Hey blk_jack, thanks a lot for this new work, already installed and set up.
XDA is about DEVELOPMENT, not about some final products given to the community after a first post. You (we) must start somewhere, alpha/beta, etc. Feed is per device as stated in OP, so choosing at first a popular device is IMHO a good way to get a lot of testers and feedback from members to make the app grows quickly...to implement next devices faster.
So keep up the good work Jeff and thanks again for your valuable contributions.
This app is the closest thing I've made to my ideal experience on XDA for browsing content. Obviously the forum discussions are awesome, but this app should be a no-brainer for anyone using it on a supported device to find out about new or updated things. The entire point, like Labs, is to promote independent Android development -- one device at a time!
I really like the app. Big thanks for your effort.
I know I'm going to get so much heat for this. But this is such a google move. Creating another app when we have another xda app. Why not combine it.
might be integrated into labs in the future depending on how it goes. The download manager from the app is supposed to be backported into labs, and perhaps the entire app as well. The reason for keeping it separate according to blk_jack was the cruft from the legacy XDA one code used in labs. I'm assuming it's easier to do an alpha test separately and then perhaps integrate into labs when the time comes.
Labs is actually two apps already due to Google Play policy, so it wouldn't be as simple as just adding Feed to that app because it itself is already splintered. Interestingly, 90% of Labs' bugs are due to the forum browser part of the app (which WAS XDA One that we combined into Labs), so often just adding more onto an app can create plenty of issues. Ironically, a lot of users want Labs and the forum browser to be completely separate apps and not combined due to the aforementioned issues and perceived bloat.
Feed is a quite different app from the Labs store and the forum browser. What you're proposing is akin to suggesting Google combine two of their different apps, say Hangouts and Gmail together. The same person could send you an email AND send you a message on hangouts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be combined if the user experience and use is different between them.
That said, of course there's crossover because it's still XDA. I'm not against the possibility of adding a Feed section to Labs, but due to the device-specific content and the sheer variety of Labs users (both Play edition and full), it makes more sense to keep them separate at the moment.