FeedBurner: New RSS Reader for Smartphones

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3788' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3788</a><br /><br /></div>"The FeedBurner Mobile FeedReader is a great tool for getting the latest changes in your favorite news sites or weblogs. Support for feeds in all major formats (RSS, RDF, and Atom) <br /> Smart "If-Modified-Since" content retrieval conserves wireless bandwdith<br /> Adjustable content retrieval count (i.e., retrieve only the 5 most recent items to save time/bandwidth) cuts download time and clutter<br /> Updates feeds manually or on a set schedule <br /> Displays content in several font sizes"<img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20041215-feedburnerpwm.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />FeedBurner looks like a pretty nice little mobile RSS reader. Has anyone here installed it?

[Bacco]

Mike, I don't understand the purpose for an app like this.

Is the intent to reduce GPRS charges by not visiting a site that has not changed? Or is there another purpose that I'm missing?

Thanks.

[Kris Kumar]

I installed it.

Pros:
- It is pretty good in what it does. Does it well.
- Has auto-update and good set of preferences.
- Cool features like email link.

Cons:
- JAVA app :-( Cannot be accessed from the start menu. Have to go into the Java App folder/application. Also some UI quirkiness.
- The fonts are small. I changed the font size in the preferences to medium. It changed the font of the feedlist but did not change the font for the news stories.

[Kris Kumar]

Mike, I don't understand the purpose for an app like this.

Is the intent to reduce GPRS charges by not visiting a site that has not changed? Or is there another purpose that I'm missing?

Thanks.

It is an RSS reader app. Desktops and Pocket PC world have a bunch of RSS reader apps. Smartphone world is just getting them. This is the second one and has more features then the previous one.

It does save GPRS and time. :-)

Feedburner or RSS readers or news aggregators, can pull down the headlines and a sample description for each story. And it can do for ALL your favorite sites.

So if you usually go to multiple sites every day just to follow the changes. This app will pull down the changes. And without going from site to site. So instead of using pocketIE and clicking thru all the favorites. And waiting for the page to load. Use this app.

Within one app you can see all the news headlines. Because RSS reader (usually) pulls down only text it saves GPRS and cuts down download time. And you can go to the full news story page if you want to read more.

For people on the go, RSS readers on the phone is a great app!

[Kris Kumar]

BTW don't forget to add our XML/RSS news feed link to the Feedburner. ;-)

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/xml

[Bacco]

Thanks very much Kris for your clear explanation.

Since my daily commute (train ride) is over an hour :( , I think I'll take the time to cycle through all the web sites. And, since I have unlimited GPRS, I may as well use it.

Besides, I've already spent more on software and accessories for this phone than its purchase price :)

[Kris Kumar]

This one is a free one. ;-)

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5760&amp;highlight=rss

Also there is another one, I could not locate it.

Feedburner is good, I wish it can be launched directly from the Start menu or associate a shortcut for it. :-(

[Bacco]

Cool, thanks.

I'll try it out.

[revolution.cx]

There's also the fusd.info rss reader.

So that makes 3 rss readers for the Smartphone.

Anyone have a favorite pick on these?

[Jason Dunn]

I haven't installed an RSS reader on my phone yet, for one reason: most sites (mine included) only give out the summary rather than the full story. And most sites don't have mobile friendly template, so how do you read the articles? Or do you only subscribe to feeds that have full stories?

[revolution.cx]

Are you saying that you don't like reading the article on the phone if it's formatted for the desktop? Or that you don't like that the article has to be retrieved manually?

I haven't installed an RSS reader on my phone yet, for one reason: most sites (mine included) only give out the summary rather than the full story. And most sites don't have mobile friendly template, so how do you read the articles? Or do you only subscribe to feeds that have full stories?

[Jason Dunn]

Are you saying that you don't like reading the article on the phone if it's formatted for the desktop?

Yeah. Granted, one column view is great, but downloading over GPRS is so slow I tend to dislike accessing "real" Web sites.

[revolution.cx]

So if the app also cached the linked article for instant access while on the go, would that make you more likely to use an RSS reader on the Smartphone? Just curious :wink:

Are you saying that you don't like reading the article on the phone if it's formatted for the desktop?

Yeah. Granted, one column view is great, but downloading over GPRS is so slow I tend to dislike accessing "real" Web sites.

[Jason Dunn]

So if the app also cached the linked article for instant access while on the go, would that make you more likely to use an RSS reader on the Smartphone? Just curious :wink:

Sure...though I would want said app to be polite to servers and avoid flooding them with requests. Granted, over GPRS there's not much potential for damage. ;-)

[revolution.cx]

Certainly. And since said hypothetical app would intelligently retrieve articles while cradled instead of always using GPRS it should be as polite as possible.

And to keep on topic: to install a JAR file (which feedburner is), copy it to your phone and then "run" it with the Smartphone File Explorer. At least that's what I did on my SMT5600.

Sure...though I would want said app to be polite to servers and avoid flooding them with requests. Granted, over GPRS there's not much potential for damage. ;-)

[Kris Kumar]

The RSS readers, as you mentioned, don't download the full story. But if the snippet is interesting, I just click on the menu option (or link), which launches the pocketIE and takes you to the web site.

I agree the websites are not mobile friendly. But I love the way Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition pocketIE's "One Column" feature renders the page. :rock on dude!:

Also I feel that since the sites are not mobile friendly, going to each site individually in pIE is not only cumbersome, but I may miss out on the news story while scrolling thru the site, because of it being not mobile friendly and because of the images etc. ;-) RSS Reader reduces clutter.

I just want the fonts to be adjustable throughout the RSS Reader. That is a must have feature for all types of readers.

Overall I use to when I want to kill time. :-)

[jalm1]

along the same lines of just sumarries of RRS artices from most feeds, has anyone found feeds that provide more then just a headline and/or breif sumarry or the first few lines? i find this a big disad for smartphone just as much as i do for pocketpc's.

[jfran]

I have been reluctant to install feedburner having used RSS news for the past 4 weeks, anyway Kris, comparing the 2 side by side, which would you prefer.

Also, dont know about the customisation of the sites on the feedburner, however having moved from headline on my nokia 6600, to RSS News on the sp3i, I must admit the ability to manage your subscritpions/bookamrks online is an extremely good feature.

Regarding sites that offer more than a few snippets, here are a few of my mobile related favourites.

mobilewhack
russ beattie's notebook
engadget
t-mobile users
SmartPTs :)
coolsmartphone

rgds

Jim.

[Jason Dunn]

along the same lines of just sumarries of RRS artices from most feeds, has anyone found feeds that provide more then just a headline and/or breif sumarry or the first few lines? i find this a big disad for smartphone just as much as i do for pocketpc's.

You have to think about this from a publishers point of view: I make a living off the ads on this site. So why would I give away full stories in the advertising-free feed? It makes no sense. Some feeds have ads in them, but I don't think that makes any sense...

[kagayaki1]

It would be cool to have a different XML feed for subscribers with full postings in the feed. I see your point about wanting people to visit your site with the ads, but for your mobile users, I don't think they're very likely to visit and seek the non-mobile version to see the ads, and the mobile version obviously doesn't have nearly the life-sustaining ad revenue opportunities that your standard browser visitors do, meaning those revenues would be negligable at best..

I have a feeling there is a strong correlation between your subscribers and those that access your site via phone (correct me if I'm wrong), and they would probably appreciate some way to get full story feeds.

Of course, you're lucky to have a pretty good mobile version of the site - there's really little incentive to do anything I just spent 5 minutes typing about.

&lt;sigh>

Another waste of time. My bad. But an interesting subscriber idea, I guess.

[revolution.cx]

There are a wide variety of devices that are used to view feeds. Many desktop RSS programs show the linked page by default - kind of like browsing with a pre-defined set of favorites/bookmarks. Ads are just as likely to get clicked there since you are in a browser window.

As far as mobile and small screen RSS viewing you are still getting eyes so there is some value in impression based ads.

In any event RSS feeds are something that the market is going to have to absorb. If the feeds impact ad revenue then feeds will be less supported on commercial sites. Hopefully some innovation will come into play and the added happiness of small screen mobile viewing will bring some value to the right sites.

I do like the full feed for subscribers idea BTW.

[Kris Kumar]

I would rate the RSSHome.com (http://rsshome.com) the best RSS reader for Smartphones.

Pros:
- Good UI, Good Config options
- Most stable
- Most features (Feedburner may have equal features)
- News feeds are added using a website, instead of the phone, saves cumbersome typing. You can organize RSS into categories/groups.
- Home screen plugin.

Cons:
- I wish the UI was a little more flexible, when it comes to viewing all the feed sources and viewing all the news articles related to the feed source. Feedburner has a nice tree view/structure for displaying the feeds and stories.

RSSHome wins because it has been around for quite some time and lots of updates.

[jalm1]

You have to think about this from a publishers point of view: I make a living off the ads on this site. So why would I give away full stories in the advertising-free feed? It makes no sense. Some feeds have ads in them, but I don't think that makes any sense...

Having run a content business I do understand how important ad views are, and totally see your point. And I agree the feeds with ads are pretty un attractive, and I would think harder to account for. But I do think there is a balance that can be reached. Much like the idea that a site would have a different feed for paying users. I know that is why I still use avantgo, for reading the FT.com. I only wish they had feeds. But when a content site has feeds, and is generating revenue for paying users I feel that it would not be that hard to provide the full text to those customers. Not to say that all should, but I know that I would like to see it. For example, I also subscribe to WSJ.com and they have RSS Feeds, but they only provide the headline, which does my a lot of good when I am on my mobile device and have try to navigate there pretty heavy template. I guess all I can hope for is in the future sites will start to offer feeds with full text at least to users who compensate the provider in some way.

[jfran]

You have to think about this from a publishers point of view: I make a living off the ads on this site. So why would I give away full stories in the advertising-free feed? It makes no sense. Some feeds have ads in them, but I don't think that makes any sense...

, I also subscribe to WSJ.com and they have RSS Feeds, but they only provide the headline, which does my a lot of good when I am on my mobile device and have try to navigate there pretty heavy template. I guess all I can hope for is in the future sites will start to offer feeds with full text at least to users who compensate the provider in some way.

Maybe it would be an idea if you just dropped an email to the editors of WSJ about this as with the use of smartphones on the rise, I am sure they would do their upmost to provide a viable service to their subscribers... if not a lowbandwidth site.. full text feeds

rgds

jim

[revolution.cx]

I'd have to agree with you...for now. :wink:

I installed both RSS Home and Feedburner yesterday and a few hours later my phone (SMT5600) was totally messed up. I had to power off (which took several minutes of trying) and then disable RSS Home for my home screen. I still ran the app and didn't have any problems though.

Not blaming RSS Home (cause it could have been Feedburner or something else) but thought I'd share just in case.

Anyone else?

I would rate the RSSHome.com (http://rsshome.com) the best RSS reader for Smartphones.

RSSHome wins because it has been around for quite some time and lots of updates.

[Kris Kumar]

I am not sure if the RSS feeds protocol allows for authentication/identification of the user. It is a simple XML file download from a URL. I don't think it is possible to identify subscribers. That is why WSJ (I use it too) cannot provide full text.

[jalm1]

that is a good point, and maybe some sort of authenication process is smothing that will need to be developed in a future version of the protocal.

[Mike Temporale]

I am not sure if the RSS feeds protocol allows for authentication/identification of the user. It is a simple XML file download from a URL. I don't think it is possible to identify subscribers. That is why WSJ (I use it too) cannot provide full text.

No it can't, but the web page that serves up the RSS can. It could easily check the requesters cookie to see if they are a "subscriber" or not before serving it up.

[Jason Dunn]

It would be cool to have a different XML feed for subscribers with full postings in the feed.

Yes, that's something we're thinking about - but RSS doesn't have any sort of authentication built in...so the best we could do is have a long URL for subscribers, but they could share it with others...so there's no great way of doing it. :?

[Mike Temporale]

It would be cool to have a different XML feed for subscribers with full postings in the feed.

Yes, that's something we're thinking about - but RSS doesn't have any sort of authentication built in...so the best we could do is have a long URL for subscribers, but they could share it with others...so there's no great way of doing it. :?

Correct, it doesn't have authentication. However, as I mentioned above, the web page can do the authentication. The RSS link doesn't have to be a .XML file. You can have MyFeed.php, or MyFeed.aspx that returns an XML document. By doing it this way, the scripting in the page can determine if you have the correct privileges or not, and then return the correct XML doc.

It's actually pretty easy to do.