10-17-2006, 03:00 PM
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Executive Editor, Android Thoughts
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,233
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Spb Insight Provides Window On The World
Product Category: Productivity Software
Manufacturer: Spb Software House
Where to Buy: Mobihand [Affiliate]
Price: $19.99 USD
System Requirements: Windows Mobile 2003; Windows Mobile 5. 1.5 MB of free space plus more for channel storage.
Pros:
Pleasing appearance (clean);News Search FeatureThumbnail Images
Cons:
No support for embedded audio (Podcasting);Lack of Today Screen plugin;Price.
Summary:
The world is crazy for RSS feeds. Assembling your own newspaper is fun, but it can be exasperating to use a poor-quality news reader on any sort of platform. Spb steps up to challenge of building a simple and easy, yet robust, newsreader client - but does it stack up against the competition?
Read on for the full review!
Getting Started
After downloading the setup file from Spb's website, you're presented with the usual Spb setup program. I really like Spb's approach - allowing the user to enter the registration code during the desktop installer. It saves me a bunch of time and gives a professional appearance. It's also really handy when you use a variety of Spb products on your device. The install runs smoothly enough, and after the files are copied to the device, the user is presented the initial setup screen below.
Figure 1: Initial setup screen, shown just after installation.
This is a nice method of allowing the user to select where files should live and how Spb Insight should connect to the Internet. Other products I've used take you through the setup process when you launch the app and then simply dump all of the data files in Main Memory, making it a pain to move it over to a storage card later. This is also a good time to have the user specify how Insight should connect to the Net, allowing users to avoid unnecessary charges if they don't have an unlimited data plan.
While it's nice to have it right at the end of setup, I think I would have liked it better if it simply popped up on first-run of the program. Why? Well, sometimes I chain multiple installations together (using ActiveSync's Add/Remove Programs menu item) when setting up a new device. Programs that require the user to intervene to setup options really wreck the flow when trying to install multiple programs at one time. But again, it's nice to have this presented to the user before they even start using the program, rather than have it buried in some menu somewhere.
Figure 2: Adding a new feed couldn't be simpler.
Adding a new channel is a pretty painless process. I have my favorite OPML file but decided not to just dump it in, but rather to browse Spb's channel database. The database is retrieved from Spb's servers whenever you browse them, so if you're on a pay data plan, you may want to browse from a free connection. However, I doubt it takes up too much data just by the way it pops up fairly quickly.
Figure 3: Selecting from Spb's channel database.
After you select the channels you wish to add, Insight adds them to the main screen and begins downloading the content from each channel. A nice little progress bar displays at the bottom to let you know how far the downloading has gone, including the amount of data Insight has downloaded. After the data download is complete, simply selecting the feed will bring up a list of items within it.
Figure 4: Your channels displayed, showing a download progress indicator at the bottom.
Figure 5: The Pocket PC Thoughts news feed, complete with thumb nailed images.
The first thing that I noticed on this page was the very nice addition of thumbnails to the side of the screen. If the items has an image within it, Insight thumbnails it and places it next to the item, allowing you to quickly navigate to items that truly look interesting. Items in which the author couldn't find a suitable image (or decided not to add one) such as the one highlighted in this screen shot, simply show a line icon, indicating that no image was downloaded. Selecting any item you like will bring that item up in the program, showing the text and any other information (such as the time/date posted) that is available.
Figure 6: A news item posted by one of my favorite authors. 
Innovative Features
Insight sports a few nice options that allow you to tailor your news feeds and manage them effectively. As stated earlier, the program lets you specify where your channels will "live" right off the bat, to curb on memory usage, and it offers an online database of channels. One of the neat features is the ability to search that database for channels that interest you. After entering the search query below, I was inundated with many results that had "news" in the title. This would be a great way for those of you who do not have an OPML file of "favorite feeds" yet and want to get into the whole RSS thing. I know before I jumped in, I was very overwhelmed by the idea that I had to seek out all of those little XML buttons on my favorite sites and try to add them or enter them into a program. This takes a little less time than doing that, and it allows you to seek out those XML buttons on your favorite sites, not just sites that you rarely visit but want to know about.
Figure 7: Searching for a channel.
Returning to the management side of RSS feeds, anyone who has ever used an RSS reader has probably at one time found that space on their device was getting quite small. The options in Insight allow you to specify where the content is stored and also to see how much space it's currently taking up. Clicking on "Default Channel Options" brings up the defaults for each channel in regards to how much content is stored on your device, and when to delete old items to make way for new. This can be changed on a channel-by-channel basis, allowing you to keep an extensive history of your favorite channels, and a rather short history of channels that you frequently check.
Figure 8: Setting up the size limits for the channels.
Figure 9: Cleaning options.
Spb has never been a company scared of innovation, but I must admit, the options in Insight left me wanting a bit more. Perhaps integration with Pocket Outlook so that I could forward items to friends (or the email gateway to my blog) or more options on how to display my channels (a timeline view would be nice, to have all items from all channels integrated into one view showing when the item was posted). If previous product evolution is similar for Insight as it has been for other Spb products, then I predict we'll see massive additions of options within the next few years as new releases come out. Still, there are some features I'm baffled that Spb didn't include.
Missing Pieces
Insight lacks some options, as mentioned, and it also seems to lack some major features I would have liked to see. For example, RSS is a great technology for disseminating information to a mass audience. Part of the strength of RSS is the ability to syndicate not only from provider to individual, but also from individuals to other individuals (anyone ever read a blog comprised of news that the owner found interesting?). Insight allows providers to display their content to you in a simple and clean format, however it does not allow you to forward items through email or blog them to any blog service. Adding those abilities in future builds would be much appreciated. Another feature that may help Insight would be that of a Today Screen plugin (preferably one that interfaced with other Spb tools). While I've never been a big fan, those plugins can be nice for those who don't mind scroll bars on their Today Screen.
Another feature that Insight doesn't support is the <embed> tag for audio within feeds. For those of you not familiar with RSS, authors can embed audio into their feed (this is the basis of "podcasting"), and clients can be set to automatically download this content for offline listening. While there are only a few Pocket PC clients that support embedded audio, it is still a feature I would have liked to see in Insight - just for completeness sake.
Insight banks on its clean and clear appearance and feature set to appeal to consumers. If you're tired of bloated clients that are a bit too big or clunky for their own good, then Insight may be the RSS reader for you. However, if you're a fan of forwarding news to friends or having audio downloaded for you directly, you may wish to wait until these features appear in a future version (hopefully!).
Conclusions
Overall I have very mixed opinions on Spb Insight. On one hand, it's superb at doing exactly what is is supposed to - it downloads feeds and displays them in a user friendly manner. It is easy to use, understand, and maintain. I found no faults in the software, and no confusion at all in the UI. However, I did miss some of the more advanced features found in other RSS readers, and would have liked to see them present even if not everyone would have used them. I expect that future versions of Insight will add these capabilities, so if you're in need of them now, you may want to hold of. Otherwise, check out Insight - it should provide some insight to your world in a fairly clean and concise manner!
Jon Westfall truly does not know how to classify himself. Decision making researcher? System Administrator? Editor & Reviewer? Maybe all of those. To find out more than you want to know, you can visit JonWestfall.Com or just watch for his frequent news posts here at Pocket PC Thoughts!
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10-18-2006, 05:41 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 98
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Thank you for the nice review, Jon.
If pressed, how would you compare Insight to Newsbreak and/or Newsgator Mobile?
Without having tried Insight yet, Newsbreak has a nice, clean format and look, but is very limited in what feeds you can download. Newsgator Mobile is great - especially if you are a Newsgator/FeedDemon subscriber like me - but it's pricing structure is very high. I happily ran the beta versions, bit I am leery about the subscription plan as I understand it also affects my FeedDemon subscription and effectively changes the date of it.
If Insight offers a better feed selection, as you indicate, and also based on its price, it would seem to be a winner.
If you have used others, a quick comparisin would be informative.
Thanks.
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10-18-2006, 05:54 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by JMac
Thank you for the nice review, Jon.
If pressed, how would you compare Insight to Newsbreak and/or Newsgator Mobile?
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Me too!
My NG Mobile trial ends soon, so I'm wondering if it's worth it to switch to this or pay for NG Mobile at a slightly higher price.
__________________
iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
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10-18-2006, 06:19 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 40
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Help me here. This looks like an interestin product but maybe I do not understand RSS totally.
I am looking for something that is like Avantgo that I can choose what I want to download and it will download when I am ina place that I can connect to the internet so that i can read the story later.
Does this do that?
Thanks
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10-18-2006, 08:36 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 74
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Quote:
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that I can choose what I want to download and it will download when I am ina place that I can connect to the internet so that i can read the story later. Does this do that?
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Yes, it is exactly what Spb Insight is designed for and it is why it is different from typical RSS readers. It allows you to download articles with full text and pictures while you have Internet connection (for example when you have ActiveSync connection) and read them later.
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10-18-2006, 10:36 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 4
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Most Important Feature
Thanks for the great Review. I am missing the most important point of Spb Insight (to me!)
Normal RSS Readers only get the informations from the feed (e.g. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/heise-atom.xml)
You often get only headlines from the Feed - now comes SPB Insight - it can also download the Articles which are pointed to in that RSS Feed and so you can Read the Article instead of looking it up at the Website.
So you can Read all Offline after you downloaded that Channel instead of making an online COnnectiong for Reading the Articles.
With the Templates you also can go further and Create a newsfeed from a Page that DOESNT have Any Rss feed!
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10-18-2006, 05:26 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 98
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Can the entire Insight installation - program files and feeds themselves - be installed to the storage card? (I understand that the DLL file or files would be installed to the Windows directory).
Thanks.
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10-18-2006, 05:31 PM
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Executive Editor, Android Thoughts
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,233
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If anyone is wondering, the reason why I did not include the offline-content downloading component in my review is that the program didn't really point this out. When I saw the channels, I assumed they were groupings of RSS feeds and did not provide avantgo-esque content pulling abilities. Once this was pointed out, the review was already done with copy editing and I decided not to include the additional information as I felt that the software should have made it clearer that this was what it was doing.
That aside, the offline content pulling is a very nice addition to Insight and does add more to it's abilities.
__________________
Dr. Jon Westfall, MCSE, MS-MVP
Executive Editor - Android Thoughts
News Editor - Windows Phone Thoughts
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10-18-2006, 05:43 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 98
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Re: Most Important Feature
Quote:
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Originally Posted by m.zielinski
Thanks for the great Review. I am missing the most important point of Spb Insight (to me!)
Normal RSS Readers only get the informations from the feed (e.g. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/heise-atom.xml)
You often get only headlines from the Feed - now comes SPB Insight - it can also download the Articles which are pointed to in that RSS Feed and so you can Read the Article instead of looking it up at the Website.
So you can Read all Offline after you downloaded that Channel instead of making an online COnnectiong for Reading the Articles.
With the Templates you also can go further and Create a newsfeed from a Page that DOESNT have Any Rss feed! |
That IS pretty impressive!
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10-18-2006, 06:54 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 58
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Still some bugs in it. For one; it doesn't like importing OPML files from main memory, only from the storage card.
It misses a lot of options like update scheduling.
It;s a good start, but I'll stick with Newsbreak for the time being...
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Linear Mode
