Thanks for the info. ( in a sidenote, I LOVE when devs like Ilium, SBSH, SPB, etc come to boards like this and actually interact with their client base. It speaks very highly of you, IMHO).
Is there any chance that NewsBreak will ever offer the option of automatically caching links to a certain depth? I love the NewsBreak interface, but I am currently looking for alternatives because it seems many of the feeds that I subscribe to are only snippets.
Thanks for the info. ( in a sidenote, I LOVE when devs like Ilium, SBSH, SPB, etc come to boards like this and actually interact with their client base. It speaks very highly of you, IMHO).
Well said :approve: :approve: :approve:
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Thanks for the info. ( in a sidenote, I LOVE when devs like Ilium, SBSH, SPB, etc come to boards like this and actually interact with their client base. It speaks very highly of you, IMHO).
Is there any chance that NewsBreak will ever offer the option of automatically caching links to a certain depth? I love the NewsBreak interface, but I am currently looking for alternatives because it seems many of the feeds that I subscribe to are only snippets.
Cool; I can live w/ the explanation of RSS feeds, but it would be nice if Newsbreak could pull the whole article down instead of a link to, click here to read the rest of the document. That does me no good on a train, or in a car. I second the option of caching the entire document so you DON'T have to connect to the net to get the rest of the article. Unfortunately, I'm stuck w/ Mobipocket to do that since I want it all for offline reading purposes. If I want to read it online, I'll just go to the website. Snippets are worthless.
with journal bar i get whole articles from like seattle times where as with other rss readers i only get snippets. also i've noticed that the snippets can vary in length for the same article from say newsbreak on here and netvibes on my puter
thats one of the reasons i've kept journal bar around... it still angers me sometimes so i was looking at rss readers the other day
Thanks for the info. ( in a sidenote, I LOVE when devs like Ilium, SBSH, SPB, etc come to boards like this and actually interact with their client base. It speaks very highly of you, IMHO).
Thanks!
Quote:
Is there any chance that NewsBreak will ever offer the option of automatically caching links to a certain depth? I love the NewsBreak interface, but I am currently looking for alternatives because it seems many of the feeds that I subscribe to are only snippets.
Unfortunately most feeds are snippets since the sites that are providing them live off of their ad content. If you don't visit the site they don't get their income.
As for adding caching to NewsBreak, we are considering it. The thing we are dealing with though is that while we don't live in a truly wireless world yet, we're just about there. To that end it's a tough call for Ilium Software to spend the development time/resources/etc. on a feature that is quickly becoming obsolete (although again...I absolutely appreciate the desire to read the stuff offline!!)
But already, most users have some sort of data plan in place that allows them to access the pages they want and skip the ones they don't care about (a more efficient method than grabbing it all and saving it on the device.) What is more, with the advent of free wireless popping up across the country (from the now expected Free Wi-Fi of coffee shops to whole cities like Phoenix getting free wi-fi or the New York wi-fi in the parks plan) it makes it more and more likely that users can get access to this content as they need it.
So yes, we are certainly considering it but as "always connected access" becomes more and more of a reality we are struggling with the level of value such a feature adds.
Unfortunately most feeds are snippets since the sites that are providing them live off of their ad content. If you don't visit the site they don't get their income.
As for adding caching to NewsBreak, we are considering it. The thing we are dealing with though is that while we don't live in a truly wireless world yet, we're just about there. To that end it's a tough call for Ilium Software to spend the development time/resources/etc. on a feature that is quickly becoming obsolete (although again...I absolutely appreciate the desire to read the stuff offline!!)
But already, most users have some sort of data plan in place that allows them to access the pages they want and skip the ones they don't care about (a more efficient method than grabbing it all and saving it on the device.) What is more, with the advent of free wireless popping up across the country (from the now expected Free Wi-Fi of coffee shops to whole cities like Phoenix getting free wi-fi or the New York wi-fi in the parks plan) it makes it more and more likely that users can get access to this content as they need it.
So yes, we are certainly considering it but as "always connected access" becomes more and more of a reality we are struggling with the level of value such a feature adds.
I understand your concern completely. However, I'm still just not on the converged device bandwagon, nor do I think that we will have all mobile users connected at all times any time soon.
Of course, I have absolutely no factual data to back this up and this is all 100% opinion!! :)
However, lets just assume that everyone in the world does start using a converged device with a data plan and/or free wifi becomes available everywhere. I still think there would be a need (although admittedly smaller) for offline caching of RSS. Using it "online" requires me to click a link.. which then asks my PPC to launch a browser.. which then gets pointed to a link.. and I then have to initialize a connection (if I haven't already).. and then I have to wait for the page to load, at the mercy of whatever connection I happen to be on at the time. The whole process could easily take 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on a number of factors. That is a significant chunk of time if all I have is a few moments in a train/cab/dr office/etc.
Compare that to a program that caches the content. Given how cheap storage media is, it is no problem for me to cache content to a storage card. This allows that download time that used to take place during my user experience to be relocated to a time when I'm not even actively using my PDA. It is just sitting in it's cradle, caching away. Then, when I'm away from my desk and want to view some of my content, all I have to do is launch the RSS program (and maybe a browser) and load the content from storage. There is no connection to negotiate and there is no download time to wait through.
To me, the caching solution seems much more efficient. Efficiency, in the users eyes, isn't about file size or the cost of storage media.. it is about time. That is why we bought PDAs to begin with.. to allow us to manage our time better. Downloading while in the cradle for use later is a more efficient use of my time that allows me to access my content faster while on the move rather than having to wait for a mobile connection to provide it to me on an as-needed basis. Besides, isn't that the point of RSS? It is content you know you want to see and that you plan on looking at... why not invest the resources to go ahead and download it?
Again.. this is all just my opinion and maybe I'm in the minority here. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. However, I can't help but think that there will always be a market for a program that does a good job of caching content for reading w/o an active connection. For proof of this, just scan through the various threads on this board that deal with RSS software. Many posters seem to be looking for a way to easily get their content offline. I myself am still looking for a good solution to this problem. I think that the company that provides one will find a thankful user base.
Cool; I can live w/ the explanation of RSS feeds, but it would be nice if Newsbreak could pull the whole article down instead of a link to, click here to read the rest of the document. That does me no good on a train, or in a car. I second the option of caching the entire document so you DON'T have to connect to the net to get the rest of the article. Unfortunately, I'm stuck w/ Mobipocket to do that since I want it all for offline reading purposes. If I want to read it online, I'll just go to the website. Snippets are worthless.
Speaking as a webmaster, I'd say that any software that did you what you suggest would be violating that site's terms-of-use, and they'd probably dispatch a cease-and-desist right quick. I know we probably would.
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Speaking as a webmaster, I'd say that any software that did you what you suggest would be violating that site's terms-of-use, and they'd probably dispatch a cease-and-desist right quick. I know we probably would.
on a side note... i don't recall ever agreeing to a license agreement to view a website.
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Msnbc's would allow the service as outlined above... and CNN's doesn't prohibit it.
What they are doing is primarily restating copyright law. And if they try an put anything more than that then they (or you) would get laughed out of court if you tried to enforce it.
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Msnbc's would allow the service as outlined above... and CNN's doesn't prohibit it.
What they are doing is primarily restating copyright law. And if they try an put anything more than that then they (or you) would get laughed out of court if you tried to enforce it.
Perhaps. The point I was making was that every site governs how their content can and can't be used. They may not enforce it regularly, and folks who just upload it to their devices themselves aren't the problem. However, if a software company were charging $x.xx for their software, and it came ready to pull a site's content down completely, one could argue that the company is making money off the site's content.
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That's an excellent point and exactly the type of things we need to think about at Ilium Software (and will think about now as we consider caching!)
Often it doesn't come down to whether or not we CAN do something, but whether or not we could survive a lawsuit (even one we win!) It's an ugly reality of today's world but one we certainly need to consider.
I would guess that a site's willingness to sue over this issue would be directly related to whether they felt they were losing ad revenue from a reader caching their information.
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