AvantGo and The Onion

[Kati Compton]

Has anyone gotten The Onion (www.theonion.com) to work with AvantGo? When I click the mobile/pda link from my desktop I get an "info" page about how I can access most of the onion offline through AvantGo. Clicking the appropriate link sends me to a screen to create a custom channel. I fill out all the info and hit the "OK" button or whatever. It basically tells me it was successful, but the info isn't actually listed under My Device.

I also tried setting up a Mobile Favorite for the Onion, told it to go 1 link deep, etc., but the website gives an error that some page can't be downloaded (the info page I mentioned previously says something about not all content being available through AvantGo as well), and then it just craps out. All I get is the front page and I get a little red exclamation point next to Favorites in ActiveSync...

Help is helpful. ;)

[Steven Cedrone]

Help is helpful. ;)

Use Mazingo instead! :wink:

Steve

[Kati Compton]

Help is helpful. ;)

Use Mazingo instead! :wink:

Steve

That involves an ongoing subscription. ;) I can pay small amounts for programs (up to $20) if I only have to do it once. But when my yearly salary is ~$20K, and I just spent $400 on the Axim and 512MB CF card...

No Mazingo for me.

[Steven Cedrone]

Only the Digital Video Package costs money. The text service is free...

Sign up for Mazingo Text Service (free)

Mazingo Text Service lets you take the mobile Web with you. It's easy to use -- just synchronize your PDA using the Mazingo software, and all your favorite mobile web sites are copied to your PDA. No wireless connection is needed! Best of all, the service is 100% free!


Steve

[Janak Parekh]

That involves an ongoing subscription. ;)
No, that's just the video service -- the website is misleading (which is unsurprising as they want to make money in the first place).

Go to http://www.mazingo.net/pc/text_service_signup.php (or click on Text Service at the top of their website).

--bdj

(update: D'oh! Steve, you are damn fast... I thought my typing skills were l33t... ;) Maybe the overhead of copying the URL did me in. Since my post is a waste now -- does anyone have the video service? If so, how is it?)

[Kati Compton]

Great - thanks to you both - working on it now.

Do you guys use AvantGo at all, then?

[Steven Cedrone]

Great - thanks to you both - working on it now.

Do you guys use AvantGo at all, then?

No, I ditched it when I ran up against the 2MB limit. And I've never looked back...

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Do you guys use AvantGo at all, then?
Haven't used AvantGo since the Palm days, actually... it started annoying me then ;)

--bdj

[Pony99CA]

I use AvantGo for C|Net news and DrinkBoy drink recipes. I didn't see C|Net listed in the Mazingo channel list and didn't check for DrinkBoy. Does Mazingo have those?

Also, does Mazingo support hyperlinks? AvantGo doesn't seem to.

Thanks for any help,
Steve

[Rirath]

Must admit I didn't know Mazingo still had a free service. Even so, it still takes to long to sync on the J525 with it's serial only connection. Once I'm USB syncing with the Dell however... (hallelujah) I'll certainly try it out. Too bad there's no way (that I know of) to USB 2.0 sync. Would be great for the video service.

[Steven Cedrone]

Must admit I didn't know Mazingo still had a free service. Even so, it still takes to long to sync on the J525 with it's serial only connection. Once I'm USB syncing with the Dell however... (hallelujah) I'll certainly try it out. Too bad there's no way (that I know of) to USB 2.0 sync. Would be great for the video service.

I sync to my CF card in a reader, not to the device. The speed difference is incredible. If you try it, you will like it... :wink:

Steve

[Unreal32]

The Onion seems to work fine in my AvantGo. I don't have a problem.

I use AvantGo and Mazingo (and I used Sunnysoft World Offline, but it was so sporadic even on custom channels I created that it was all but useless.... garbage), but I find the following problems with Mazingo:

1. It doesn't really "synch", it re-downloads all its information each time you connect to it. Which makes for huge downloads and long long synch times.

2. It has a lot of problems if the Digital Video Package doesn't synch properly. Namely, if it has a problem with any of the files, it will not work at ALL.

3. You have to use two different synch packages if you want both the text service and the DVP. Quite the pain in the @$$.

4. Unlike AvantGo, which synchs automatically when you Activesync, Mazingo is always a manual process... which means combined with problem #1 above that I only synch my Mazingo maybe once a week, if that. Which kind of defeats the purpose.

I've been considering doing the 8 meg upgrade for AvantGo, since my experience has been nothing but good with them. Has anyone else done this? Anyone else having Mazingo problems??

[Kati Compton]

I've still got AvantGo installed because it lets me do the My Yahoo! thing. So I've got my movie times. Now why on earth it won't let me do TV schedules.... :?

[Sven Johannsen]

Must admit I didn't know Mazingo still had a free service. Even so, it still takes to long to sync on the J525 with it's serial only connection. Once I'm USB syncing with the Dell however... (hallelujah) I'll certainly try it out. Too bad there's no way (that I know of) to USB 2.0 sync. Would be great for the video service.

I sync to my CF card in a reader, not to the device. The speed difference is incredible. If you try it, you will like it... :wink:

Steve

The other option would be to shell out for a CF network card (~$70) and sync via ethernet. Also a significant speed difference, and works with all the PIM stuff too. Wifi is an option too, but is a bit more $ outlay if you start from scratch.

[Rirath]

I sync to my CF card in a reader, not to the device. The speed difference is incredible. If you try it, you will like it...

My motherboard (Soyo Dragon Ultra Platinum) came with a CF / SM card reader that plugs in directly to the board, but sadly it's never worked correctly from day 1. Every so often at reboots it'll appear to be working fine... other than that, windows XP reads it as "unknown device". (It's perfectly compatible with XP, and I've tried every patch, bios upgrade, etc you can imagine.)

I suppose I should stop being cheap and just shell out the $20 or so for a new reader. :wink:

[Steven Cedrone]

The other option would be to shell out for a CF network card (~$70) and sync via ethernet. Also a significant speed difference, and works with all the PIM stuff too. Wifi is an option too, but is a bit more $ outlay if you start from scratch.

I would do this, but my CF card is my main storage card, and my Pocket PC does not have duel slots...

Steve

[weezl]

Never had problems with the onion on Avantgo.

I far prefer Mazingo, but they've removed a few of the channels I liked on the free text service (Weather Channel) over to video-only. I have the DVP, works great, but it would be nice to be able to read my local forecast in addition to just watching the regional forecast. I was no longer using Avantgo for anything, but that drove me back to them.

Also, it is possible to make mazingo update automatically. It has settings for sync on device connect, but it takes a while and doesnt minimize to the tray, so that usually bugs me. I made a scheduled task that calls it twice a day. Just call 'mazingo.exe autoload'. The autoload parameter tells it to sync as soon as it starts (if it would only shut itself off when it's done! :roll: )

[njb42]

Does anyone have the video service? If so, how is it?)

Tried it shortly after it came out. There wasn't very much content -- at least nothing that interested me -- and it wasn't worth the monthly expense (especially since I'd just been laid off :cry:).

-- Todd (who also ditched AvantGo long ago)

[TheBacklash]

I'm using both now...

Mazingo don't have all the channels I like, they have the WSJ... but NOT the opinion Journal portion, Avantgo does. PDABuzz only on Avantgo. They do not have the New york times... I read it sometimes... Avantgo does...
both have thier plus sides. although i've found Mazingo has problems with links from time to time... and they STILL carry dead groups... and still allow you to preview and subscribe to them, only to find out it's been dead for 4 months. :roll:

[Wiggin]

No, I ditched it when I ran up against the 2MB limit. And I've never looked back...
If you haven't looked back in a while Steve, you might consider it. AG has tried hard to improve their selection of channels/sites over the past year, and has compiled a very impressive set of big ticket sites. I now travel with a daily dose of 4MB of news/tech info ... more than I can consume on a 3-4 hour flight.
As for the 2MB limit, an easy solution exists that allows you to synch as much data as you desire. Let me know if you're interested...
:beer: