Do you use RSS feeds on your PC?

[Ed Hansberry]

Earlier today, I asked if <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=384888#384888target=">you used RSS feeds</a> on your mobile device. Now I am interested in whether or not you subscribe to them on your desktop and how that might be different than how you use, or don't use, them on your mobile device.

[SteveHoward999]

I tried for a while. I quickly bored of them. My interests change on a daily or weekly basis.

I actually prefer going out and getting the information, instead of having what I want to know and a ton of what doesn't interest me waved in my face.

[paschott]

Well, I still have an iPaq 2200 with no wireless, so RSS doesn't make sense for me on my PPC. While it may be interesting, I'm still somewhat of a cheapskate when it comes to mobile data plans. I doubt I'd really use a lot of RSS outside of the house and really only check items of interest when I'm at a full browser. Even then, I use Sage within Firefox so I don't have constant popups for new items to my feeds - have to check manually.

I like the RSS concept - especially items with full/partial text and datetime stamps. Works really well as long as people format their XML appropriately. I just don't think it's going to be for me until mobile plans get cheaper (and I get something like an HTC Universal :D ).

[caubeck]

Well, I still have an iPaq 2200 with no wireless, so RSS doesn't make sense for me on my PPC.

I know this answer should be in the other topic (on PPC rather than PC) but I just wanted to say that my lack of wireless is the very reason I use RSS. I get up, load the RSS and maybe my mail and head off to work, reading it on the way.

[IanT]

I would never dream of using my PPC for this. I use My Yahoo and RSS on my PC (and Mac) to get the news that interests me (including PPC Thoughts). I also use Sage in Firefox to get a wider selection (Mac as well)

It makes it easier to get what I know interest me, leaving me more time to explore other areas............

Ian T

[dma1965]

I really like RSS on the Pocket PC, but one thing I miss is newsgroups. Since swithching to Windows Mobile 5, I cannot find a decent newsreader.

[Swordsman74]

As I mentioned in the other thread, I use www.rssfwd.com to send my feeds to Gmail. Now, I "preview" the usefulness of the threads by making them LiveBookmarks in Firefox for a bit before I subscribe to them at RSSFwd. That way I can see if they intersperse ads, or if the content is too similar to a feed I already get.

I won't use a stand-alone reader, because if my computer is off for a few days, I am not getting those feeds. Not to mention that a stand-alone reader would only be useful on my USB drive, since having the feeds only at home and not at work is not useful to me. So that would limit me to online aggregators like MyYahoo or Google Reader. MyYahoo will only show me X number of feed results, so if I go away, I still miss some updates. Google Reader is a better concept but poor execution. I can't mass delete messages - even if I have unsubscribed to the feed. I've tried other online aggregators but the RSSFwd-to-Gmail solution is by far the most natural and effective that I've tried.

[mcsouth]

I'm not sure that I answered this poll quite right - I used to use an RSS reader for a while on my PC. It was a great way to catch up on what was going on at all of my favorite sites. However, since the advent of Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox, I've pretty much stopped using a dedicated RSS reader. Now, I have all of my favorite websites set as homepages, so they all load in their own tabs when I fire up Firefox. I have picked up some RSS feeds using Firefox's built-in service, but find that with tabbed browsing, I rarely ever refer to those feeds, preferring instead to just pull up the site.

When I stop and think about it, Firefox and its earlier versions have completely changed how I surf the web.

[rickmahn]

I use Pluck for my RSS reader. I had tried many readers over many months and finally ran across Pluck about a year ago and have never turned back. Its a plug-in for IE and allows me to sync my RSS feeds between the web, work and home. Currently I've got around 120 feeds in Pluck that I'm able to read through in a few minutes.

Unfortunatly, I've never found RSS on the PPC to be as useful. My iPaq 4155 has WiFi, but my company does not have wireless in the office. I have a mobile data plan, but GPRS is not fast enough for RSS readers to snyc with the servers - and I've cut my 100+ feeds from my PC to about 18 on the PPC to be consice and save time. Also the format on the PPC for RSS readers does not seem to work well for me, and I've tried the top 3 RSS Readers (Newsbreak, PocketRSS, Egress).

Maybe on a PPC phone like the Sprint PPC 6700 or iMate KJAM where a decent wireless connection in combination with an always on device would work better than my current setup, but I'll have to wait to find out.

RSS has saved me dozens of hours a week, not needing to surf sites just to get some news updates!

[Darius Wey]

I use my PC for RSS because I've simply got more screen space to play with. When you have 100+ feeds, that almost becomes a necessity. After Thunderbird decided it didn't like me anymore, I spent close to a week searching for a decent RSS reader. I settled on FeedDemon. Full-text feed or not, it handles it nicely. :)

[dschargel]

Two Words: NewsGator Mobile.

[AKAJohnDoe]

I have RSS readers (both NewsBreak and PocketRSS) on my PPC and had QuickNews on my Palm PDA; I use NewsBreak on the PPC for a PDA-based reader.

I have Firefox live bookmarks and Sage on my PC; I usually use the live bookmarks.

I keep the feeds in sync via OMPL export/imports and therefore can get the same ones on either platform.

[pocketpcadmirer]

I have RSS readers (both NewsBreak and PocketRSS) on my PPC and had QuickNews on my Palm PDA; I use NewsBreak on the PPC for a PDA-based reader.
I have Firefox live bookmarks and Sage on my PC; I usually use the live bookmarks.

I too use them on my PPC. But I dont have any RSS reader installed on my PC. On PC, I've got the priveledge to browse the whole web,but its not the case on my PPC. This is because of huge tariff charges and slow speed(magician doesnt support edge) :(

Sunny

[Rod3]

Don't use them on either. I like to go get my own stuff on my own. When I feel like it. :wink: