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	<itunes:summary>Mac tutorials, news, and reviews</itunes:summary>
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		<title>Untitled</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/11/05/untitled-2/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/11/05/untitled-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2013 07:06:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1861</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Testing</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/11/05/untitled-2/">Untitled</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Testing</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/11/05/untitled-2/">Untitled</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Introducing Cellular</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/10/24/cellular-podcast/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/10/24/cellular-podcast/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:37:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1836</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m extremely pleased to announce that I am bringing back my daily podcast. I&#8217;ve decided to let my previous podcast, Low Level Thoughts, rest in peace, and have instead opted to create a brand new podcast. The new podcast is entitled Cellular. It&#8217;s sort of the successor to Low Level Thoughts, but this go around, [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/10/24/cellular-podcast/">Introducing Cellular</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/10/24/cellular-podcast/" title="click to read"><img class="post_image" src="http://bnjm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cellular_Cover_1.png" width="1024" height="1024" alt="Introducing Cellular post image" /></a></p>
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<p>I&#8217;m extremely pleased to announce that I am bringing back my daily podcast. I&#8217;ve decided to let my previous podcast, Low Level Thoughts, rest in peace, and have instead opted to create a brand new podcast.</p>

<p>The new podcast is entitled <em>Cellular</em>. It&#8217;s sort of the successor to Low Level Thoughts, but this go around, it&#8217;ll be a but more focused on tips, ideas, and thoughts to help you be more productive in the tech space.</p>

<p>I choose the name Cellular, not as a homage to wireless phones, but instead towards the molecular cells that make up all living things. My goal is to get in touch with the molecular aspects of technology, focusing intently on small tips, and ideas to help you do more. It&#8217;s very much a concept, but it&#8217;s something that I believe in and have always wanted to do.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/10/24/cellular-podcast/">Introducing Cellular</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Switching to WP Engine</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/10/17/switching-wp-engine/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/10/17/switching-wp-engine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Oct 2013 19:19:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1833</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Yesterday, I made the switch to WP Engine from MediaTemple. I&#8217;ve been a MediaTemple customer for quite some time, and never really had much of an issue with them. They provided reasonable hosting, and great support. When the news broke that GoDaddy had purchased MediaTemple, I immediately knew that my relationship was coming to an [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/10/17/switching-wp-engine/">Switching to WP Engine</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yesterday, I made the switch to <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=394686&#038;u=868062&#038;m=41388&#038;urllink=&#038;afftrack=">WP Engine</a> from MediaTemple. I&#8217;ve been a MediaTemple customer for quite some time, and never really had much of an issue with them. They provided reasonable hosting, and great support.</p>

<p>When the news broke that GoDaddy had purchased MediaTemple, I immediately knew that my relationship was coming to an end. I&#8217;ve spent the last year migrating all of my domains off of GoDaddy, because they have been, in my experience, such a terrible company.</p>

<p>Why is GoDaddy terrible? GoDaddy tries to upsell <em>everything</em>, and trick you into buying stuff that you don&#8217;t need. I&#8217;ve since been migrating all of my stuff over to Hover, which doesn&#8217;t relegate itself to petty tactics and trickery.</p>

<p>Needless to say, there was no way I was going to stick around with MediaTemple while the GoDaddy white shirts came in and disrupted all that was good with the company. I was jumping ship while I was still happy with MediaTemple.</p>

<p>The migration process could not have been easier. WP Engine is a managed host for WordPress installs. They are only for WordPress, so it takes a lot of the other complicated factors out of the equation. This is my first post since moving over to the new digs. So far, so good.</p>

<p>WP Engine has a 60 day trial, which is very reasonable. It&#8217;s definitely long enough to see if it may be a solution for you. I used a coupon code, which gave me $25 off the first three months, which is an insanely good deal. That means I only need to pay $4 per month for the first 3 month, and I still get the trial money back guarantee. If you&#8217;d like to try it, the coupon code for WP Engine is: ARTOFBLOG</p>

<p>If you decide to try it, let me know how your experience has been. I&#8217;ll be sure to update you guys on my experience as well. Thanks to <a href="http://twitter.com/ismh/">Stephen Hackett</a> for the recommendation.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/10/17/switching-wp-engine/">Switching to WP Engine</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How to move iTunes backups to an external hard drive</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-move-itunes-backups-to-an-external-hard-drive/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-move-itunes-backups-to-an-external-hard-drive/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Sep 2013 03:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[How to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iTunes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1787</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;re running short on hard drive space, relocating your iTunes backups is one of the easiest ways to regain some of that precious storage. It may seem like a daunting undertaking, but it&#8217;s actually a fairly easy and straightforward affair. We&#8217;ll use a symbolic link between the normal iTunes backup location and the external [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-move-itunes-backups-to-an-external-hard-drive/">How to move iTunes backups to an external hard drive</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tu9azQyz2Mg" height="315" width="560" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>If you&#8217;re running short on hard drive space, relocating your iTunes backups is one of the easiest ways to regain some of that precious storage. It may seem like a daunting undertaking, but it&#8217;s actually a fairly easy and straightforward affair.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll use a symbolic link between the normal iTunes backup location and the external hard drive location in order to make the seamless transition. It does require a little bit of leg work, but it&#8217;s extremely easy to do, especially with the help of my video walkthrough. Have a look inside for the details.</p>
<p>The first thing you need to do is analyze how much space you&#8217;ll save and how much space you&#8217;ll need on your external drive. You should generally have a few dozen gigs of space on your external location. After you&#8217;ve located a sufficient drive for your relocation, you may proceed with this tutorial.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> proceed at your own risk, and read the entire tutorial before proceeding with any steps.</p>
<h2>Copy the contents of the iTunes backup folder to the external location</h2>
<p>By default iTunes backups are located here: <strong>~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup </strong></p>
<p>Venture to this location via the Finder, and right click on the backup folder and select Get Info. This will tell you the size of the folder&#8217;s contents. Once you&#8217;ve verified that you have enough hard disk space on the external location to work with, proceed to copy the folder to your backup location.</p>
<p>In my video guide, I used the following location to copy over the Backup folder: /Volumes/External/iTunes Backups</p>
<p>Once you have verified that the entire contents of the folder is migrated to the new external location, you may proceed.</p>
<h2>Rename the backup folder in the original location</h2>
<p>As a precaution, don&#8217;t delete the Backup folder in the original location just yet. Instead, rename it to Backup-old.</p>
<h2>Create a Symbolic Link between the two locations</h2>
<p>We can employ a simple Terminal command to connect the two locations with a symbolic link. Open Terminal, which can be done via Spotlight or via Launchpad.</p>
<p>Once Terminal is open type the following command and press Return:</p>
<p><code>ln -s /Volumes/External/"iTunes Backups"/Backup ~/Library/"Application Support"/MobileSync</code></p>
<p>Of course, the exact location of your iTunes Backup folder will vary depending on where you put it, just use the above as a guide.</p>
<p>You should now see a symbolic linked folder in your ~/Library/&#8221;Application Support&#8221;/MobileSync folder. It should look like a normal folder called Backup with an arrow in the bottom left-hand corner. That arrow denotes that the folder is nothing more than a pointer to a different location, in this case the External drive.</p>
<h2>Delete the Backup-old folder</h2>
<p>You can now safely delete the Backup-old folder, because the Backup folder has been relocated and we now have a symbolic link in place to tell iTunes where to look. You can now use iTunes and backup and restore as you normally would.</p>
<p>I suggest that you disable automatic backups via iTunes, unless this is a permanently attached External drive. If you tend to move about without the drive, then it&#8217;s safest just to engage backups manually.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-move-itunes-backups-to-an-external-hard-drive/">How to move iTunes backups to an external hard drive</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>How to group selected files in a folder using OS X’s ‘New Folder With Selection’ feature</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-group-selected-files-in-a-folder-using-os-xs-new-folder-with-selection-feature/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-group-selected-files-in-a-folder-using-os-xs-new-folder-with-selection-feature/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Sep 2013 03:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[How to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Folders]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1785</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>OS X includes a handy feature that allows users to select a group of files and quickly create a folder and place the selected files in that folder. The folder is then ready to rename to whatever you’d like to name it. This is an extremely handy feature that first debuted in OS X Lion [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-group-selected-files-in-a-folder-using-os-xs-new-folder-with-selection-feature/">How to group selected files in a folder using OS X’s ‘New Folder With Selection’ feature</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8lZfLnTpNOo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<p>OS X includes a handy feature that allows users to select a group of files and quickly create a folder and place the selected files in that folder. The folder is then ready to rename to whatever you’d like to name it.</p>

<p>This is an extremely handy feature that first debuted in OS X Lion (10.7). I personally use it all the time when I’m working with a lot of files at once. It’s so handy, I’m not sure how I ever lived without it to be honest.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/09/10/how-to-group-selected-files-in-a-folder-using-os-xs-new-folder-with-selection-feature/">How to group selected files in a folder using OS X’s ‘New Folder With Selection’ feature</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>ReadKit 2.0</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/06/01/readkit-2-0/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/06/01/readkit-2-0/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 04:05:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fever]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ReadKit]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1720</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The long awaited update to ReadKit finally hit the Mac App Store, and it&#8217;s an update of epic proportions. More importantly, ReadKit 2.0 is the first native Fever client for OS X, which is reason enough alone to celebrate. I&#8217;ve been testing out the new 2.0 features for about a month or so, and I [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/06/01/readkit-2-0/">ReadKit 2.0</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The long awaited update to ReadKit finally hit the Mac App Store, and it&#8217;s an update of epic proportions. More importantly, ReadKit 2.0 is the first native Fever client for OS X, which is reason enough alone to celebrate.</p>

<p>I&#8217;ve been testing out the new 2.0 features for about a month or so, and I can attest that they&#8217;re really good. I look forward to providing you guys with a review, but in the meantime, I can already recommend that you go ahead and <a href="http://bnjm.org/x/readkit/">buy this app from the Mac App Store</a>. First of all, if you&#8217;re a Fever user, then it&#8217;s a no brainer. I&#8217;m not just saying that because it&#8217;s the only Fever client available on native OS X, I&#8217;m saying it because it&#8217;s a <em>really good</em> native OS X Fever client.</p>

<p>One of my favorite features is the Smart Folder functionality:</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ReadKit-2.0-Smart-Folders-1024x579.jpg" alt="ReadKit 2.0 Smart Folders" width="312" height="176" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1721" /></p>

<p>This allows you to key in on keywords and other meta date to drill down to specific posts from your Fever stream. Slick. And that&#8217;s just the very tip of the iceberg. ReadKit is a huge app with tons of features. Check out the change long for version 2.0:</p>

<ul>
<li>New services: Fever, NewsBlur and built-in RSS</li>
<li>Smart folders with live update</li>
<li>Notification center integration</li>
<li>Preference to save and restore reading positions </li>
<li>Preference to cache images locally for all read later services </li>
<li>Preference to confirm deletion of bookmarks </li>
<li>Improved sync performance </li>
<li>Several other improvements and fixes</li>
</ul>

<p>Stay tuned for more details.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/06/01/readkit-2-0/">ReadKit 2.0</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Thunderbolt Display</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/thunderbolt-display/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/thunderbolt-display/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple Thunderbolt Display]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1717</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>A few days ago I acquired an Apple Thunderbolt Display with the intention of using the display as a docking station for my Macbook Pro with Retina Display. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after some usage, I&#8217;m a total believer. It can&#8217;t be overstated how helpful it is to have a true [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/thunderbolt-display/">Thunderbolt Display</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A few days ago I acquired an Apple Thunderbolt Display with the intention of using the display as a docking station for my Macbook Pro with Retina Display. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after some usage, I&#8217;m a total believer. It can&#8217;t be overstated how helpful it is to have a true docking station for the MacBook, especially when the MacBook is your only computer.</p>

<p>I&#8217;ve experimented with having two, and at times even three computers in the office, but it never works out. The problem stems from the reality that there&#8217;s always a file that you need on one of the <em>other</em> computers. It&#8217;s just too hard to keep them all in sync. I find that working from a singular device is much better in nearly all areas, except maybe form factor and connectivity.</p>

<p>I find it annoying when I have to constantly unplug my keyboard and all of my other connected accessories any time I want to move around with my MacBook. With the Apple Thunderbolt Display, this is no longer an issue. Now I can keep everything plugged in, and simply connect or disconnect the Thunderbolt cable and MagSafe adapter when I want to dock or move around.</p>

<p>The Thunderbolt Display is great for my needs. It&#8217;s easy to connect, simple to configure, and most of the times it just works. Of course, I do have a few complaints about the display, it&#8217;s good but it&#8217;s not perfect. Here are a few areas that I&#8217;d like to see changed in the refresh Thunderbolt Display:</p>

<ul>
<li>Adopt the new iMac slim form factor</li>
<li>Add USB 3.0, and bump up the USB ports from 3 to 5</li>
<li>Audio in/out</li>
<li>SD Card reader</li>
<li>MagSafe 2 adapter</li>
</ul>

<p>Less realistic wishes:</p>

<ul>
<li>Create a smaller 24&#8243; model</li>
<li>Add Retina (not going to happen any time soon)</li>
</ul>

<p>Outside of the smaller model and Retina support, I think all of the remaining items are feasible additions that we might see come refresh. We&#8217;ve been hearing some real rumblings about a refreshed Mac Pro (finally), so this bodes well for a refreshed Apple Thunderbolt Display. Here&#8217;s hoping. If so, I&#8217;ll be returning this display for the new one.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/thunderbolt-display/">Thunderbolt Display</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>016: New gear</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/016-new-gear/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/016-new-gear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 May 2013 22:09:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Low Level Thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1706</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>This is the first Low Level Thoughts episode that&#8217;s been recorded on my new podcasting setup. Hope you enjoy. Subscribe: Options</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/016-new-gear/">016: New gear</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is the first Low Level Thoughts episode that&#8217;s been recorded on my new podcasting setup. Hope you enjoy.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Subscribe: <a href="http://www.bnjm.org/podcast-options/" title="Podcast options">Options</a></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/31/016-new-gear/">016: New gear</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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			<itunes:keywords>Podcast</itunes:keywords>
	<itunes:subtitle>This is the first Low Level Thoughts episode that's been recorded on my new podcasting setup. Hope you enjoy.    Subscribe: Options</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>This is the first Low Level Thoughts episode that's been recorded on my new podcasting setup. Hope you enjoy.



Subscribe: Options</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>bnjm.org</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:duration>9:25</itunes:duration>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>015: A low level review</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/23/015-a-low-level-review/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/23/015-a-low-level-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2013 04:54:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Low Level Thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1701</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I recorded this entire episode on my iPhone 5. In this episode, I discuss the in-depth nature of my Sunstroke review, upcoming features for Ashes, and Reeder, the Google Reader sunsetting, Read Kit, and my exciting new podcast setup. Subscribe: Options</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/23/015-a-low-level-review/">015: A low level review</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recorded this entire episode on my iPhone 5. In this episode, I discuss the in-depth nature of my Sunstroke review, upcoming features for Ashes, and Reeder, the Google Reader sunsetting, Read Kit, and my exciting new podcast setup.</p>



<p>Subscribe: <a href="http://www.bnjm.org/podcast-options/" title="Podcast options">Options</a></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/23/015-a-low-level-review/">015: A low level review</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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			<itunes:keywords>Podcast</itunes:keywords>
	<itunes:subtitle>I recorded this entire episode on my iPhone 5. In this episode, I discuss the in-depth nature of my Sunstroke review, upcoming features for Ashes, and Reeder, the Google Reader sunsetting, Read Kit, and my exciting new podcast setup.    Subscribe: Options</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>I recorded this entire episode on my iPhone 5. In this episode, I discuss the in-depth nature of my Sunstroke review, upcoming features for Ashes, and Reeder, the Google Reader sunsetting, Read Kit, and my exciting new podcast setup.



Subscribe: Options</itunes:summary>
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		<itunes:duration>11:28</itunes:duration>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Sunstroke 1.4.0 review</title>
		<link>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/22/sunstroke-1-4-0-review/</link>
		<comments>http://bnjm.org/2013/05/22/sunstroke-1-4-0-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2013 02:03:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fever]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sunstroke]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bnjm.org/?p=1425</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Sunstroke and I have an interesting history. It was the first dedicated Fever client that I purchased on the iPhone, simply because it was the only dedicated Fever client available for iOS at the time. Now we have Ashes, which I&#8217;ve reviewed in-depth. There is also Reeder, which started off as a Google Reader client, [&#8230;]</p><p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/22/sunstroke-1-4-0-review/">Sunstroke 1.4.0 review</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sunstroke and I have an interesting history. It was the first dedicated Fever client that I purchased on the iPhone, simply because it was the only dedicated Fever client available for iOS at the time. Now we have Ashes, which <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/07/ashes-1-1-review/" title="Ashes 1.1 review">I&#8217;ve reviewed</a> in-depth. There is also Reeder, which started off as a Google Reader client, but eventually branched off to cover more territory with Fever, and more recently, Feedbin support.</p>

<p>All three of the aforementioned clients will provide you with a solid Fever experience. All, as you might expect, have their own idiosyncrasies and subtleties. So what makes Sunstroke different from the rest of the pack? Even more importantly, should you consider Sunstroke over the alternative offerings?</p>

<p>Sunstroke used to be an iPhone only app. Only until recently — on the <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/04/25/sunstroke-1-4-released-with-ipad-support/" title="Sunstroke 1.4 released with iPad support">same day as the Ashes launch I might mention</a> — did Sunstroke gain support for the iPad. With that update came a bevy of other significant upgrades to the client. It&#8217;s changed so much, that I would recommend that you take another look at Sunstroke if you haven&#8217;t used it in a while.</p>

<p>The first thing that you&#8217;ll notice about Sunstroke is its rather understated design. Okay, let&#8217;s not mince words here; Sunstroke is rather bland looking. It&#8217;s comprised of colors in the vicinity of white, light gray, medium gray, dark gray, darker gray, and a splash or two of red from time to time. If you&#8217;re looking for something flashy or groundbreaking in terms of design, Sunstroke isn&#8217;t going to give it to you.</p>

<p>With all of that being said, the actual functionality of Sunstroke is good. It&#8217;s a solid Fever client that packs a strong feature set. Another thing that the app has going for it is speed. Sunstroke loads fast and can handle virtually anything that you throw at it. If speed is your main objective, perusing feeds, navigating via the app&#8217;s in-app browser, then Sunstroke won&#8217;t disappoint you.</p>

<h2>The basics</h2>

<p>Like most apps of this type, Sunstroke has adopted the classic two-panel view, which was popularized by iOS&#8217; stock Mail app. I should note that on the iPad, it&#8217;s not a 1:1 interpretation of the Mail app&#8217;s two-panel view, though. Instead, Sunstroke&#8217;s left-panel, which contains your list of feeds and folders, functions as an overlay that can be displayed by means of a button press. For times where the left-panel isn&#8217;t being displayed, your entire list of feed items is shown in a full screen view. This works the same way in both portrait and landscape orientation.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-left-panel-animation.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 - left panel animation" width="512" height="384" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1669" /></p>

<p>With all things considered, this is Sunstroke&#8217;s most obvious shortcoming when it comes to the iPad release — the version that I&#8217;ve focused on for this review. It&#8217;s basically just a blown up representation of the original iPhone version, so it doesn&#8217;t take advantage of the iPad&#8217;s extra real estate. This means that I can&#8217;t peruse the individual feed items and my list of folders simultaneously; it&#8217;s either one or the other. Granted, iPad support was only recently added to the app, but I can&#8217;t help but think that it was a knee-jerk response to Ashes, which features universal support that truly takes advantage of the iPad&#8217;s larger screen.</p>

<p>The good news is that Gone East — the company behind Sunstroke — is fully aware of the shortcomings present in its iPad version. It its release notes for version 1.4.0 it notes:</p>

<blockquote>Added iPad support. Note, the interface has not been completely redesigned for iPad. Rather, the current iPhone interface has been modified slightly to work natively on iPad. That being said, it works great. Enjoy!</blockquote>

<p>I definitely wouldn&#8217;t state that it works &#8220;great&#8221; but it&#8217;s passable. At least it&#8217;s acknowledged the fact that version 1.4.0 on the iPad is essentially a blown up iPhone version, and are no doubt working on iPad interface improvements for the next release.
</p>

<h2>Initial Login</h2>

<p>When launching Sunstroke for the first time, you&#8217;re met with a red login box prompting you for the necessary credentials to connect to your Fever server. The required items are e-mail address, password, and Fever URL.<sup id="fnref-1425:fn-url"><a href="#fn-1425:fn-url" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> Once you login, Sunstroke will save your login information until you decide to force a logout via the Settings app.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-login.jpg" alt="Sunstroke Login" title="Sunstroke 1.4.0 - login.jpg" border="0" width="261" height="300" /></p>

<p>After logging in, Sunstroke will perform the initial sync if you have automatic sync enabled via its preferences. This automatic sync is enabled by default, so unless you change it, Sunstroke should automatically perform the initial sync. If you have a lot of feeds and unread items, the sync could take a few minutes, so be patient.</p>

<h2>The left panel</h2>

<p>As mentioned, the left-panel, which can be accessed by tapping the menu button in the upper left-hand corner, contains a full list of all of your feeds and folders. You&#8217;ll find Fever staples like Hot Links, Kindling, Saved items, and Sparks here. You&#8217;ll also find all of your custom created folders, which contain all of the feeds that you&#8217;ve personally added to your Fever installation.</p>

<p>Tapping on a folder will close the left panel and display all of the items pertaining to that folder in a full screen list view. You may also access a list of all of the feeds within a specific folder by tapping the grey arrow button, which resides to the right of the folder name. This will refresh the left panel with a list of feeds, which can then be individually tapped on to only load items from a specific source.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-feed-list-animation.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 - feed list animation" width="160" height="969" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1677" /></p>

<p>At the bottom of the left panel, you&#8217;ll find two buttons. The button on the left-hand side is a refresh button used for refreshing all of your feeds. If you tap and hold the refresh button you can force Sunstroke to perform a refresh on server.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-Sunstroke-read-and-unread-animation.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 Sunstroke read and unread animation" width="160" height="374" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1678" /></p>

<p>The button on the right is a simple looking dot, which denotes whether the app is displaying or hiding previously read items. If the dot is highlighted with white, then you&#8217;ve set Sunstroke to only display unread items. For folders without any unread items, Sunstroke is smart enough to hide the folder. Pressing the dot switches to read item mode. In this mode, the dot is greyed out and Sunstroke will display all of your read items in all of your folders.</p>

<h2>Hot Links</h2>

<p>Of all of the Fever apps that I&#8217;ve tried, I like the way that Sunstroke handles hot items the best. Tapping on the Hot Links folder will reveal a full list of all of the items registering on Fever&#8217;s temperature scale. <sup id="fnref-1425:fn-hotscale"><a href="#fn-1425:fn-hotscale" rel="footnote">2</a></sup> The items are sorted from the most hot to the least hot, and the primary item from each specific story is displayed. You may also tap the grey arrow located to the right of the hot item, which will reveal all of the feed items related to the subject.</p>

<p>The most impressive feature about the Hot Links section is revealed when you tap and hold on any specific item. Doing so reveals a sub window with links to each story pertaining to the hot item. The story headlines can then be viewed using swipe gestures. Once you find an item related the subject from a source you want to read, a simple tap loads up the post in full screen view to be consumed.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-animated-hot-links.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 animated hot links" width="384" height="114" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1617" /></p>

<p>For those of you who like to define specific date ranges and time periods for your Hot Links, you&#8217;ll be happy to know that Sunstroke is accommodating in that area too. At the bottom of the Hot Links page, you&#8217;ll find two options that can be used to drill down to specific time periods.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-hot-links-date-range.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1 4 0 hot links date range" title="Sunstroke 1.4.0 hot links date range.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="239" /></p>

<p>Even though I don&#8217;t use Fever in its traditional manner<sup id="fnref-1425:fn-traditional"><a href="#fn-1425:fn-traditional" rel="footnote">3</a></sup>, I can still very much appreciate the approach that Sunstroke has taken to handle Hot Links. In my opinion, it is one of the app&#8217;s most outstanding features, and will be loved by those who utilize Fever as it was originally intended to be used.</p>

<h2>The main list view</h2>

<p>All of the content that you digest from Sunstroke is viewed in the app&#8217;s main window. The full list of items contained within each folder can be sorted by date or by source using the feed button located at the bottom of the screen. You can also decide to enable or disable read items using the dot icon that resides beside the feed button.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-Main-list-view.png" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 Main list view" width="384" height="501" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1629" /></p>

<p>To quickly mark all of the current items in the view as read, there is a mark read button located on the bottom left-hand side of the app. Tapping that button will reveal a pop-up dialogue so that you can ensure that you want to take said action. The confirmation dialogue can be disabled via the app&#8217;s preferences in the Settings app.</p>

<p>I enjoy the layout of the main list view, because it&#8217;s subtle in the way it displays the source and time period from which the information is derived. When sorted by date, you&#8217;ll find a small little calendar icon with the date number in the upper left-hand header. On the opposite side of this header, you&#8217;ll find the full day and year readout pertaining to the items below each heading. These headers are pinned to the top of the page, and will roll off to accommodate another header when the information contained below is no longer valid for that time period.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-full-article-dates.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 full article dates" width="512" height="89" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1680" /></p>

<p>When sorted by date, each story link contains the headline, a two line snippet from the body of the story, the favicon from the website hosting the story, and a line containing the name of the producing website. A little red dot appears below the website&#8217;s favicon image to denote whether or not the article has been read.</p>

<p>As you might expect, there are a couple of swipe gestures that can be used in the list view. Swiping from right to left on any of the individual list items will mark the item as read, and will remove the red dot that appears below the favicon image. Performing the same swipe again will mark the item as unread. You can also toggle each item as a saved item by swiping from right to left.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-Swipe-gesture-animations1.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 Swipe gesture animations" width="384" height="46" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1614" /></p>

<p>Of course, tapping on the item will open the item in full article view, and if the source of the items allows it, you may read the entire contents of the article from within this view.</p>

<h2>Full article view</h2>

<p>Here is where you will be able to digest the content provided to you by the many RSS feeds you have configured within your Fever installation. Tapping on a headline in the article view will open the article on its website using Sunstroke&#8217;s in-app browser.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-full-article-view-animation.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 full article view animation" width="512" height="169" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1684" /></p>

<p>The bottom of the full article view features a bar with several buttons used for managing the article. The left most button is the save button, used for adding the article to your list of saved items within Fever itself. The next two buttons are navigational buttons for moving to the previous or next article respectively. The last button on the rightmost side is the share button. The share button allows you to share to a variety of services, along with email, tweeting, and copying the article link to the clipboard. The various services — and there are quite a few of them available — can be configured using the app&#8217;s settings.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-full-article-buttons.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 full article buttons" width="512" height="22" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1689" /></p>

<p>The full article view contains another handy feature that I especially enjoy using — pull gestures. These pull gestures can be used as replacements for the previous and next buttons on the bottom bar. If you pull down the top of an article and release, the previous article will be shown. The opposite happens if you pull from the bottom of the article — the next article is shown. The nice thing about the pull gestures is that you don&#8217;t have to totally commit to a gesture. You can use the pull gesture to view the headline of a particular article before fully committing to loading that article.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-swipe-down-preview.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 swipe down preview" width="384" height="229" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1621" /></p>

<p>If you&#8217;d like a way to quickly get back to the app&#8217;s list view, then there is a simple gesture for that. A swipe from left to right will easily whisk you back.</p>

<h2>The in-app browser</h2>

<p>The in-app browser is on by default, but it can be disabled using a toggle found in the app&#8217;s settings. As you might expect, Sunstroke&#8217;s in-app browser isn&#8217;t meant to be a replacement for Safari or any other one of your preferred third party browsers. It&#8217;s simply meant as a way for quickly viewing full article content. With that in mind, many of the controls and functions contained within the in-app browser are rudimentary.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-in-app-browser.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 in-app browser" width="512" height="384" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1622" /></p>

<p>Once in the browser, all of its options appear on the bottom menu bar. There are back, forward and refresh/stop buttons. There&#8217;s also a share button contained here, and it&#8217;s the same share button contained in the article view portion of the app.</p>

<h2>Options</h2>

<p>One of the more disappointing areas of Sunstroke&#8217;s makeup is the location of the app&#8217;s options. Yes, I&#8217;m sure the Sunstroke guys catch plenty of flack for this already, but let&#8217;s face it, it&#8217;s hard not to pile after you&#8217;ve experienced the madness that is separated options. Separated options are options that are disconnected from the app itself. That means that if you want to configure anything pertaining to Sunstroke, you have to leave the app completely and open up the stock Settings app to locate the preferences for Sunstroke. It&#8217;s extremely frustrating to have to deal with this, and the developers of the app know it. That&#8217;s why, according to Twitter conversations that I&#8217;ve seen, it&#8217;s one of the focal points of Sunstroke&#8217;s next update.</p>

<p>However, in the meantime, you&#8217;ll have to deal with the disjointed experience that separated options bring to the table. Sunstroke contains a ton of options, but you will find it frustrating to have to switch back and forth between Sunstroke and the Settings app to test out the changes.</p>

<p>Now that that necessary complaint is out of the way, let&#8217;s talk about the options. There are eight different sections contained within Sunstroke&#8217;s preferences. I&#8217;m going to break down each section one by one.</p>

<p><strong>App Behavior</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-app-behavior.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options app behavior" width="233" height="116" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1636" /></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Sync Automatically: Forces Sunstroke to begin syncing as soon as the app is opened. Turning this option off requires a manual sync using the app&#8217;s refresh button.</p></li>
<li><p>Refresh On Server: Refreshes Fever at the server level. Using this option makes syncs more time consuming, since it&#8217;s basically performing two refreshing — a refresh between the app and the server, and a refresh between the server and the feeds themselves.</p></li>
</ul>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-delete-items-after.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options delete items after" width="233" height="133" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1642" /></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Delete Items After: This option can actually prove to be quite deceiving or at least partially confusing. Fever in itself has an option to maintain items over a certain number of weeks. Those options are 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks. I found it odd that Sunstroke contained what seemed to be an identical option, but in all actuality, this is a local setting that only applies to the app itself, so it is non-destructive as far as your actual Fever installation goes. What&#8217;s odd about this setting is that it can be changed, but any impact the changes have on your list of feeds can&#8217;t be reversed until you log out and log back into your Fever install. Personally, I believe that this option should be left at the default — 10 — which will ensure that if your Fever installation defaults at 10 that both Sunstroke and vanilla Fever will be identical.</p></li>
<li><p>Auto Subscribe To Feeds: If you happen to have an RSS address saved to your clipboard, then Sunstroke will prompt you to subscribe to the feed if you have this option enabled. If you select yes at the prompt, then Sunstroke will load up the fever installation on your server in an in-app browser.  You may need to log in for the first time, but after that, it&#8217;s done automatically. I find that the auto subscribe option makes the Sunstroke experience feel a little disjointed. This is no fault of Sunstroke, but it exposes the limitations of the Fever API that they have to result to this method to subscribe to a feed within the app. Unfortunately, you can&#8217;t designate a folder location for this feed. It will sit at the top level of your installation until you have time to configure it via server installation. It&#8217;s a nice option to have, but personally I would never use this.</p></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Parental Controls</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-parental-controls.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options parental controls" width="233" height="47" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1639" /></p>

<ul>
<li>Open Links in Safari: I find it interesting that the ability to assign an external browser to Sunstroke is listed under parental controls, but I understand why it was done this way. With Sunstrokes in-app browser, there&#8217;s no way to limit the use of the internet. The in-app browser, while rudimentary, can still be used for nefarious purposes with the right know-how. This way, you force all external requests to Safari instead, which contains its own set of parental controls configurable from within the stock Settings app. Sadly, there are no options for alternative browsers here. The most glaring omission is obviously Google Chrome, which, from my take of things is probably the second most popular browser on iOS next to Safari. You can still use Chrome via the share menu, it just takes an extra tap in order to do so.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Mark Items As Read</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-mark-items-read.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options mark items read" width="233" height="68" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1635" /></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Automatically: Marks items as read in list view as you scroll past them.</p></li>
<li><p>Prompt Before: When you use the mark all items as read button, keeping this option on will force a prompt to ensure that you really want to perform the action.</p></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>User Interface</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-user-interface.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options user interface" width="233" height="90" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1634" /></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Show Unread Counts: Removes unread counts from folders in the left-panel. Folders with unread items will display a simple red dot while this option is disabled.</p></li>
<li><p>Show Newest Items First: Select between ascending and descending date sorting in list view.</p></li>
<li><p>Use Instapaper Mobilizer: Force Instapaper&#8217;s popular web view when viewing items in the in-app web browser.</p></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Local Notifications</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-local-notifications.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options local notifications" width="233" height="68" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1633" /></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Syncing Finished: Provides you with local push notifications when syncing is completed.</p></li>

<img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-local-notifications.gif" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 local notifications" width="320" height="111" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1653" />

<li><p>Syncing Did Not Finish: Lets you know via local push notifications when syncing does not complete.</p></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Apps And Services</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-apps-and-services.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options apps and services" width="233" height="372" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1632" /></p>

<ul>
<li>A list of toggles containing the various apps and services that you can add to the share menu. These options can be enabled or disabled using the on/off toggles. You&#8217;ll find items here like Copy Link, Safari, Chrome, Mail, Pinboard, Instapaper, Netbot, Pocket, and many more.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Swipe Actions</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-swipe-actions.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options swipe actions" width="233" height="68" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1631" /></p>

<ul>
<li>Swipe Left (or right): These swipe actions can be assigned to various actions including: Toggle Read, Toggle Saved, Send To Instapaper. </li>
</ul>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-swipe-left.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options swipe left" width="233" height="179" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1644" /></p>

<p>Swipe gestures are very handy options for quickly performing often used actions.</p>

<p><strong>Image Caching</strong></p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-image-caching.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options image caching" width="233" height="68" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1638" /></p>

<ul>
<li>Wifi Only: Disable or enable caching of images over cellular.</li>
</ul>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-image-cache-size.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options image cache size" width="233" height="118" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1643" /></p>

<ul>
<li>Image Cache Size: adjust the size of the cache from 50, 100, or 200 MB.</li>
</ul>

<p>The options also contain a toggle for logging out of your Fever installation. To log out, set the Log Out Of Fever toggle to on, Sunstroke, and relaunch Sunstroke. You will then be prompted to resubmit all of your logon information.</p>

<p><img src="http://bnjm.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sunstroke-1.4.0-options-log-out-of-fever.jpg" alt="Sunstroke 1.4.0 options log out of fever" width="233" height="36" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1637" /></p>

<h2>Real world usage</h2>

<p>While Sunstroke is probably the most full featured 3rd party Fever client on the market today, that doesn&#8217;t account for much if it doesn&#8217;t perform well in real world usage. I&#8217;ve been using Sunstroke for months now, so I believe I have a pretty firm grasp on its strengths and weaknesses.</p>

<p>As I already mentioned, the biggest strengths that Sunstroke has going for it is its speed, the ability to read all previously read items, and it&#8217;s Hot List implementation. Those three features make Sunstroke the app to beat as far as Fever clients go. If being able to consume all of your previously read items in short order is at the  top of your list of needs, then Sunstroke undoubtedly is the Fever client for you.</p>

<h2>Areas needing improving</h2>

<p>Sunstroke is a great Fever client, but it&#8217;s far from perfect. Here are some of the top items that need addressing:</p>

<p><strong>True iPad support</strong></p>

<p>I alluded to it earlier, but Sunstroke&#8217;s biggest flaw is its lack of true iPad support. Sure, the app was recently updated with universal app support, so it runs in full screen mode on the iPad already. But keep in mind that Sunstroke on the iPad is nothing more than a blown up version of the iPhone app. An app like Ashes, on the other hand, features support for both the iPad and the iPhone, and the app layout is customized in a way that it fits both devices like a glove. If you&#8217;re in need of an iPad client, then you may want to go with Ashes, or at least hold out until Gone East LLC — the developers of Sunstroke — improves its tablet offering.</p>

<p><strong>Integrated options</strong></p>

<p>There&#8217;s no nice way to put it; it&#8217;s horrible to have to go into the stock Settings app on iOS just to change a few options. This should be at the very top of the developer&#8217;s priority list, because it makes for a very disjointed experience.</p>

<p><strong>More customization</strong></p>

<p>Sunstroke has plenty of speed, but perhaps it sacrificed some of the looks department to accommodate its speed. While the design isn&#8217;t ugly, it&#8217;s no where near inspiring. It&#8217;s grey, heaped upon grey, heaped upon more grey. Theme support would be swell, and the ability to change up the fonts would be nice too.</p>

<p><strong>Better browser support</strong></p>

<p>You can force links to open in the Safari browser with the current version of Sunstroke. You can even opt to use the share button to open links in a third party browser like Chrome. What you can&#8217;t do, however, is assign Chrome as the default browser when opening any link.</p>

<p><strong>Search</strong></p>

<p>I&#8217;ll continue to sing this tune until the cows come home. If the next version of Sunstroke adds search capability, it would be the first Fever app on iOS to do so. The app already syncs all articles on the Fever server, so search seems like an obvious edition to make the app stand out from the rest of the pack.</p>

<h2>URL scheme</h2>

<p>Sunstroke 1.4.0 introduced a new URL scheme that allows you to do some pretty cool things. The test scheme, which is listed in the app&#8217;s App Store description, allows you to perform a refresh and then load another app.</p>

<p>Here is what the scheme looks like:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>sunstroke:///sync?callback-url=tweetbot:&amp;refreshOnServer=yes</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The above URL will load up Sunstroke, perform a refresh, and then load up Tweetbot. In the meantime, if you have local notifications enabled, you&#8221;ll receive a banner notification alerting you once the refresh is completed. This could be handy for those times when you want to view another app, but at the same time want to perform a quick refresh on your feeds.</p>

<h2>Pricing and iPhone version</h2>

<p>Most of this review was conducted with the iPad version of Sunstroke in mind, but it pretty much all applies to the iPhone version, since it is a universal app. Running Sunstroke on the iPhone and on the iPad are virtually the same, even to a fault. As I mentioned, the iPad version of Sunstroke is basically a blown up version of the original iPhone version. With this in mind, I have to say that I prefer to use the iPhone version of Sunstroke over the iPad version.</p>

<h2>The bottom line</h2>

<p>Sunstroke is the best iOS Fever client for me, and it may perhaps be the best iOS Fever client for you as well. The fact that Sunstroke is able to sync all articles, whether read or unread, cannot be understated. You can literally pull up 10 weeks worth of content on a whim using Sunstroke, and that&#8217;s priceless for me.</p>

<p>The next thing that makes Sunstroke so appealing is its speed. If you&#8217;re like me, and you depend on RSS to do your job, then this again cannot be underestimated. Sunstroke is a speed demon, and it can handle anything that you throw its way.</p>

<p>But Gone East has its work cut out for it if it plans to continue to remain on top of iOS Fever clients. It&#8217;s already facing fierce competition from a reinvigorated Ashes, and some of the customization features that Ashes currently offers, and will continue to implement in its upcoming versions will have me seriously debating a full time switch over to Ashes. Then there&#8217;s Reeder, a solid client in its own right, and one that should gain stronger Fever support in its upcoming updates. Sunstroke is a great Fever client for iOS, but it will have to take into consideration some of the suggestions made above, and perhaps add more innovative features and customization options for it to stay on top.</p>

<h2>Verdict: Recommended, but should be better after its next update</h2>

<h2>Price: <a href="http://bnjm.org/x/sunstroke">$4.99</a>.</h2>

<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>

<li id="fn-1425:fn-url">
<p>You must have Fever installed on your own server. You can purchase Fever for $30 from <a href="">http://feedafever.com</a>&#160;<a href="#fnref-1425:fn-url" rev="footnote">&#8617;</a></p>
</li>

<li id="fn-1425:fn-hotscale">
<p>If you&#8217;re not familiar with the concept of the Hot List, then I recommend that you read my previous posts on Fever.&#160;<a href="#fnref-1425:fn-hotscale" rev="footnote">&#8617;</a></p>
</li>

<li id="fn-1425:fn-traditional">
<p>I use Fever as a Google reader replacement, which makes it somewhat incompatible with the original Fever methodology. Still, Fever is a great tool that works, so I use it.&#160;<a href="#fnref-1425:fn-traditional" rev="footnote">&#8617;</a></p>
</li>

</ol>
</div>
<p>The post <a href="http://bnjm.org/2013/05/22/sunstroke-1-4-0-review/">Sunstroke 1.4.0 review</a> appeared first on <a href="http://bnjm.org">bnjm.org</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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