Although I wasn’t able to reproduce this bug on my test machines one of the Scoop users who could (cheers Danny) assisted me to get the the core of the problem.

The cause of the problem was that to syncronize feeds/tags/reading lists with Google Reader API Scoop needs to be able to send authorization headers to google.com in each http data request. I believe that Flash Player in AIR was stripping out these custom headers which was causing the Google Reader sync to fail.

I’ve now implemented an alternative solution for calling Google.com using Abdul Qabiz’s custom HTTP Authentication Class (Thanks Abdul!). which according to my helpful tester Dan has fixed the Google Reader Sync issue for him.  Hopefully for others too.

BTW - I know that Scoop still needs some optimization work but that and adding folders are top of my list now!

• Optimization of feed updates for both non Google Reader account holders and those with Google Reader logins. The initial import takes a little while if you’ve got a lot of feeds to sync but the regular updates after that should not be a lot quicker and less of a processor hog
• Command+Q on OS X now quits the app

If you’ve already downloaded an earlier version of Scoop just quit the app and reopen it - wait a couple of seconds and you should be prompted with an Upgrade Available window which will enable you to update your version of the App.

• Mark all as read button (you can already achieve this by scrolling the unread list but still would be useful)
• Image caching (currently all text gets stored offline but images don’t)
• Sharing capabilities - (digg it, facebook, recommendations for other Scoop users etc)
• Folders/sub folders (so users can organize their feeds and tags)
• Export/import OPML files

Let me know if you’ve got any other requests?

Scoop is an RSS Feed Reader Adobe Air Application with offline/online Google Reader syncronization built in. It keeps track of multiple Google Reader accounts simultaneously. Read, tag and star your scoops/posts on the train or wherever you like and Scoop will syncronize your changes with Google when you’re back online.

Current features included in this first Beta:

• Offline mode - all new posts/feeds get stored locally + offline changes you make get syncronized with Google when you’re back online
• Instant notifications of new scoops/posts from your favorite blogs and websites.
• Popular Google Read keyboard short cuts like J/K for moving forwards and backwards through your reading lists.
• Auto-update feature - the application will alert you when a new version of Scoop becomes available.

For anyone not familiar with RSS Feed Reader’s in summary they allow you to subscribe to multiple RSS news/blog feeds which you’ll find on tonnes and tonnes of websites and blogs in cyberspace. So, every time one of these websites posts a new story on their site the story or summary gets added to their site/page RSS feed - text, images and other media can also come through the feed.

You’ll see links to these RSS feeds on almost all the blog front pages out there and also on many information sites, whatever your interest - News sites, Sports sites, Celebrity Gossip sites etc etc

There’s a great browser based application called Google Reader which enables any google account holder (if you don’t have one already sign up for free here) to easily add any RSS feed to their Google Reader account and keeps track of all your subscribed feeds enabling you to quickly scan the latest scoops of your favorite sites every time you log into Google Reader.

Scoop will enable users with or without Google Reader accounts to keep track of their favorite sites directly from the Desktop. It will also synchronize with your Google Reader account so any story you read in Scoop will update Google Reader’s read items, any feed you add or remove will also update with Google and vice verse.

But there are added benefits to Scoop that a web browser can’t offer, here are just a few:

• Scoop will offer alerts so that you never miss a breaking story
• Scoop will cache all the stories it downloads enabling you to read them on the train when you don’t have an internet connection plus will will auto update google the next time you do connect to the net
• Scoop is super quick - no waiting around for stories to download (it’s already cached them locally!)
• Scoop enables you to enter multiple profiles/settings. This means that it can synchronize with multiple Google accounts (optional). I think this provides a great way to segregate different main interests. Ie, I’ve got an account which keeps track of my favorite Flash/Flex blogs but I’ve also set another one up to keep track of my favorite news feeds. The Alerts feature of Scoop is going to enable you to set the alert frequency and colour code different Scoop profiles so that you can quickly register the type of new Scoop update.

Anyway, here are a couple of screen grabs of the current development version which is not quite ready for public download but will be very soon - why not subscribe to the blog feed so you’ll know as soon as it does go public?

Scoop Profile settings window - enables users to add multiple rss reader accounts

Scoop quickly syncronizes with my Google Reader account

As soon as I select a feed from the tree list the stories associated with that feed are loaded into the reading panel

BTW - I’m no designer - so if there are any good designers our there interested in contributing to this project and designing a cool Flex skin for the application I’d love to hear from you!

Subscribe to our RSS Feed for regular updates on the development of Scoop - a free destop software tool that will keep you instantly updated with the latest scoops whatever your interest - Blogs, News, Sports, Gossip etc etc!