NewsBreak 2.0 -> 2.1 update. What's New?

[Robb Bates]

I bought Ilium Newsbreak at version 2.0 and I love it. It's the easiest to use RSS reader that does Podcasts really really well. But there are a few little bugs. I had a in depth discussion with their support and they were helpful in finding work arounds to some bugs and clueing me in that some of what I thought were bugs were actually features (no, really!)

Well, I got an automated update from PPCThought's Mobihand webstore saying Newbreak got updated to 2.1. YeeeHaaa!!! I thought...

Well,I downloaded the latest version. It does say v2.1 in the Help/About versus 2.0 in the previous version I had. I looked at all the bugs and all the menus and features and it doesn't look like a single thing has been changed. The EXE file has a date of 8/28 and Ilium's website says it was updated September 2007. But I can't find anything different about it. The change log on Ilium's website is very basic and doesn't show any changes between 2.0 and 2.1. Only between 1.x and 2.1. Doesn't help much.

I'm going to ping Ilium right now. But has anyone that has Newsbreak noticed any changes?

Robb

[buckyg]

I've wondered the same thing, Robb, I don't notice any changes. Guess I figured if it was a minor bug-fix/under the covers change, it would have been something like 2.01. Still love it though. Let me know what you find out, in case I'm missing some new fix or feature.

[Robb Bates]

This from Ilium Support:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting Ilium Software. Sorry to dash your hopes! We did release 2.1 of NewsBreak, but since there really wasn't anything in it to get excited about, we didn't announce it. How did you get notified (just curious)?

We added support for switching screen orientations on Windows Mobile 6 Smartphones and now save channel data immediately to storage memory. Like I said, nothing to get really excited about, but a couple of things that make life easier for us in support.

More NewsBreak updates will be forthcoming. Hang in there!

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Well, that explains it. Let's hope the forthcoming updates will include the bug fixes and feature requests I asked for.

Robb

[TimothyP]

Well i know its not the request i made a few days ago, which was to have the images stay in the articles even if not connected to the net, or the ability to delete an article on my own and not when the server deletes it (this can be done in Spb Insight). Those are the two features i would like the most. If Spb incorporates podcast and vidcast into their product, i might have to make the switch.

On another note, maybe its the ability to create categories. I never noticed this before, btu then again, maybe its always been there and i just didnt notice it.

[Robb Bates]

Categories have always been there. But they don't have a "Not Categorized" category. It's hard to tell which feeds aren't assigned to a category without going into the properties of each feed one at a time.

That was a feature request I put in a while ago.

Ilium's support is pretty good and they have a really good product so I have high hopes that the next release will have some nice features added.

Robb

[buckyg]

Thanks for the info, Robb. Guess I should've known, if it was something important, they would have publicized it. Ilium does have good support and products, so there will be good things ahead from them, I'm sure.

[Robb Bates]

Yep, I just wish they were a little more open about upcoming features and release dates. I'd rather know that it's 6 months away than not knowing and thinking it's 2 weeks away.

Waaaaiting is the hardest part!

Robb

[Ilium Software]

Hi Everyone,

The email you quoted said it all. The changes that you guys will see are pretty minor. In fact from your perspective, it is a 2.0.1, but from our perspective, for a variety of reasons, it is 2.1. That's why we released it so quietly though.

As for the future, we are definitely looking at improvements for the future. No worries there!

Regarding advance word on what we're working on...sadly I don't think that is going to change. There are a few reasons for this.

First, we do set goals for product releases but the reality is that if a product isn't ready to go, we're not going to just bundle it up and send it out because of a deadline. A product doesn't leave here until we feel 100% confident that it is ready for public consumption. That's one of the reasons we have so few minor releases. We're not perfect, but we hate buggy software and won't knowingly inflict buggy software on you. What this means though, is that a release date can easily get bumped. We've found that promising a release date and missing it is a LOT worse for customers than not knowing. The lesser of two evils.

Second, there is still a lot of competition out there, and I'm proud to say many of them like to copy our success. If we telegraph our plans I can promise you that someone else will race to get something similar out before us. What they produce may not be as nice as our final product, but they'll be there first and this can hurt us. So again, we have another reason to keep quiet about what's coming.

So there you go...a little of the inside scoop on why we do things like we do.

In the meantime you can certainly install NewsBreak 2.1. Your old unlock codes will work on it.

Marc Tassin
Ilium Software
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[email protected]
734-973-9388
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http://www.iliumsoft.com

[darthbane2k]

There is a major bug with Newsbreak which quite frankly spoils any enjoyment of the software.
I am using version 2.1.0.1058 on a HTC Touch (WM6).
When reading news items, I often notice Newsbreak hang. I’ve seen repeatedly that if you open a feed item that has images that it’s trying to download (over GPRS for example) and you then back out of the feed item before the images load it freezes for 5-10 seconds in the feed list view with part of the top of the screen still showing the feed item that was just viewed. I’ve tried a reinstall, I've tried disabling other background apps..Nothing works.
This issue frustrates me so much that I am thinking of uninstalling and trying a different product.

[Ilium Software]

There is a major bug with Newsbreak which quite frankly spoils any enjoyment of the software.
I am using version 2.1.0.1058 on a HTC Touch (WM6).
When reading news items, I often notice Newsbreak hang. I’ve seen repeatedly that if you open a feed item that has images that it’s trying to download (over GPRS for example) and you then back out of the feed item before the images load it freezes for 5-10 seconds in the feed list view with part of the top of the screen still showing the feed item that was just viewed. I’ve tried a reinstall, I've tried disabling other background apps..Nothing works.
This issue frustrates me so much that I am thinking of uninstalling and trying a different product.

I have to admit, that would annoy me too. Now I do disagree with the "so damn buggy" description in your header since typically people aren't running into problems, but the issue you are having certainly is one we'd like to help with. I have one of our NewsBreak developers looking at this now and we'll see what we can find. And if you haven't please make sure to email the support folks so we can keep you updated.