AvantGo Adds Support for RSS Feeds

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, October 18, 2005 11:19:59 AM

iAnywhere today announced the beta release of new RSS (Really Simple Syndication) features for its AvantGo mobile Internet service. The new features give users greater ease-of-use for viewing mobile RSS subscriptions online or offline, and expands the content available through AvantGo by including the millions of RSS feeds offered by bloggers and major media. AvantGo users can now add any RSS feed to their account, without installing additional software, and then synchronize using a wireless or desktop Internet connection to receive the feed items in a format optimized for their device.

AvantGo RSS for Palm OS "AvantGo has a trendsetting audience and RSS support has been one of our top user requests," said Jon Asmussen, Product Manager, AvantGo at iAnywhere. "Today we're responding by delivering a simple, free service for reading RSS feeds on a smartphone or PDA."

New features of AvantGo for RSS include the following:

Easily view new RSS items/articles: AvantGo RSS channels include all active items in a feed. Any new items since a user's last synchronization are noted next to the channel name on the AvantGo homepage and appear in bold text within the RSS channel.

Save RSS items: To save an item, the user simply selects the disk icon next to the item title, with the ability to save up to five items per RSS channel.

Easily share photos: If an RSS feed channel includes photos, a "Slideshow" link will appear at the top of the channel homepage. Users can select the Slideshow link to easily flip through the photos in the feed. Since photos are already delivered to the device during AvantGo syncs, users can share pictures from their mobile device without waiting for each image to be retrieved over the wireless network. Users of photo sharing sites that offer photo feeds can make AvantGo their mobile photo album.

Channel personalization: Users can adjust channel settings to optimize feed subscriptions, setting the maximum allowable size for the channel and whether or not to include images. Users can also modify the link depth setting, which tells AvantGo how many page levels it should crawl when synchronizing the channel.
Easily subscribe to RSS channels with AvantGo's AutoChannel for RSS: Users can take advantage of the AvantGo AutoChannel for RSS bookmarklet which enables easy on-the-fly subscriptions to a site's RSS channel. When a users is on a page that includes an RSS feed, a browser bookmark can quickly add that page into AvantGo for RSS.

Publishers can create a button that enables users to quickly add their site to AvantGo: Content publishers such as bloggers, online media and magazines can use an AvantGo button creation tool to generate code for a button to place on their Website, making it easy for readers to take the site's feed mobile.

The beta version of iAnywhere's new AvantGo for RSS service is immediately available for AvantGo 5.7 users. AvantGo for RSS supports RSS versions 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0 and Atom syndication formats. Supported devices include Palm OS 5, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Symbian OS UIQ and Symbian OS v6.1 Series 60.

You can add the PalmInfocenter AvantGo channel here.

Thanks to Albert for the tip.

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QuickNews?

Wolfgard @ 10/18/2005 1:48:10 PM #

Is it as good as Quick News/Hand-RSS? Until I get back home, I can't test this out.

Just When I think I'm Out....

bsquare @ 10/18/2005 1:43:52 PM #

...They pull me back in.

Nice to that Avantgo is still ticking along (somehow) and adding features. There will no doubtedly be the expected "I switched to Plucker/iSilo/Sunrise a long time ago..." post here, but I personally am waiting for another solution that will offer an offline sync without the need for a PC or Conduit like Avangto can do. Yes, there are other RSS readers out there that can pull RSS when connected to a network, but which one will spider those RSS feeds and then download them for you to read when no longer connected to a network (say like when you are on a plane)? I used Avantgo to do this through my PalmV modem dialed up to Earthlink at an Airport payphone 6 years ago. Today with the abundance of WiFi spots there still isn't something that can do just that. Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Seriously, I wan't to know if something else does that, the free 2meg limit on Avango sucks.

RE: Just When I think I'm Out....

4s @ 10/18/2005 2:29:57 PM #

I remember some time ago, AvantGo promising something like 4 additional megs if you completed a survey. I completed the survey and never got the increase.

<><

Avantgo limit

Scud @ 10/18/2005 6:05:24 PM #

Just checked my Avantgo acc: the limit is 3 megs.

RE: Just When I think I'm Out....

palmdoc88 @ 10/18/2005 6:22:39 PM #

Nice!
Currently I am using Sunrise/Plucker for my RSS feeds but the advantage of this on Avantgo is that one can refresh the feeds while online on the go....

T3 & T5 user

RE: Just When I think I'm Out....

drw @ 10/18/2005 11:52:04 PM #

I'll never forget my start with Avantgo. Would take the dog for a walk and read the news via Avantgo on my Palm IIIe. One day a homeowner down the street said they didn't want my dog pooping on their yard. I said my dog doesn't poop on your yard. The homeowner pointed at my dog who at that moment was pooping. I didn't notice because I was so intent on reading Avantgo news.

---
David

RE: Just When I think I'm Out....

ozz @ 10/19/2005 11:33:47 AM #

Somebody needs to invent virtual poop! :-D

vs. Quick News

joad @ 10/20/2005 12:27:44 AM #

I like the price, but after looking at the Beta I may end up buying QuickNews anyway. Avantgo downloads take quite a bit of time, and QuickNews seems to be much more suited to quick RSS updates (individual pages and updating all).

Nice that Avantgo is scrappily hanging on, I've been with them from the beginning. Innovating things like this may keep them around for a while longer...