesn’t force every story on a single line.
You can also customize the Grid view to only show as many stories per line as you like.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/grid%202.png)
Choose between 1, 2, 3, or 4 stories per line, or stick with automatically scaling the number of stories based on how wide your browser is.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/grid%203.png)
The Grid view is perfect for sites and folders that contain a lot of images. And because you can now preview a larger part of the story, it makes sense to add a new preference that allows you to mark stories as read as you scroll without having to open up the story.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/grid%204.png)
However, the Grid view is not perfect for all feeds. That’s why I’m introducing another big change today. The four views are now saved on a per-feed and per-folder basis. You can choose a default layout in Preferences, but each feed/folder overrides that preference.
This can become a bit complicated if you have a lot of overrides and want to instead just reset all of your layouts. So you can now reset both layouts and views for all feeds and folders right from the Preferences dialog.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/grid%205.png)
I hope you enjoy this new story layout. And as always, tell your friends about NewsBlur. World of mouth is killer and it’s how NewsBlur is able to be a success.

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---
layout: post
title: A real solution to the deprecated YouTube API
date: '2015-04-30T05:30:48-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/117767869761/a-real-solution-to-the-deprecated-youtube-api
redirect_from: /post/117767869761/a-real-solution-to-the-deprecated-youtube-api
---
YouTube, owned by Google, deprecated their v2 APIs on April 20th, 2015, which means that RSS news readers can no longer watch for new videos. What a bummer!
Except it’s not at all a big deal because here at NewsBlur we’re making sure that your videos keep coming in. Previously [enterprising users setup hacks and workarounds for the API](https://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur/topics/youtube-eliminating-support-for-rss-atom), which was a somewhat tedious solution as you had to update each feed and prone to breaking in the future.
But there’s good news today because NewsBlur now has a custom-built solution for YouTube videos. All of your existing YouTube RSS feeds are automatically ported over to the new YouTube video fetcher.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/youtube%20fetcher.png)
And that’s not all. The improved YouTube video fetcher now displays a big embedded video so you can watch the video right in NewsBlur.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/youtube%20detail.png)
To subscribe to new YouTube channels, just enter in the URL of the channel in the Add Site popover.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/youtube%20subscribe.png)
When Google takes away your tools, NewsBlur builds them better than before.

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---
layout: post
title: Reply to shared stories that have no comment
date: '2015-06-02T05:30:28-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/120522553385/reply-to-shared-stories-that-have-no-comment
redirect_from: /post/120522553385/reply-to-shared-stories-that-have-no-comment
---
Used to be that a friend shares a story without commenting on it and you’d be out of luck in trying to reply or thank them for sharing it.
Not anymore! Comment-less shares now have the ability to be replied to and favorited. Take a look at this recent story on [The People Have Spoken](http://popular.newsblur.com/story/a-plea-for-culinary-/ee1275).
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/commentless%20reply.png)
These new comments are immediately available on the web and will be coming to iOS and Android shortly.

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---
layout: post
title: Read Stories feed and a rewritten networking stack on v4.3.0 of the NewsBlur
Android App
date: '2015-06-23T06:00:29-04:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/122248961894/read-stories-feed-and-a-rewritten-networking-stack
redirect_from: /post/122248961894/read-stories-feed-and-a-rewritten-networking-stack
---
Today I’d like to announce the release of version 4.3.0 of the official NewsBlur Android app. Lots of goodies, bug fixes, speed ups, and more.
The best new feature on the app is the new Read Stories feed. Take a look.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android%20read%20stories.png)
Here’s what’s new in version 4.3.0:
- New Read Stories feed
- New comment-less shares
- Memory use reduction
- Modern http library for improved connection handling and reduced timeouts
- Many bugfixes around sharing, commenting, and replying to stories
- Fixed unread search order
The Android app just keeps getting better! Not bad for a minor point release.

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---
layout: post
title: Even the folders have RSS feeds
date: '2015-08-25T07:00:14-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/127557390006/even-the-folders-have-rss-feeds
redirect_from: /post/127557390006/even-the-folders-have-rss-feeds
---
What would an RSS news reader be without its own RSS feeds? It’s be a pretty lonely reader is what.
NewsBlur now supports RSS feeds for each of your folders. Just right-click on the folder, go to Folder Settings, and behold:
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/folder_rss.png)
These folders keep track of sites you add and remove from them. They also allow you to filter out stories you don’t want to read or even choose to only show the stories you have in focus.
All of your feed subscriptions in the folder, including subfolders, are merged into a single river of news in RSS format. Technically we use Atom 1.0 format for NewsBlur’s many RSS feeds, but I’m not choosing a side here.
The Folder RSS feeds join the Shared Stories RSS feeds and the Saved Story Tag RSS feeds that you can already use if you are a premium subscriber.

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---
layout: post
title: Let’s all upgrade to version 4.5.0 of the NewsBlur Android app
date: '2015-10-01T18:54:51-04:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/130307275266/lets-all-upgrade-to-version-450-of-the-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/130307275266/lets-all-upgrade-to-version-450-of-the-newsblur
---
Here we are today with version 4.5.0 of the NewsBlur Android App. This is a great release because we took our time to update and improve a number of things about the app.
The app now has the common header shared between all of NewsBlur’s first-class clients (web, iOS, and Android).
![](http://www.newsblur.com/media/img/android/v4%20-%206%20large.png)
Here’s the full changelog for version 4.5.0 (October 2015):
- Reduced CPU and battery usage
- New activities/interactions list
- Updated feed list UI
- Explainers for empty lists
- Support for more types of alt/title text on images
- Better error messaging
- Tons of bug fixes, especially around offline usage
It’s a [free download](http://www.newsblur.com/android) and continues to get faster and more reliable. If you want to vote on which features you’d like to see next, [comment here on NewsBlur’s GitHub repo](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Aandroid).

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---
layout: post
title: Join the NewsBlur iOS beta
date: '2015-10-07T12:52:34-04:00'
tags:
- iOS
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/130700598621/join-the-newsblur-ios-beta
redirect_from: /post/130700598621/join-the-newsblur-ios-beta
---
If you like living on the bleeding edge, you should join the NewsBlur iOS beta program. You’ll get access to the latest releases a few weeks before they go out publicly.
All you need to do is add your email address to this form: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XSerwoY-PEJ7JfglNr0zOKpsoMXqplSomdORSDsZ3\_g/viewform?usp=send\_form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XSerwoY-PEJ7JfglNr0zOKpsoMXqplSomdORSDsZ3_g/viewform?usp=send_form)
You might be wondering why this is a bit different than the older method used in the past. The old beta program used an enterprise distribution provision profile, which was available as a workaround to install apps on devices without having to go through the App Store. Unfortunately that program has ended and Apple now recommends using their new TestFlight beta program.
In order to use TestFlight, email addresses of interested beta testers need to be collected. But the benefit is that you can now easily move between beta and release versions. You will also automatically upgrade to the release version when it comes out. You can also give feedback in a more accurate way, with your device and OS version automatically added to anything you write as feedback.
So if you want to try out the latest betas, specifically for iOS 9 and a whole bundle of new features, then add your email to that list and watch your inbox. It can take up to a couple days for these emails to be imported, so be patient.

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---
layout: post
title: Premium fonts, comment-less shares, in-app Safari, and way, way more in version
5.0 of the NewsBlur iOS app
date: '2015-11-18T12:21:44-05:00'
tags:
- iOS
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/133482276781/premium-fonts-comment-less-shares-in-app-safari
redirect_from: /post/133482276781/premium-fonts-comment-less-shares-in-app-safari
---
Holy geez, this is a whopper of a release. Version 5.0 of the NewsBlur iOS app has lots and lots of new features, fixes for some long standing issues, and major performance improvements for reading stories.
The biggest new feature to hit the iOS app is the introduction of premium fonts from type foundry Hoefler & Co. Whitney, Gotham Narrow, and Chronicle have been added to give NewsBlur a more pleasurable reading experience. Take a look for yourself.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios9_fonts.png)
Comment-less shares have also been added to the iOS app. You can now share a story and your friends can now reply without you having to write anything first, just like on the web and on the Android app.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios9_share.png)
Here’s the full list of new features and improvements. Make a cup of tea first because this list is a doozy.
- The app has been iOS 9-ified.
- The iOS app now has the same great fonts from the web: Whitney, Gotham Narrow, and Chronicle. These each look fantastic.
- The Text view is now sticky based on the last view you used. It’s per feed but it also respects individual feeds when reading by folder. This is unlike the web, where the Text view matches the feed or folder. Now it’s sticky to the feed, which makes it much easier to read through a folder of stories.
- When switching between the Text view and Story view, the loading indicator is now at the bottom of the screen instead of directly on top of the story.
- Stories now remember your last scroll position. When you go back to a story, you are taken back to the same place you left off.
- New Safari-based browser for the original story. These views are faster and support content blockers on iOS 9 and use your browser’s cookies. However, they look like Safari and not NewsBlur, so the default in-app browser is the original browser. The new in-app Safari browser is a preference, along with Chrome, Opera, and the full Safari app.
- A new option to mark stories as read when they are scrolled past. Defaults to off.
- Sending stories to third-party services now uses full Text if available. Useful for storing full story text in Evernote or Pocket.
- Comment-less shares are now supported, allowing you to reply to shared stories that have no comment.
- The feed trainer now shows trained titles.
- 1Password integration on login.
- iPad Pro is now supported.
- Date and times of stories now uses the system locale, so everybody who isn’t in the U.S. will see dates as they should be.
- 3D Touch actions: Add site, all site stories, search stories.
- Voiceover support.
- iOS 8 is the minimum supported version for this release.
Hot dog that’s a lot in one release. Version 5.0 is now ready for you. [Download it for free on the App Store](http://www.newsblur.com/ios).

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---
layout: post
title: Better embeds for Twitter, Instagram, and Imgur
date: '2015-12-10T12:38:56-05:00'
tags:
- web
- ios
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/134937976476/better-embeds-for-twitter-instagram-and-imgur
redirect_from: /post/134937976476/better-embeds-for-twitter-instagram-and-imgur
---
Every NewsBlur client, from the three official clients (web, iOS, and Android) to all third-party clients, should now be showing better embeds for Twitter, Instagram, and Imgur. Just take a look at these screenshots.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android_oembed_instagram.png) ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios_oembed_instagram.png)
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android_oembed_twitter.png) ![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios_oembed_twitter.png)
And don’t forget that even YouTube gets special treatment on all three platforms. Here on the web, you can see that YouTube videos are automatically expanded to fill the screen.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/oembed_web_youtube.png)
So there you go, enjoy the new embeds (also called oEmbeds, whatever that means). And if you have any suggestions for new embeds, just submit an idea to [http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur.](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur.)

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---
layout: post
title: Power users need powerful statistics
date: '2016-01-15T06:00:33-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/137346205455/improved-statistics
redirect_from: /post/137346205455/improved-statistics
---
That’s why I’m pleased to introduce more advanced statistics for every single feed. The Statistics dialog now shows a heat graph of the times of day that stories are published as well as the days of the weeks.
Take a look at the NewsBlur support feed, which you can subscribe to here: [http://www.newsblur.com/site/644144/get-satisfaction-for-newsblur](http://www.newsblur.com/site/644144/get-satisfaction-for-newsblur)
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/stats_getsatisfaction.png)
You can see the post-Google Reader shutdown bump starting in March 2013 and will notice that most of NewsBlur’s support happens during the week. (I like to take weekends off and work on side projects and the occasional NewsBlur feature.) But due to NewsBlur’s international audience, support comes in at all hours of the day.
And of course one of NewsBlur’s most popular publishers is Kottke.org, home of fine hypertext products. You can subscribe to kottke.org here: [http://www.newsblur.com/site/39/kottke.org.](http://www.newsblur.com/site/39/kottke.org.)
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/stats_kottke.png)
Amazingly, over the lifetime of NewsBlur’s statistics feature (which launched originally in 2010), Jason Kottke has been both prolific and regular in his postings of what’s good on the web. He sticks to a 9-5 schedule and works only on weekdays.
Anything else you’d like to see on the statistics panel? Post an idea over on [NewsBlur’s Get Satisfaction support site](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur).

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---
layout: post
title: Search for pizza with your Android device
date: '2016-01-28T14:26:36-05:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/138239612861/search-for-pizza-with-your-android-device
redirect_from: /post/138239612861/search-for-pizza-with-your-android-device
---
I’m not sure what else you would search for, honestly. If not vanilla pizza, then perhaps a sicilian, or montanara, a deep-dish, slices of neapolitan, whole-wheat thin-crust, or stuffed crust?
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android_search.png)
Well now you can search for pizza to your heart’s content on the [NewsBlur Android app](http://www.newsblur.com/android). Good luck with your tomato pie.

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---
layout: post
title: Two new third-party NewsBlur apps for iOS and Windows
date: '2016-02-03T13:51:32-05:00'
tags:
- ios
- windows
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/138627374341/two-new-third-party-newsblur-apps-for-ios-and
redirect_from: /post/138627374341/two-new-third-party-newsblur-apps-for-ios-and
---
NewsBlur has an amazingly active third-party app community, thanks to the [well documented NewsBlur API](http://www.newsblur.com/api). Today I’d like to introduce you to two new apps built by developers on the NewsBlur API.
## Hypersonic for Windows 10 & Windows Phone
[Hypersonic](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/hypersonic/9nblggh5wnb6) is clean, simple, beautiful, and designed to run across both mobile and desktop devices.
![](https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.57443.13510798886379389.f16a7ef2-bbfc-4fb0-9af1-b4be3b6902c1.d4e474de-9462-4612-946f-55ef3a89e295?w=712&h=400&mode=letterbox&background=black)
![](https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.35702.13510798886379389.51b7a825-88ad-466c-ba41-6870a81fff17.8672bf08-f8e1-47a9-b393-e22cbe6cb8ca?w=712&h=400&mode=letterbox&background=black)
![](https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.35090.13510798886379389.acef2ff2-e379-47b0-957e-1265f82f6967.20046293-77d2-477b-8ffb-644eeba7c817?w=712&h=400&mode=letterbox&background=black)
![](https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.6547.13510798886379389.edddb027-0403-4b79-9471-b53afd6793a7.7c3f7a94-959f-4910-a38c-db0474493f9a?w=712&h=400&mode=letterbox&background=black)
## Add My Feed for iOS
[Add My Feed](http://addmyfeed.cubesoft.fr) is an extension allowing you to effortlessly add RSS feeds to your online reader of choice.
When you encounter a site you would like to subscribe to, simply tap the Add My Feed extension and you’re done !
Add My Feed works in Safari and in any app supporting the standard iOS share sheet.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Fth086Rlw5rB9ljQgFiJrkqupdOY3Xv501DOxZ2M4MN4k9goHi-dz-2n4vDiBn6ZUa7dvbEFqzb9Y5HH_7twqqJiY9Mrxw)
Both of these apps and many more are on the [Goodies & Mobile Apps](http://www.newsblur.com/?next=goodies) dialog. If you’ve developed an app for NewsBlur and would like to add it to Goodies (and have it blogged about here), let me know!

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---
layout: post
title: Story thumbnails for story titles
date: '2016-02-19T06:30:10-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/139601219905/story-thumbnails-for-story-titles
redirect_from: /post/139601219905/story-thumbnails-for-story-titles
---
The iOS app has enjoyed a feature that gives you a tiny preview of a story’s main image right in the story title. Today this feature launches on the web.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/inline_images.png)
What I’ve noticed is that while I don’t use the image to identify which stories I want to read, I do use them to act as a signature of a story.
There’s precedence for this on NewsBlur. Every site already does this using the color of its favicon. NewsBlur liberally applies a two-tone color palette based on each feed’s favicon. This serves as a per-feed signature, giving context to a story when it’s in the same view as every other feed’s stories.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/inline_images_left.png)
These story preview thumbnails serve as the same signature. Stories are best remembered through their colors and photos, so thumbnails act as a visual signature that’s easy to recognize. It works on a subconscious but perceptable level.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/inline_images_pref.png)
Of course you can turn them right off.

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---
layout: post
title: Tracking story changes with NewsBlur
date: '2016-03-03T12:55:11-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/140405973906/tracking-story-changes-with-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/140405973906/tracking-story-changes-with-newsblur
---
NewsBlur has been tracking story changes for a long, long time now (first mentioned [on the blog five years ago in April 2011](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2012-01-16-2011-year-in-review.html)). But I felt it was time for an upgrade and today I’m pleased to launch some changes to the story tracker.
If you use a third-party client to read NewsBlur, like Reeder, ReadKit, or Unread, you may have noticed strange <ins style="text-decoration: underline;color: #006600">revision</ins> change highlighters that cross out what gets edited out by a publisher and highlights what gets added.
This is great, except you probably don’t want this turned on for every single story.
By default you will now only see the final edit of the story. And if you are on the web you will see a new Show Story Changes button in the heading of any story that has seen changes.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/show_changes_button.png)
You can also toggle back and forth between showing and hiding story changes, so you can take a peek behind the curtains and still come back to the read the story in its final, finished form.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/show_changes.png)
This should relieve the burden of having to implement a story change tracker in third-party clients when almost no other news readers have this feature. So third-party reading app makers neglected to include support, leading to a less than ideal NewsBlur reading experience. No longer!

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---
layout: post
title: A heavier lifting Android app
date: '2016-04-09T12:56:12-04:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/142529442501/a-heavier-lifting-android-app
redirect_from: /post/142529442501/a-heavier-lifting-android-app
---
As performance updates go, this month’s upgrade to v4.8.0 of the NewsBlur Android app is a doozy. This one’s specifically made for those users with a heavier load of feeds.
If you have over a hundred feeds, everything will suddenly feel smooth, just like it already does for those with only a few dozen subscriptions. And if you find yourself climbing up to several hundred feeds from only a dozen, you’ll be in good company.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android_heavy_lifting.png)

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---
layout: post
title: NewsBlur goes dark ... on iOS
date: '2016-04-12T06:00:18-04:00'
tags:
- iOS
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/142683199563/newsblur-goes-dark-on-ios
redirect_from: /post/142683199563/newsblur-goes-dark-on-ios
---
It’s like a whole new app. There’s so much to tell you about in the latest release of the NewsBlur iOS app. This is the release of all releases.
The biggest addition are the new themes. We have a total of four themes now: white, sepia, grey, and dark.
The dark theme is for when the lights are low (or off) and you want to read without disturbing anybody around you.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-dark.png)
The grey theme gives you the best of both worlds. It’s a dark theme that gives you low light, but still bright enough to easily see.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-grey.png)
Sepia is the paperback you carry around everywhere so you always have something to read. Preparation pays.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-sepia.png)
The iPad Pro gets full support and that means that keyboard shortcuts have been instrumented all over the app.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-keyboard.png)
Maybe you’re thinking about how much the app just advanced. Maybe you’ve been waiting a long, long time for a dark theme ever since Android got it a year ago. Who knows, maybe you’re 100% on your iphone and that there’s just one or two tasks that you still need the website for.
Get ready for this. The Organizer is now on the iOS app. And this isn’t just any organizer. You can see all of your feeds, sorted in or out of their folders, ordered by number of subscribers, how often you read them, how often they publish, and even how recently they published.
Use these lists to find feeds that no longer publish or the feeds that publish too much. Move and delete whole groups of feeds at once. This organizer is the real deal. Try finding this feature anywhere else.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-organizer.png)
And if there’s an organizer, that means there’s a way to mute and unmute sites directly from your iPhone.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/ios-v6-mute.png)
There’s plenty of other new features too:
- New icons app-wide
- New menus for deleting and muting feeds
- Custom domain support
- Mark all as read by long pressing
- Search and Subscribe improvements
And check it out, NewsBlur now has two additional developers working on the iOS app, David Sinclair and Nicholas Riley. They have worked for the last few months on making this update the biggest yet. [Their mugs are now on the About page](http://www.newsblur.com/about) and I’m extremely pleased with their work. Nicholas built the keyboard support that iPad Pro owners will appreciate. And David gives us the new themes, new organizer, and all of the other goodies we’ve got.
This is the one to beat.

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---
layout: post
title: Twitter’s back, baby
date: '2016-06-01T07:00:30-04:00'
tags:
- web
- ios
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/145256277160/twitters-back-baby
redirect_from: /post/145256277160/twitters-back-baby
---
It’s been too long. Twitter [unceremoniously knee-capped their API](https://blog.twitter.com/2013/api-v1-retirement-final-dates) a few years ago and a number of solutions popped up to fix the loss. However, those stopgaps also closed and left us with no good ways to read Twitter while in NewsBlur. Until now, that is.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/twitter_api.png)
You can now subscribe to **[https://twitter.com/](https://twitter.com/)_username_** to get individual Twitter accounts on NewsBlur. Put them all in a folder to recreate your tweetstream.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/twitter_add.png)
Not only do you get the full tweetstream for that user, but you can also filter out tweets that are replies, retweets, or contain any text in them. You can also train Twitter feeds to highlight tweets that contain photos, are retweeted or liked, or have a word you want.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/twitter_training.png)
YouTube also deprecated their API and NewsBlur came to the rescue with [native YouTube API support](http://blog.newsblur.com/2021/06/21/2015-04-30-a-real-solution-to-the-deprecated-youtube-api.html). Now Twitter joins that list of native support, giving you a better Twitter experience than ever before.
And because this native Twitter support takes more work than normal RSS feeds do, this feature is only available to premium subscribers.

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---
layout: post
title: Newsletters in your NewsBlur
date: '2016-07-01T07:00:16-04:00'
tags:
- web
- ios
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/146752875548/newsletters-in-your-newsblur
redirect_from: /post/146752875548/newsletters-in-your-newsblur
---
It’s been three years to the day that Google Reader shut down. And here’s a feature they could never build. Introducing email newsletters in your RSS reader.
You can now forward your email newsletters over to NewsBlur and then read your email newsletters right in your browser/phone/TV/tablet. A couple dozen users have been beta testing this feature for the last couple of months and everybody agrees, this feature is amazing.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsletters.png)
Newsletters are formatted to fit all of your screens, so it looks just as good on the web as it does on your phone.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsletters-ios.png)
Here’s the best part. If you get a lot of newsletters, you can group them into folders and even train them to highlight the newsletters you want to read first.
Setting up newsletters on NewsBlur is easy. Just follow the personalized instructions on the web by going to Manage \> Email Newsletters on either the web dashboard or the manage menu.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsletters-setup.png)
You might ask why not just subscribe your custom NewsBlur newsletter email address directly to the newsletter instead of forwarding copies of the newsletter. The answer is that if you want a single source of truth for where newsletters are going, you want that in your email client and not on NewsBlur. If you ever change news readers (and with new features like this, why would you want to) you’ll want to change only a single filter rule instead of dozens of newsletter emails.
And with this huge new feature, NewsBlur just became even better. NewsBlur has branched beyond RSS for a while now, fetching Twitter and YouTube stories even without RSS. With newsletters, NewsBlur becomes your single source.
If you have suggestions on what NewsBlur can help you read next, post an idea on the [Get Satisfaction forums](http://getsatisfaction.com/newsblur).

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---
layout: post
title: Newsreel is a NewsBlur app for tv
date: '2016-07-14T07:00:39-04:00'
tags:
- "tv"
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/147394684284/newsreel-is-a-newsblur-app-for-tv
redirect_from: /post/147394684284/newsreel-is-a-newsblur-app-for-tv
---
Check it out, David Berlin built [Newsreel](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id1080200978?mt=8), a NewsBlur client for Apple TV. And from my first impression, it rocks. Just take a look at these screenshots.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsreel.png)
You can read your subscriptions as well as subscribe to new sites, right from your television.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsreel-add.png)
Not only does it look polished, but it’s smooth and seamless. Take a look at how it works in practice.
\<
video src=“http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/newsreel-780.mp4” style=“width: 650px; margin: 0 auto; border: 1px solid #606060” autoplay=“true” muted=“true” loop=“true”\>
You can download [download Newsreel on the App Store](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id1080200978?mt=8). What a beautiful app and it goes to show how nice it is to be able to read your news on a big screen.

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---
layout: post
title: The dashboard river will keep you up-to-date in real-time
date: '2017-01-11T06:00:21-05:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/155717876825/the-dashboard-river-will-keep-you-up-to-date-in
redirect_from: /post/155717876825/the-dashboard-river-will-keep-you-up-to-date-in
---
This is a seriously cool feature and I’m glad it’s ready to launch. The dashboard river, the real-time stream of the top five stories of All Site Stories, is now on the dashboard of the web app.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/dashboard-river.png)
After testing this feature for the past few weeks I now realize that I could not live without it. By having the latest stories always loaded and instantly ready to go, I leave NewsBlur open and just take a quick glance to see if the top of my list is interesting.
It also loads instantly, which means that if you see a story you want to read, clicking on it brings up the text without taking a single moment.
One big change that this necessitated was the handling of the Text view when reading by folders. Used to be that a folder got its own feed/text/story view and every feed had to stay with the same story view. But on iOS and Android it’s different. Every feed gets to keep its own feed/text/story setting.
This is now how it works on the web. If you read on feed by its Text (extracted original text) view and another by its Feed view, then you are automatically switched between the two views. Quite a bit of logic had to accomodate scrolling (you don’t automatically switch, since that would throw you from one scroll viewport into another) and switching between stories.
Enjoy the dashboard river. And if you look closely you might even see the next big feature that itself is about to launch soon.

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---
layout: post
title: A new NewsBlur Android release for the new year
date: '2017-01-25T14:01:15-05:00'
tags:
- android
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/156370499831/a-new-newsblur-android-release-for-the-new-year
redirect_from: /post/156370499831/a-new-newsblur-android-release-for-the-new-year
---
Version 5.0 has a bunch of new features. It’s got new gestures, better looking icons and thumbnail previews, and little UI design details to better match the rest of NewsBlur.
Take a look:
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/android-v5.png)
The full feature list:
- New gesture to mark a story as read and unread by swiping on the story title
- UI updates to story titles
- New preferences for the font size of feed titles and story titles
- Fleuron on the bottom of story lists better help you keep tracking of where you are in a feed.
- Thumbnails in story lists
- Recover a forgotten password
- Higher resolution icons
- Mute feeds
- Option to enable confirmation for destructive mark-reads
- Custom server support
What a good way to close out January.

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---
layout: post
title: Preview NewsBlur's upcoming hardware device, Turn Touch
date: '2017-02-02T05:00:24-05:00'
tags: []
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/156713298365/preview-newsblurs-upcoming-hardware-device-turn
redirect_from: /post/156713298365/preview-newsblurs-upcoming-hardware-device-turn
---
I have something very exciting to share with you today. I’ve been working on a secret project called Turn Touch and I’m just about ready to show it to you. [Signup on turntouch.com](https://www.turntouch.com) to find out.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/turntouch/blog-preview-blur.jpg)](https://www.turntouch.com)
It’s a new kind of device and it’s machined out of solid wood. I built it to last, much like my other projects (for instance the news reader you’re likely reading this in). Turn Touch is built for NewsBlur, among many other things.
Turn Touch will be launching on Kickstarter next week and I want to ask for your help. When I launch my campaign I’m going to need people like you to share it with people who look to you for recomendations on what’s good. You already use NewsBlur, so you’re already known for having good taste.
Now, you probably want to know what Turn Touch is and actually looks like, yeah? Then [signup on turntouch.com](https://www.turntouch.com).
You’ll get to preview the Kickstarter campaign and offer me any feedback you have. You’ll get to see Turn Touch and find out what it offers you.
I’ve been working on this as a side project for that past few years. And by signing up you’ll have the first access to it.

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---
layout: post
title: Introducing Turn Touch, a beautiful wooden remote for lights, devices, apps,
and NewsBlur
date: '2017-02-07T09:32:32-05:00'
tags:
- turntouch
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/156939277121/introducing-turn-touch-a-beautiful-wooden-remote
redirect_from: /post/156939277121/introducing-turn-touch-a-beautiful-wooden-remote
---
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="1333" data-orig-width="2000" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/photos/Turn%20Touch-3259c.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/eeb4ddd71d9ff88a4cfd40e2ad325bd7/tumblr_inline_pa8u8e6UER1qg4k90_540.jpg" style="width: 650px;border: 1px solid #909090;" data-orig-height="1333" data-orig-width="2000" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/photos/Turn%20Touch-3259c.jpg"></figure>
[Turn Touch](https://turntouch.com/kickstarter) is a solid wood remote… and it’s about to change the way you use NewsBlur.
**Change how?**
Here’s how. Turn Touch connects to apps and devices in your home. Think Hue lights and Sonos speakers. Your Mac, your phone, etc.
It also connects to NewsBlur.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="760" data-orig-width="1360" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/graphics/use-case-news@2x.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/aeecaab8bc827ac224da4a35f107c3da/tumblr_inline_pa8u8eub5F1qg4k90_540.jpg" style="width: 650px;border: 1px solid #909090;" data-orig-height="760" data-orig-width="1360" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/graphics/use-case-news@2x.jpg"></figure>
This is big. It means you can wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and cycle through news from across the room. Or, hook your Mac up to a display (maybe your living room TV) and skip through photo blogs, headlines, and the day’s best writing.
It’s kind of like getting a new set of speakers. Where before, you’d be chained to your computer with headphones; now, you can listen to music from anywhere you’d like. With Turn Touch, you can leave your computer and read the news no matter what you’re doing— laundry, the dishes, or enjoying a lazy Sunday on your couch.
<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="877" data-orig-width="2000" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/photos/Turn%20Touch-3248c.jpg"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/055f15250001fcf74521a336a27b4e09/tumblr_inline_pa8u8fBOgG1qg4k90_540.jpg" style="width: 650px;border: 1px solid #909090;" data-orig-height="877" data-orig-width="2000" data-orig-src="https://turntouch.com/static/images/media-kit/photos/Turn%20Touch-3248c.jpg"></figure>
**Get one. Or all three.**
[Turn Touch is on Kickstarter](https://turntouch.com/kickstarter). Back the project to get your very own. Or—and this is my sincere recommendation—get the complete set, save some money, and give one away to a friend.
I’ve been working on Turn Touch for years and I hope it shows.

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---
layout: post
title: 'Last day to back Turn Touch: NewsBlur’s beautiful remote'
date: '2017-03-09T05:00:33-05:00'
tags:
- turntouch
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/158188931874/last-day-to-back-turn-touch-newsblurs-beautiful
redirect_from: /post/158188931874/last-day-to-back-turn-touch-newsblurs-beautiful
---
**This is it, the final countdown!**
Tonight at 8pm PT the [Turn Touch campaign](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control/) will end and the project will be successfully funded. Judging from the $50,000 raised already, I think Turn Touch has a long life ahead of it.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/turntouch/animated-newsblur-live.gif)](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control/)
##### [Watch the 2 minute demo on Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/207556527)
Apart from being the only remote control in the world built for a news reader, Turn Touch is the handiest shortcut for your lights, music, and apps. It’s basically a customizable remote with a knack for smart homes.
Supporting Turn Touch is a way of supporting NewsBlur. They are part of the same suite of productivity tools made by the [same person](https://twitter.com/samuelclay). By buying a Turn Touch and backing this Kickstarter, you’re continuing to fund the development of great tools.
So please [head to Kickstarter and buy yourself the $59 mahogany remote](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control/), even if you do not yet have any smart home devices. This remote is the easiest way to start connecting your home.
[![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/turntouch/padauk-book.jpg)](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control/)

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---
layout: post
title: Saved searches make it easy to create custom feeds
date: '2017-03-28T05:00:28-04:00'
tags:
- web
tumblr_url: https://blog.newsblur.com/post/158925569072/saved-searches-make-it-easy-to-create-custom-feeds
redirect_from: /post/158925569072/saved-searches-make-it-easy-to-create-custom-feeds
---
You can now save a search as a saved search feed. This works for individual sites, folders, All Site Stories, saved stories, and blurblogs.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/saved-search-list.png)
Saved searches are great for creating custom feeds with just the stories you want. Think of these new feeds as spotlights on parts of a folder or feed, ways to keep track of stories that share a theme across different sites.
![](http://static.newsblur.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/saved-search-grid.png)
Or use saved searches to keep a single tag together for handy reference.

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