Hasta La Gadget!

When one door closes, another one opens, and that statement proves very true for Feedly. After Google’s shocking announcement that it’s going to shut down its Google Reader service, Feedly’s user base has increased phenomenally. The service has already gained over 500,000 new users in just 48 hours. Feedly has done a great job in enticing Google Reader users to convert to its service, and it has launched new servers and increased its bandwidth by 10 times in order to keep up with demand.

Feedly announced that Google Reader users would be able to seamlessly migrate their RSS feeds over to its service. The service even offers similar features to Google Reader, alongside its own special features. The service allows you to view your RSS feed in a condensed style (Title View) for those of you who have so many updates in your Google Reader feed that you have no time to scan through them individually.

Along with offering similar features to Google Reader, Feedly also has plenty of features that will attract new users. Users will be able to view their stories in a more aesthetically pleasing way, like “Magazine” style, or “Cards” view, and there are options to customize your launch page, your featured articles and more. Of course there are a lot of things Feedly can improve on, so for the next 30 days, it will pay close attention to its users’s feedback in order to improve its user experience as much as possible.

Importing your Google Reader feed into Feedly is very painless. All you have to do is sign into your Google Account and Feedly will automatically sync your Reader’s feeds. You will have to do this before Google Reader is cut off on July 1st however. Feedly is also available for many platforms, inluding: iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. It’s one of our top 5 alternatives to Google Reader.

[via Feedly]

500,000 Google Reader users convert to Feedly is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google is just releasing shocker after shocker today. First with the announcement that Andy Rubin is leaving Android, and now with its announcement that Google Reader (and several other of its services) will be shutting down. Google says that usage of Google Reader has been declining year after year, and that it’s time to “retire” the service. Users will have until July 1st to export their Reader data via Google Takeout.

This is a shocker to many of the loyal Google Reader users (like me) who use Google Reader to keep up with the latest news from their favorite websites (ahem). Many users have voiced their disappointment through various social media portals, like Twitter and Facebook. Users are now scrambling to find an alternative RSS reader that can live up to the Google service’s glory.

Along with Google Reader, services Apps Script, CalDav API, Google Buliding Maker, Google Cloud Connect, Google Voice App for Blackberry, Search API for Shopping, and Snapseed Desktop for Mac and Windows will all be shutting down as well. This is all part of Google’s “second Spring cleaning.” Along with its first Spring cleaning, Google will have shut down a total of 70 of its features and services.

For those of you who want to save your Google Reader data in order to export it somewhere else, you can head over to this Google Takeout link. You’ll just have to sign into your Google Reader account, and verify your password once the archiving is complete. So where will you go next Google Reader users? Feedly? Pulse? Flipboard?

[via Google]

Google to shut down Google Reader and other services on July 1st is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re an AT&T U-Verse customer, then there’s a chance that you’ve been experiencing some problems with your service lately. AT&T U-Verse service has been suffering from outages in some areas of the US, with little in the way of an explanation from the company. All we know is that AT&T is working to bring U-Verse service, which includes TV, Internet, and phone, back to these affected areas.

DSLReports says that its users in several states including Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, and Arkansas are reporting outages, with AT&T confirming the outages in Florida to The Miami Herald. In its confirmation, it didn’t say why the outages were happening, only saying that it has a “team of engineers and technicians” working on coming up with a fix.

Some of these folks have been experiencing service interruptions since Monday morning, so the fact that they haven’t been fixed yet may suggest a big problem for AT&T. Indeed, it sounds like the company isn’t going to divulge the cause of the problems, as similar statements are lacking any significant details. Perhaps AT&T doesn’t yet know what’s causing the problem? It seems unlikely, but with the company remaining tight-lipped about the issues its having, we suppose it’s possible.

The good news is that a few U-Verse subscribers are reporting restored service, but for the most part, it seems that outages are still plaguing customers. With AT&T’s vague statements, it’s impossible to know how much longer these outages will last, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope that they don’t go on much longer. Keep it here at SlashGear, as we’ll let you know if AT&T makes any new announcements on the outages.

[via FierceIPTV]

AT&T U-Verse outages hitting some US consumers is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When you run as many services as Google does, every once in a while you’re going to have to do some pruning. Evidently Mountain View’s got the secateurs out, having just announced the next batch of its projects that will be getting axed wound down. For the chop are: AdSense for Feeds, Classic Plus, Spreadsheet Gadgets, Places for Android, and +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools. Other services are being merged into existing properties to prevent overlap, such as Google Storage for Picasa and Drive — which are now consolidated — and Insights for Search is now part of Google Trends. Naturally, the search giant claims this is all about streamlining, and improving other core products. If the retired service involves a paid subscription, or legacy data, then you’ll need to check the specifics on the official blog to find out how this will affect you, which fortunately for you, is just a tap of the source link away.

[Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google retires more services, consolidates others in continued efficiency bid originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyzing the way Apple customers work with their products and their store or choice this week was the NDP Group, this study revealing that 60 percent of Apple customers surveyed were more likely to come again after positive tech service. This study comes right alongside (incidentally) a supposedly “leaked” document for Apple Genius training earlier this morning that make it clear that Apple’s Genius Bar is trained to make the customer happy – and of course to fix their devices, too. The NPD Group’s “Tech Service Study” took on a collection of Apple product owners and found that the tech service piece of the Apple puzzle had a massive effect on their overall perception of the company.

Thirty-one percent of the set of surveyed Apple product owners responded that they had a much more positive view of Apple after they had an experience with the company’s tech service. Out of those surveyed, 40 percent of Apple product owners noted that they had been to the Apple Stores’ Genius Bar. Of those that visited the Genius Bar, nearly 90 percent said they were either extremely satisfied or very satisfied – in other words, it’s difficult to have a bad experience with an Apple Genius.

One of the big reasons that the Genius Bar is so satisfying, it would seem, is the large amount of users that get service there without having to pay any cash for a visit. Comparing users who accessed general tech support with Apple to those who visited the Genius Bar, 78 percent got free service from the former while 88 percent got free service from the latter. NPD Group notes that the correlation between free service from Apple and the consumer’s satisfaction was “major”.

Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, spoke up about the study, saying that Apple’s tech service appears to be a notably positive experience where traditionally accessing such service has not been pleasing for the average customer.

“Tech support is a great service for the consumer, but more importantly it’s a brand-building element for the retailer and manufacturer. People tend to associate any type of tech support as a negative experience, but Apple has demonstrated that those ‘negatives’ can be turned into positive brand experiences and result in a trip back to the store.” – Baker

Also according to the study, 53% of Apple consumers were “extremely satisfied” with their in-store experience, this percentage higher than any other type of service interaction. The study also found that “younger consumers” were surprisingly more likely to want to use Apple’s in-store service than any other group at 45% of respondents in that category – this is surprising, of course, because this youth market has otherwise been found to prefer more virtual interactions. Baker continues by noting that Apple’s model here is one that’s being recognized by retailers across the market.

“Retailers are rediscovering the value that services can offer the consumer. Store foot traffic has declined over the years leaving fewer and fewer in-person interactions. Having a strong tech support in-store model helps fill the transaction void and builds brand awareness and satisfaction.” – Baker

There were 2,000 respondents in this study, notes the NPD Group, with the sample comprised of USA citizens of 18 years of age or older. This study was completed with an online survey through NPD’s online panel in May of 2012, and as NPD notes: “Some of the participants were pre-identified as consumers who had returned or needed tech support on consumer electronic devices in the past 12 months.”

[via NPD Group]

NPD: Apple tech service key to repeat customers is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.