Apple released the new iOS6 in September. The new OS has some great features and new enhancements. The one item I am baffled about and have not read much about is the removal of native RSS viewing from Safari. This may not sound like much but prior to iOS6 on an iPad or iPhone you could go directly to an RSS feed (definition here) and view it’s contents. It was not super pretty but it got the job done. This basically let you open RSS from the browser.
You may wonder why I care about this. The main reason is that Apple did not supply an alternative method. The reality is that I have an internal mobile web app that linked off to an RSS feed. Once a user upgrades the link to the RSS feed appears broke. It is not broken but rather the iOS device (iPad or iPhone) does not know what to do with the RSS content. Funny enough the iPad thought it was a podcast and then errors.
To correct this issue I have tried to download a few RSS Apps, but most of them require an account (Google reader) and others. I would normally think apple would 1) provide a reader app 2) provide a way to redirect to an app from safari or 3) communicate a way to tell safari handle this.
I started the process today to re-write the app to consume the rss server side and distribute to the mobile web. This is just a crazy notion that an iOS device or browser can’t view an RSS feed. Normally Apple suprises me in a good way. Things like easy to use interfaces or smart features. In this instance, Apple has let me down. I have been reading some form posts. People who are emotional about this forget the corporate or developers who are looking for a solution and not just a work around.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135311?start=285&tstart=0