Update on FeedSquares and Google Reader

Many users should already know that Google Reader will not be available after 1 July 2013. Due to this change, FeedSquares will no longer be available after 1 July 2013 as well.

Please consider to use our Chrome Web App NewsSquares. Though it currently syncs with Google Reader as well, an update will be made to NewsSquares in the near future. Some Google Reader specific features may have to go, but our core NewsSquares experience will remain.

For those who prefer a light and visual way to read feed and share them. NewsSquares will be your choice. If you prefer more intensive reading, with FULL existing Google Reader features, we believe there are many alternatives on the market.

If you migrate to NewsSquares now (before 1 June 2013, but we will recommend you do it much earlier) your subscriptions will be immediately available to NewsSquares. No automatic migration is possible after 1 June.

Note that, however, we cannot preserve all of your data from Google Reader, like your starred items, sharing history, notes etc. So we would strongly suggest you to use Google Takeout to export your data, e.g. subscriptions, starred articles etc. The exported format aren't quite human readable though. They are meant to be imported by other RSS reader programs.

So other than the above mechanical way of preserving your data, please go to Google Reader and we have the following suggestions on your migration

• For starred items, re-share it to other social sites like Google+, Facebook or Twitter etc.
• For items shared by you, re-share it to other social sites like Google+, Facebook or Twitter etc.

Anyway give NewsSquares a try and happy reading!

The announcement from Google:
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2013/03/powering-down-google-reader.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.hk/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html

Concerning Google Reader

Hey we got your emails. Google Reader is closing down and many of us are sad to see her go. In a future update, we will introduce a new way for NewsSquares to store your preferences and readings. Some of the more Google Reader specific features may have to go, but our core NewsSquares experience will remain.

NewsSquares will continue to offer you the most stylish reading experience on Chrome. We will update you when the new changes arrive.

NewsSquares has been updated (1.4)

Thank you for using NewsSquares! It's been some time since the last update. In this update, a lot of pending bugs have been fixed.

• New locales (French & Turkish) added
• "Cannot mark item as read" bug is fixed
• Glitch in keyboard shortcuts navigation is fixed
• NewsSquares is now compatible with latest Chrome Web Store requirement
• Improved link sharing to Google+, Twitter and Facebook

Please feel free to give us suggestions on improving NewsSquares. Just use our new feedback form in the Chrome Web Store. Enjoy!

By the way, fancy having your own Mobile App for your fansite, but don't want to spend thousands to hire a developer? Come check out our Publish5 App on Chrome Web Store. We now support both Android and iOS App creation!

Beta Testers Wanted! Publish5 - Fast & Simple DIY Mobile Publishing

Hello users of FeedSquares and NewsSquares (and friends)! We need your help!

We are working on a cool new product called Publish5.com, which allows ANYONE to publish mobile apps for their content with SUPER-EASY DIY. Do you have a blog, or a Twitter account, or a Youtube channel with active audiences? If so, please, click on the sign up button below and help us in the beta test. Or got friends and family that do? Please share this post with them!

Publish5 is a web app - all you need is a Chrome browser, and with it you can create Apps for Android devices, ChromeOS devices and Chrome browsers, plus iOS devices in future. It's gonna be fun so help spread our call for testers!

Signup here now!

Update to NewsSquares - Vertical Mode! We have released NewsSquares 1.3.0!  The latest version allows you to view your items vertically. You may go to Options page and enable "Show items vertically" now.

Enjoy!

Call for NewsSquares Localization

We have released NewsSquares 1.2.0. If you prefer to mark items as read when you click through them in Big Squares, you can go to options and enable it now. Enjoy!

We are looking for help on localization of NewsSquares especially for the following locales Brazil (pt_BR), Japan (ja) and Mexico (es).

The localization is very simple. Please go to http://code.google.com/p/rocketinbottle/
There are two files that require localization, description.txt and message.json.

• Select which locale you would help to translate, e.g. ja
• To translate the description
• Go to NewsSquares in the gallery, it contains the description of NewsSquares in English
• Select the description.txt in the corresponding locale
• Please do not translate the Keywords section
• To translate the messages
• Select the messages.json in 'en' locale as reference
• Open the messages.json of the locale (in a new window for easy reference) you would like to help translating

• After you select the file (description.txt or messages.json), click "edit file", then begin to edit the file directly inside the browser. For each message, please translate the "message" section, you can contribute partial translation

• Finally click "Submit Patch" (you will need to login with a Google Account), a new issue will be created include a patch file
• After we receive the issues, we will include the translation in NewsSquares
• We will link to the translation credits in the gallery. Thank you.

NewsSquares (1.1.2) and FeedSquares (1.3.0) are updated!

New options in latest versions of NewsSquares & FeedSquares:

• Want to view older articles first? You can now check the 'Show older items first' option.
• If you have a very wide and very narrow screen, you may change the width of the item view for better viewing pleasure.

NewsSquares only:

• Notifications are disabled for new users by default. It seems many users have disabled NewsSquares accidentally by clicking disable when the notifications pop up. To enable NewsSquares again, please go to chrome://extensions, find NewsSquares and click 'Enable'.

NewsSquares has been Updated! (1.1.0)

In this new version we have reworked the rendering to resolve a graphics issue that crashes the Chrome browser. Please notice that at the time of writing Chrome Dev is still a bit unstable so any intensive HTML5 graphics may still crashes in certain specific machines and settings. Please mail us at rocketinbottle AT gmail DOT com with your OS and version if your NS still crashes. Thank you for your contribution to the beta test!

If you have tried to disable notifications via NewsSquares' notification window - it won't work properly (sorry Chrome bug! haha). Please go to our options page to disable notifications instead. If in some cases NewsSquares get disabled instead, please go to "chrome://extensions" then find "NewsSquares" and click "Enable". It should be back on the new tab page. It's kind of funny, we know, but please forgive Google - Chrome's App functionality is new!

You can actually manage your subscriptions in a one screen interface. Just click on the manage button in the Add dialog. :P

Thanks again. Enjoy!