Do you remember Avantgo? It was an application for Windows Mobile and Palm devices that allowed you to download Web Pages to read on your mobile device offline. How it worked was your desktop would download content and then when you synchronized your device you could open the application and read news and other content at your leisure. Well Avantgo ceased offering mobile content at the end of June of this year. No doubt, while some enjoyed the service I am sure that many had moved on to other ways of keeping up to date with the news that interested them most, like RSS which is convenient and lightweight. Is there something available. Read more after the break.

Well for those who enjoyed that service or would rather look at a web page than just the abbreviated  from an RSS reader HTC has built in to TouchFlo ability to download chosen web content periodically during days and time frames you choose. What this is designed to do is allow you to view the web content you want without the loading times that vary depending on your connection speed and size of the page you are loading.

As far as content is concerned you can pick from a preloaded list that is sorted by category or you can name the site and enter in the web address of the pages you want and how often you want them updated from every hour to every 6 hours, the time frame to upload them for example from 6:00AM to 6:00PM as well as the days you want it to work like only during the week or certain days of the week.

The down side is that it keeps Opera running in the background all the time, even when you exit the program fully. I am told this take about 10mb of ram and can slow down the machine. There is a option to turn of the push under settings but some say this doesn’t really do it either. There is a registry edit that will turn it off completely and it can be found in the at&t forums and probably on XDA. So do you need it, that’s really not for me to say but if your connections are sketchy it might be a way to let you read the content you want when you want it. So what do you think, is this something you would use? Leave a comment below.

(Avantgo screenshot via Softpedia)

Stephen Borders (23 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Stephen is an Veteran Automotive Technician turned Instructor who after getting introduced to computers on Automobiles, became interested in home computers and handheld PDAs. His love for cars and gadgets is second to his love for his wife of 27 years, his kids and grandkids. He resides and works in the Atlanta Georgia area.