You'll need to download and install the free Adobe Air platform (12MB) before using ReadAir. After that, installing ReadAir is quick and painless. Give it your Google account username and password, and it displays all your Reader feeds in the common three-pane display: feeds on the left, post titles on the upper right and selected posts on the lower right. You can view all your feed items at once, or select by tags or individual feeds.
There aren't many features or customization options in this early version. You can star a post, but you can't share or e-mail one. If you click a link within a post it will come up in your default browser instead of within ReadAir. To get to the few program preferences, such as choosing between a Mac or Windows theme, right-click the system tray icon.
You can add a new feed subscription, but again, the process is very basic. You cut and paste the feed URL into a text box and click ok. Afterwards you can add tags to your new feed, or modify tags for other feeds.
Since ReadAir accesses the same online data as Reader in the browser, anything you do in one will reflect in the other. Read a post in one and it will be marked as read in both. Star a post and you'll see the marking in both apps.
As ReadAir develops it will likely become a good option for reading your Reader feeds with a desktop app, but for the time being you'll get more from accessing Reader in your browser.
Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.
--Erik Larkin
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