Android Widgets for Google Reader

Google Reader for Android has been updated. At first look, the update doesn’t seem too interesting, fixing a Flash issue and the boring, but standard “other bugfixes”. Something cool that it does seem to have added – without actually telling us, though – are some new homescreen widgets.

You’ll find them under the Add Widget feature on your phone. There are two, Reader News Ticker and Reader Unread Count. The first one will let you link to any Reader feed, such as unread items, people you are following, labels you have created or even individual feeds. The widget is a ticker, so it will scroll through the items on a regular basis.

The second widget, Reader Unread Count, will do pretty much what it says on the box – instead of providing a preview, it will tell you how many unread items you have in your Reader account – handy for knowing when you have new feeds, but depressing when you have as many as me!

Download Google Reader here.