Unlike Android which has an official Google Reader app, iOS fans have to rely upon the creativity and skill of third party companies to help them manage their feed accounts while on the go.
Apparently Reeder’s skill and creativity for their iPad App have been heavily “borrowed” by Nibirutech who recently announced a new layout for their MobileRSS HD iPad app (as shown in the image below).
More images can be seen over here, although MobileRSS is receiving a lot of scorn on Twitter right now, as many people are seeing the obvious similarities between the two Google Reader apps which are hard to ignore.
MobileRSS HD for iPad seriously rips off @reeder UI. Flattery or obnoxious rip off? (via @BinduWavell)
Thus far Nibirutech has yet to respond to these allegations, although the company may want to decide something soon as they have already lost support for MobileRSS from fellow iOS developers (Instapaper and Read It Later), and risk damaging their reputation further by delaying a response.
Note: We will update this post if we hear anything new from Nibirutech.
Update: Nibirutech has sent a response to TechCrunch over copying Reeder’s UI:
We are submitting an update to MobileRSS immediately which will include modifications to the UI elements that most mimic Reeder. We respect the work that Reeder has done but are most concerned with serving users and improving MobileRSS for everyone. These improvements include ideas pioneered by Reeder, but we have current and upcoming features which are unique to our app not found in other RSS readers.
But to be clear, we’re taking immediate action to correct this and will remove the similarities to Reeder at once.
MobileRSS developers
While not exactly an apology, it’s good that Nibirutech is making things right by changing their UI.
Although not as popular as Reeder, MobileRSS is a strong contender in the iOS Google Reader wars, and hopefully this fiasco will convince other developers to innovate rather than completely imitate their rivals.
Darnell Clayton is a geek who discovered blogging long before he heard of the word "blog" (he called them "web journals" then).
When he is not tweeting, friendfeeding, or blogging about space, he enjoys running, reading and describing himself in third person.
