Jeroen Sangers ◦ brain tags

Reeder 5 improvements

I have been using Reeder for my feed reading since early 2011 (that’s over a decade!), so of course I immediately updated to version 5 last October.

Only now, five months later, have I started looking at the new features in this version and I really love them! 💕

I disconnected the app from Inoreader and Instapaper (my feed server and read later service) and started using the built-in iCloud Feeds and iCloud Read Later services.

But the biggest improvement is Bionic Reading! Added to Reeder in version 4 (2019), it looks weird but actually works! I read with more focus and attention and am less distracted.

I switch Bionic Reading off when I triage my feeds, but when I switch too the Read Later section I turn it on for some slow and focused reading.

Have you tried Bionic Reading in Reeder or any other app?

Finding the + in iOS

Whenever I write on my iPad, there are two problems which drive me nuts. Today I will explain one of these issues.

Disclaimer: I am well aware that this is a very first-world problem, but I expect Apple to care about the little details.

The issue arrises when I am writing a text and need to insert a special character, such as the ‘+’ sign. On my iPhone I can find this symbol in a logical, easy to understand way.

Since the ‘+’ sign is not on the main keyboard, I tap the ‘123’ button to go to the numerical keyboard.

There are some characters on this keyboard, but not the symbol I was looking for. However, where the ‘123’ previously was, I now see ‘#+=’, clearly indicating that there is another keyboard with more characters, including the ‘+’ sign. There it is:

That was easy and intuitive. Now let’s see what usually happens when I try to do the same basic thing on my iPad:

Though there are more characters available, the ‘+’ symbol is not there. Yes, I know I can swipe down the ‘ç’ key, but for the sake of this argument pretend that is not the case, as not all characters are available to swipe down and my fingers fail in swiping far enough about 20% of the time.

Just like on the iPhone, I have a button labeled ‘.?123’ to get to the numerical keyboard.

On the numerical keyboard I once again see the ‘#+=’ button, clearly indicating that there is another keyboard with more characters, including the ‘+’ sign.

And here is my issue, since the ‘+’ button is nowhere to be seen on the third keyboard. What went wrong? The answer is on the second screen, so lets get back:

The problem is caused by the label of the button which brings us to the special characters keyboard. The button is labeled as ‘#+=’ just like the iPhone, but in this case all three characters shown on the button are already on the previous keyboard.

If Apple would simply change the characters shown on the button to characters actually on the third keyboard (I propose ‘>|^’), my monkey brain would not make the mistake to press it when I’m looking for the ‘+’ character.