A temporary change to the way in which the iPod touch and iPhone Safari browser handles direct RSS feed links caused a one-day outage, but was resolved following publication of the original version of this news article. Since the launch of the first iPhone, clicking on a direct RSS link in the mobile version of Safari would take a user to a specific mac.com URL—reader.mac.com—where the feed would be parsed and displayed.
During the outage, clicking on a direct RSS link instead directed users to a me.com URL, which went through several redirects before displaying a page with information about Apple’s MobileMe service and a link to setup instructions. As Apple has shifted much of its former .Mac online service to become MobileMe, including e-mail and web addresses, it appears that Apple plans to migrate the RSS reader service over to a me.com domain.
Updated: This article originally noted that Apple appeared to have ceased support for its Mac.com-based RSS feed reader for the MobileSafari browser of the iPhone and iPod touch, based on a reader report. Following the publication of this article, the Mac.com-based RSS feed reader for iPhone and iPod touch began functioning properly, suggesting the feature was hit by a temporary outage and not completely removed.
