Digg launches Android app with RSS reader abilities
The software presents top stories from the Digg story-discovery service and subscription feeds on Android devices, heating up the competition in the RSS reader market.
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Digg, trying hard to reclaim its once-prominent position as a go-to site for interesting links on the Net, has released an Android app that combines discovery with RSS reading.
"Like the Web version of Digg, the Android app includes up-to-the-minute stories from the Digg homepage as well as Digg Reader, all optimized for your Android device," Digg said in a blog post Thursday. The app is available for download on Google Play.
The app warms up the competition for a Google Reader replacement after Google axed its feed-reading service and app. The new Digg Reader service competes with Feedly, AOL Reader, and other contenders, and a mobile app gives it a better foothold in the market.
Digg already has a reader app for iOS.
RSS and Atom feed technology can be used to let people subscribe to Web pages so they find out when updates arrive. The technology, though popular among technophiles, hasn't really become mainstream.
Of the Android app, Digg said, "This is our first Android release, and we'll be updating and improving it steadily over the next few months. There are a few missing features we're still testing such as a 'Show Only Unread Items' view, text size and display mode options, and background updating. You'll see those added shortly, along with other new and bewitching features."
