I just submitted update 1.3 to Apple’s review team. Increasing just the minor version number is kinda understated since there are so many changes and new features. Let me introduce at least some of them.

First, I changed the app’s icon. One user mentioned the old icon might put the idea of a comic style in your mind. And he is right. Dave Day played a bit and came up with a great idea which I used to create the new icon. Dave, thank you. I changed startup images as well so they fit into the new style.
On the subject of style: Paper Pile produces its pages in three different styles called traditional, modern and magazine. I reckon there is no need to explain them in detail – enjoy the screenshots:

Update 1.3 showing page in traditional style

Update 1.3 showing page in magazine style

Maybe you noticed the little gray bar at the top of the screen. This part of the overview part called Dashboard now is always visible. This way you always have access to the refresh button and to the settings view. While refreshing you are now able to cancel the request. Once data was received a progress bar indicates the time until data processing and image downloading will be finished.

When you tap on an article the new article view will appear presenting you the content of the article as simple text, original feed content text and website. You can share the article per mail or send it to Instapaper for later reading. This feature was the most requested

Update 1.3 showing full text

The most important change, however, is the concept pages are displayed and managed. The pages are not arranged side by side anymore. There is only one page at a time which reduces memory consumption dramatically. Swiping to the left shows you older articles in the same section, swiping to the right newer articles. There are areas at the top of each page showing you the previous and next section. You just need to tap on these the jump to the section. Double-tapping on the left/right border works as well.

Besides these explained changed hundreds of little changes and bug fixes are included. So if the problems you experienced are now solved, please update your rating at the App Store. The user’s manual page will get updated once the update was approved by Apple.

I like to thank my testers which did a really great job spending hours reviewing more than 20 builds. So, Dave Day, Lukas, Ingo, Charles, Renaud and all the guys from ipadteam.de, thumbs up!

Feel free to comment these features or suggestions.

After fixing a backend bug the review at padvance.com has been updated. Paper Pile’s rating changed to “Good”. Grant, thank you again for pointing me to this wired layout error.

Grant Holzhauser wrote a review about Paper Pile at padvance.com. It’s does not rate the app very good, I grant, but Grant mentions a bad bug that makes article texts get rendered strange. I focused on this and fixed it. Now the good news, you do not need to update the app.

To enjoy the new handling you simply need to refresh your pages. If the pages do not get re-created (because there are no new articles) please restart the app.

Apple did approve Paper Pile update 1.2.1 which increases stability and performance dramatically. Besides the new “management mode” which keeps the dashboard cleaner, a badge with the number of unread articles has been introduces. It will be available for download within 24 hours.

The next update, scheduled for May, 25th will include localizations so Paper Pile will be prepared for the international launch.

I just submitted the minor update 1.2.1. It addresses issues users reported. Most important, it improves stability and performance. The dashboard was cleaned up a bit with the introduction of some kind of “management mode”.

See screenshots for a first impression. Hopefully, the update get’s approved soon.

Paper Pile’s update 1.2 has been approved. It will be available for download soon. Most changes have already been described here. Presumably, the new feed browser which allows you to browse the Internet to search and find feeds will be the most loved new feature – no need to open Mobile Safari anymore just to copy the URL.

Meanwhile, work on version 1.3 started. I received some messages from users asking for features. I’ll keep you posted. The next update is schedules for May, 25th. Please contact me if you have any suggestions or ideas.

Paper Pile’s update 1.2 has been submitted to Apple for approval. It includes a lot of enhancements and new features. The most important change is the new page-orientated management. You now create pages and add feeds to them which makes it easier to customize your personal newspaper.

Navigation is now supported by preview thumbnails. Every page can be “paged” down and up to read older articles. Articles now get arranged with less gaps and use the space much more efficient.

When adding new feeds you now have the choice to use the new feed browser which lets you navigate to the feed you want to use. It indicates available feeds with a little symbol next to the URL input field. When you tap on it you will see a list with available feeds which can be used with just another tap.

Paper Pile now uses SQLite as storage subsystem which improves performance dramatically.

See the screenshots section for more impressions.

Please contact me if you have further suggestions, ideas or problems.

Final test for Paper Pile update 1.2 started. It will bring a complete new user interface and some other nice features which will be shown en-detail here once the update is submitted. For now this screenshot should keep you excited.

When you open a feed in Mobile Safari on your iPad you will be redirected to a special site which reads the feed and displays a nicely formatted mobile website. Paper Pile is now able to use this URL. Simple copy this address in Safari and paste it into Paper Pile’s URL field.

This feature is completely handled in Paper Pile’s backend. If you experience problems with one of these URLs please inform me using the contact page.

Apple just approved Paper Pile’s update. The updates includes several fixes and optimizations. It will be available in the App Store within 24 hours. All users are welcome to give feedback.

Meanwhile the development on better page management and polished UI elements started.