NewsGator Mobile Beta

Scylla · 06-11-06, 02:18 AM

NewsGator, the popular Web-based RSS aggregator, is offering a beta version of their newsreader for the Pocket PC and Smartphone, appropriately named NewsGator Mobile. While there is no hint as to what the price of NewsGator may eventually be, the beta is free.

In its present, raw form, NewsGator Mobile is fairly plain looking; it shows only text - no photos, for now anyway. (UPDATE: Please note - I saw no images at first either because those feeds I read happened to have none, or because the sync was still in progress. But NewsGator Mobile certainly DOES have full image support! - Jim) But they do have a forum set up at the NewsGator main website and appear to be taking suggestions seriously. The format has been designed for optimum performance on PPC Phone devices and is partial to one-handed operation. This is especially evidenced by the fact that there are no context menus available with a stylus tap and hold.

The "killer" feature in the mobile version of NewsGator, in my opinion, is full synchronization with NewsGator Online. If you use NewsGator Online, you are already familiar with the fact that you can go to your NewsGator Online site and see all of your subscribed feeds and folders from any computer. They also sell subscriptions to FeedDemon, a PC-based reader that also synchronizes completely with NewsGator Online. I love the fact that I can always see my familiar folder/feed setup whether I am using my PC online, any other PC online, or even my PC offline with FeedDemon. Now I can also see all of my feeds on NewsGator Mobile. With my previous PPC RSS aggregator I had to set up all feeds separately on my device. Since I have over 25 folders and hundreds of feeds within them on NewsGator Online, recreating that on my Pocket PC was simply not a task I was willing to attempt manually. Now, with NewsGator Mobile, I don't have to set anything up at all. I just downloaded and installed the software, inout my username and password, and...

Voila! All of my folders and feeds were immediately replicated in their entirety on my Pocket PC! Well, at least the structure was replicated immediately. Actually synchronizing all of those feeds did take some time. Well over an hour. Of course I have approximately 12,000 separate articles in my subscribed feeds! And with GPRS, I just set my device down and left it alone for a little while. Subsequent feeds are much quicker, as it is just a purge of old feeds and only the new ones are then downloaded.

The beta can be downloaded here at the NewsGator site:

http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLMobileBeta.aspx

**Rishad** · 06-12-06, 01:57 AM

Looks great! Thanks for posting. :)

06-12-06, 04:05 AM

How is this different from just going onto the website and looking. (What I do).

rta53 · 06-12-06, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by arshield

How is this different from just going onto the website and looking. (What I do).

Well if you were like Jim and had 12,000 articles to deal with you would definitely need the web and the PPC versions and learn how to read them both at the same time. :rolling:

Oh and Jim, thanks for the info. I had not heard of NewsGator. Just signed up for an account. I have been using NewsBreak on my Axim but I may give the beta a try.

06-12-06, 08:36 AM

What I meant was that you can use the Newsgator website on you Axim and keep you folders synced. Not sure why you need another program unless you are trying to read off line, which I never really liked doing with RSS feeds because half the point is going through the links.

06-12-06, 09:31 AM

Thanks for the heads up. :approve:

06-12-06, 11:52 AM

Awesome...I have used NewsGator Online for quite some time now. I was never keen on using an RSS Reader on my Axim since I would have to deal with syncing issues with NewsGator. This is what I have been waiting for! :approve:

kcbigring · 06-12-06, 12:35 PM

Thanks for taking a look Jim and thanks for all the awesome feedback you have already provided to me (Jim has gone over the top w/ providing feedback btw!).

You are spot on w/ the secret sauce to NewsGator Mobile being the synchronization piece. I do the about 70 percent of my RSS consumption on my PC (either using NG Online or FeedDemon). The other 30% is on my Window Mobile device and having all the feeds and feeds states synchronized across all instances is crucial.

As far as the advantage of using an application versus a browser goes there are many. Mainly, in addition to offline viewing, you get more functionality and a better user experience with an application vs. browser.

My goal is to really listen to what the users want in NewsGator Mobile, so if you have a few minutes take a look and please report any comments, suggestions, or defects that you may find.

-kevin cawley
NewsGator Technologies, Inc.

Scylla · 06-12-06, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by arshield

What I meant was that you can use the Newsgator website on you Axim and keep you folders synced. Not sure why you need another program unless you are trying to read off line, which I never really liked doing with RSS feeds because half the point is going through the links.

Yes, the ability to read the feeds offline is the key - especially if you have folders full of feeds that you regularly monitor. Synchronization with my subscriptions online is great also.

I use this with a Cingular 8125, so I can connect more easily with that than I can with any of my Axims. Folks using an Axim to read RSS feeds usually won't have connectivity in many places, so having the feeds available offline allows them to read what is in the feeds, and mark the ones of special interest for reading the full articles later, when they can go online.

Of course that still might not quite do it for you, but you'd be surprised how many PPC users do use RSS feed aggregators!

06-15-06, 11:51 PM

Hello,
i've downloaded the mobile newsGator mobile beta, then i realized that i needed a account with newsGator So i signed up.

I was able to sync the channels that were optioned to me via the web. But i wasn't really understanding how the web site that i recommended and added, downloaded stuff...

in particular, the podcast? every time i clicked on the link on my pda, it wanted to connect to the internet....

so how do i do this?

is there a step by step guide for this?

any help...

thanks in advace...