NewsGator for Windows Mobile Enters Beta

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.newsgator.com/daily/2006/06/newsgator_for_w.html' target='_blank'>http://blogs.newsgator.com/daily/2006/06/newsgator_for_w.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A little less than three months ago, we announced a couple of new mobile RSS readers that were in the works. One of them was a reader for Windows Mobile devices called SmartRead, which was under development by Kevin Cawley. Now christened NewsGator for Windows Mobile Devices, the product has entered public beta, and is available for download"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20060610-NewsGatorMobile.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />This is great news! I've used just about every RSS reader there is for Windows Mobile and the problem I keep running into is that they don't sync back with my desktop. I've got lots and lots of feeds in my reader and I need something that will sync between my computer and my Smartphone so I'm not re-reading the same news all the time. I've been a big fan of FeedDemon for over 2 years now, and I'm really excited that a true mobile solution is upon us. I've already downloaded the client and I hope to put it through it's paces over the weekend. If you've installed this, be sure to share your experiences with us. :D

[hylton]

i've been playing w/ the beta of this for a few weeks now, kevin shot out an early release of the beta product to a few folks for early testing and i have to say i'm quite impressed w/ the new product...

i had previously used smartread, but it was a REALLY early product and had quite a few bugs, it was a bit slow, and overall not nearly as polished as the beta release of newsgator mobile.

so far, i haven't found any bugs to speak of, but have sent a few suggestions back to newsgator and kevin to be added to the 'wish list'.

i would be interested to see what experiences people have w/ this...i have personally notice that it doesn't seem to keep sync'ed w/ my newsgator feeds that i check thru the PC and on the newsgator mobile WAP type site...when i flag a feed as read, it doesn't reflect that in the mobile product after i do a full sync...it's strange b/c i thought that would be a must have in the beta product. i sent this to newsgator w/ some other feedback, but never heard back directly as to whether this was suppose to work in tandem w/ the other newsgator interfaces yet...

chris

[OSUKid7]

I put in my email address this morning and am still waiting for the email so I can download it. Has anyone else gotten the email yet?

[xultar]

Does it only sync with the $29.99 Windows Feed Deamon? That's what I'm thinking.

[OSUKid7]

Does it only sync with the $29.99 Windows Feed Deamon? That's what I'm thinking.
I'm pretty sure it syncs with any NewsGator app. (NewsGator Online, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire)

[radeon_x]

Certainly not as polished as NewsBreak, but the ability to keep in sync with FeedDemon on my desktop is nice.

hylton, you do have to hit the "Sync" button (softkey) after marking the items as read in order for them to be marked as read on the server and thus have those changes reflected in FeedDemon. That's one thing I wish they would change - I would like the read status to be updated to the server immediately... or at least have an option to make it work that way.

If they just fix up the interface a bit and improve the stability (it's crashed a couple times on me) then it'll be a great product!

[kevin]

Thanks for the feedback folks... as Chris said I sent out a pre-Beta to about 35 guys and gals about 3 weeks ago and received incredible feedback. The app needed polish for sure at that point and still needs polish, but she is coming along nicely and will get there! I received 85 feature requests and defect reports (w/ a bit of redundancy) during this preview phase. That just blew me away; what a passionate community. I want the direction of the app to be driven by the community... that is the goal!

Chris, you do need to activate the sync process at this point... automatic and scheduled synchronization is certainly in the plan! Radeon_x, I hear you on wanting automatic read state syncs… the way the API is written (and this is a good thing) it accepts a collection of posts to “mark read/unread”. That reduces the chatter and improves network and app performance. Perhaps I can push up changes on a configurable interval – will need to stew on that one.

Oh… btw the synchronization works across all NewsGator products… that is the beauty of the platform. You can read your feeds at a friend’s house via the browser and NG Online or at the office w/ Outlook integration (Inbox) or at home on your PC (FeedDemon) or Mac (NetNewsWire), and the state will be consistent across all instances. That is cool and demonstrates power of the synchronization engine and the application suite.

So, please take a look at the beta and give us feedback, I want to build the features and functions that you all want. One last thing, if the feedback is negative, that’s ok; just provide an alternative approach, process, or workflow that will make NewsGator Mobile better.

OSUKid7 if you do not receive an email (or anyone for that matter), send me an email at kevinc@newsgator,com and I’ll be sure to set you up.

-kevin Cawley
newsgator

[OSUKid7]

OSUKid7 if you do not receive an email (or anyone for that matter), send me an email at kevinc@newsgator,com and I’ll be sure to set you up.
I just checked, and it looks like all three emails I requested were put into my Junk E-mail folder in Outlook. :? Who knows, nothing in the email looks like spam to me. Downloading it now. :)

Thanks for posting here, kevin. I'm always impressed when developers take time to post on community sites like SPT. :way to go:

[kevin]

Glad it's getting teed up for you... and your welcome on posting. I have been and continue to be a hige fan of SPT and Pocket PC Thoughts.

-kevin

[radeon_x]

Great to see a developer actively discussing things in the community, thanks Kevin!

Also, I understand where you're coming from with wanting to keep network connections to a minimum. I'm mostly just judging the app against FeedDemon Mobile Edition which I use on an almost daily basis - and I find that it's very efficient. Ideally I want to have to use as few key presses as possible.

My only other major gripe with the app right now is that pressing the "back" hardkey while in the blog overview hides the app instead of returning to the list on unread blogs - but you probably already have that in your bug reports. Oh also, I think the confirmations are a bit excessive - for example, when clicking the "Sync" softkey. Oh, and I use the default homescreen with the large icons in the MRU list and the icon for the app is a bit pixelated... lol - how's that for a nitpick?

Seriously though, keep up the good work - looking forward to the final version! :).

[xultar]

Thanks for the feedback folks... as Chris said I sent out a pre-Beta to about 35 guys and gals about 3 weeks ago and received incredible feedback. The app needed polish for sure at that point and still needs polish, but she is coming along nicely and will get there! I received 85 feature requests and defect reports (w/ a bit of redundancy) during this preview phase. That just blew me away; what a passionate community. I want the direction of the app to be driven by the community... that is the goal!

Chris, you do need to activate the sync process at this point... automatic and scheduled synchronization is certainly in the plan! Radeon_x, I hear you on wanting automatic read state syncs… the way the API is written (and this is a good thing) it accepts a collection of posts to “mark read/unread”. That reduces the chatter and improves network and app performance. Perhaps I can push up changes on a configurable interval – will need to stew on that one.

Oh… btw the synchronization works across all NewsGator products… that is the beauty of the platform. You can read your feeds at a friend’s house via the browser and NG Online or at the office w/ Outlook integration (Inbox) or at home on your PC (FeedDemon) or Mac (NetNewsWire), and the state will be consistent across all instances. That is cool and demonstrates power of the synchronization engine and the application suite.

So, please take a look at the beta and give us feedback, I want to build the features and functions that you all want. One last thing, if the feedback is negative, that’s ok; just provide an alternative approach, process, or workflow that will make NewsGator Mobile better.

OSUKid7 if you do not receive an email (or anyone for that matter), send me an email at kevinc@newsgator,com and I’ll be sure to set you up.

-kevin Cawley
newsgator

Thanks...I will give it a try and hopefully I'll like it.

[OSUKid7]

My only other major gripe with the app right now is that pressing the "back" hardkey while in the blog overview hides the app instead of returning to the list on unread blogs - but you probably already have that in your bug reports. Oh also, I think the confirmations are a bit excessive - for example, when clicking the "Sync" softkey.
I had the same thought after using the app for a few minutes last night. I really didn't want to go to the next item after reading one, and it seemed to take too many key presses to go "back."

Also, I understand where you're coming from with wanting to keep network connections to a minimum. I'm mostly just judging the app against FeedDemon Mobile Edition which I use on an almost daily basis - and I find that it's very efficient. Ideally I want to have to use as few key presses as possible.
Yeah, I too see the point of keeping network transmissions down, but for people like me who have an unlimited data plan, it's more important to always have all feeds sync'd. Maybe this could be an option - auto sync? I'm fine with syncing being disabled by default, but like radeon_x said, it takes quite a few key presses to keep it synchronized.

Also, where's the best place for feedback like this? Is here fine, or do you want it in the blog post's comments, or somewhere else?

Great job on the app though. I'll definitely be using this along with FeedDemon and NGO. :)

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks to this app I now have an account at NewsGator Online that I am finally using. And if this mobile application fixes some of the minor navigation issues, I will fork out the fees as well. ;-)

- Are there any shortcuts for moving from one post to another? Can I use the joy pad/stick to move between posts? The only thing that seems to work is to push down to view the post. And while I am viewing the post, pushing the joy pad down should ideally take me back to the post list. This way using the joy pad I can navigate thru all the news items, left-right for back-next, and push down once to view the post and push down again to get back to the list. ;-)

- Also, I like the limit of 50 posts per feed. But can it be made flexible, like 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 10 posts, 25 posts and 50 posts.

Otherwise, I love the font size and the layout of the content.

[joshkerr]

I've been using NewsGator mobile edition for a few days now. I'm having difficulty going from the post view to the post list or the feed list. It seems like I have to hit "menu" and then "done" to get back. This app should use the hardware buttons for back.

Overall its a step in the right direction, but its very slow on the Motorola Q phone.

[holtwm]

stupid question from a newbie but why don't you guys use the http://www.mobilerss.net web site? I found it after trying to get various RSS newsreader apps working on my devices. This site has worked pretty well for me over the years.

Will

[radeon_x]

stupid question from a newbie but why don't you guys use the http://www.mobilerss.net web site? I found it after trying to get various RSS newsreader apps working on my devices. This site has worked pretty well for me over the years.

Will

Primarily because we like to take advantage of the synchronization capability of the NewsGator service.

(i.e. when I read an item on my desktop using FeedDemon it's marked as read when I access it on my mobile device - big time / bandwidth saver)

[hylton]

sorry i'm so late getting back into the discussion, but yea, the sync button is suppose to keep it all synced up w/ all other newsgator clients...but i'm having issues (which may be problems between the keypad and my brain, but dunno).

anyway...been emailing back-n-forth w/ kevin on it, and they are looking into why i can't seem to sync up...basically what is happening is even after going to the newsgator mobile web client, newsgator main web client...marking feeds as 'read' and then doing a full sync from my phone, the phone still shows more 'unread' than the 2 web clients i use regularly...it's really strange...

otherwise, i love this product, i can't wait for the testing and bugs to settle out, it's much nicer to read and use directly on the phone than to use the mobile web client (which is nice, but not that nice).

only feature i'd REALLY like to see is to be able to add to my clippings, and a couple other minor issues i already sent off to newsgator/kevin.

chris