Blogshelf for the iPad is an RSS reader that displays your feeds as magazines on a shelf. Imagine iBooks filled with blogs – that’s Blogshelf. This reader is visually appealing and works great.

When you open Blogshelf, you are presented with 3 shelves filled with your favorite blogs designed to look like magazines. In addition to the blog’s name, the “front cover” displays the title and main photo of the most recent story for that blog.

When selecting a blog, the stories are displayed in a nice list view with a photo to left of each story. Again, if that story doesn’t have a picture, one of Blogshelf’s photos are displayed instead. If you have selected any stories as a favorite, you can tap the heart on the menu bar to see list of your favorite entries. This menu bar can be hidden by swiping down or tapping once anywhere on the screen.

Most blogs will allow viewing of entire articles, but there are a few (like Apple Insider) that do not. I found this to be extremely rare, though. When viewing a reading a story, there are links at the top to view in Safari or to view the original article in the app itself. The stories are displayed very nicely with just photos, videos and text. YouTube videos can be watched in the articles or expanded to full screen.

To subscribe to a blog, tap on “subscribe” from the Blogshelf. The shelf then spins around and brings you to something similar to the iBookstore. Blogshelf has many blogs available to quickly subscribe to by searching for featured blogs or by category. Unfortunately, TiPb (your favorite blog) isn’t listed under any of the categories, but, you can do a quick search to find all of our feeds.

Blogshelf is an excellent RSS reader for the iPad. However, if you are a Google Reader user, Blogshelf does not have a way to import your feeds. So if that is really important to you, Blogshelf isn’t for you. But for everyone else, if you looks and style are important to you, I recommend picking this one up!

Pros

• Nice interface
• Very Apple-like
• Offline viewing
• Search blogs by feature and category
• Adjust font and brightness

Cons

• Cannot import from Google Reader
• Thumbnails don’t always load correctly
• TiPb isn’t included in the technology or Apple categories!

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Blogshelf for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

TechCrunch is reporting that companies who mass produce (or provide tools and templates for the mass production of) “cookie cutter” apps are hearing that they need to add differentiation and functionality or risk Apple not allowing them into the iTunes App Store. Jason Kincaid says:

Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish. For some of these services that’s bad news, because that’s exactly the sort of application they produce; any new applications they submit are going to get rejected. But all hope isn’t lost for them, provided they can make their apps more useful.

Kincaid says Appmakr for one has taken suggestions from Apple to improve things like in-app purchases, instant notifications, offline access, and landscape viewing modes and describe the process as positive. Other services apparently haven’t had as much luck.

The move seems to be part of Apple’s ongoing efforts to increase the quality of the App Store experience and protect the brand. Much like the removal of sex-based apps last month, “cookie cutter” apps could seen as low value, sometimes verging on spam. For consumers it could result in a cleaner App Store and ultimately better apps (more than just re-packaged RSS feeds) but at the expense of quantity and choice. For developers, it’s likely another in a list of things they’ll consider before building on Apple’s platform.

If Apple is indeed working on revamping the mass produced app, what think you?

Apple Cracking Down on Mass Produced, Low Functionality Apps? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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