Resco Neeews! released as a freeware

[janos]

Hello,

allow me to present our new product. I am using this way because it is a freeware and we are interested in user reactions to build the commercial version as good as possible.

Resco Neeews! is an rss reader. Here are the features that distinguish current release from other rss readers:


It's free with no limitations.
It's nice (certainly nicer than other Resco apps or rss readers I know)
It's less technical than the other rss readers. In fact I would say that it can be used without any technical know-how at all.
It's fast. Rendering is fast. But most importantly the download is faster than the other rss readers we tested. (It is not only the question of speed - it means first of all savings on the download data.)
Testing and getting the basic impression is a matter of seconds. Everything is prepared, you need just a few clicks.
You can create your favorite newspaper (in technical terms: select the feeds and setup a few options) and make it accessible directly from the Palm Launcher. There can't be easier access.
Over 500 high quality feeds that are so diverse that everybody will find something.


The product is available at the Resco web site (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/default.asp)

We shall be happy to receive any comments or suggestions.

Mery Christmas
Jan Slodicka
Resco

[wellsjs]

Merry Christmas to you too Jan!! I will definately check this out as being a customer using Resco Explorer, Backup, and Photo Viewer, I have become accustomed to outstanding top quality products and great support! ;)

[pokeypda]

320x480 would have been nice, but this is a welcome addition to my TX. Thanks.

[Clie Patra]

Works well, thanks! Only remarks so far: scrolling pages with the TH55 jog dial is slow, and there should be an option to disconnect when data is retrieved and the wifi link is not used by another program (like HiRes 4cast does). And support for Netfront would be nice too ;-)

[PinCushionQueen]

Very Nice!! I would second the request for 320x480. And would like to make a request to add the ability to select particular feeds that will download full articles. I would like this on a per feed basis - most of the feeds are fine just reading the headline and the blurb but I have a couple of feeds that I consistantly want to read the full articles. It would be nice if those articles were automatically downloaded when the feeds were in the early morning so that I can read them on the bus. I suppose this request is more for non-Treo users since they can get the full article anytime. I use a TX.

[Wytnucls]

Works well, thanks! Only remarks so far: scrolling pages with the TH55 jog dial is slow, and there should be an option to disconnect when data is retrieved and the wifi link is not used by another program (like HiRes 4cast does). And support for Netfront would be nice too ;-)
Would second that request
Works full screen (480x320) on Sony NX80 with CodeDiver. :)

[tckober73]

works great!
is there an option to update all feeds at once?

[tckober73]

oh and of course, I would also love 320x480..

[Modnar]

Thanks i'll check it soon as possible!

[KenSong]

Very nice. I am currently using QuickNews but this reader gives me a different user interface which has its pros. I definitely agree with the other request for 320x480 support. Here are the other request I feel can enhance this reader.
1. Support for Small Fonts (though I now use FontSmoother)
2. Flag Articles and a toggle to only see Flagged articles from all channels.
3. Ability to toggle image view on and off on the fly
4. Preference for DIA status and orientation at startup eg Landscape + fullscreen
5. Ability to export article to Memos
6. Select which external store eg LD's SD or MD
7. Option to choose browser of choice (I use Xiino)

These are just some features that come to mind.
It would be great if this app also support Icon Packs eg those of ZLauncher etc, though not high on the priority list I suppose.

Thanks for making this beta available to all.

[jacktalking]

Jestli to zustane jako freeware i v plne verzi, pak to bude super. Podporuje to Unicode, respektive diakritiku (hacky a carky?). Doufam ze to umi i japonstinu a korejstinu. Pak by to byl ten nej prohlizec pro PALM
If it remains freeware even in full version (no beta), then it will be great. But, does it support Unicode, especialy diacritical marks?Also I hope it supports Korean and Japanese as well. Then it would be the best RSS reader for PALM OS

[KenSong]

One thing nice I found about this app is that you can view your news while it is actually still downloading feeds. And Janos is right, this is faster than QuickNews when it comes to downloading articles, though QN has an advantage in it's ability to hotsync news over which is always faster than wireless on the handheld. Ability to sync news on a Mac or PC would be a great addition.

[KenSong]

Okay, gave it a thorough run and noticed it has problems redrawing image heavy feeds like Engadget. I get a NoFreeRsrc error. Quicknews had no issues with this feed so I presume RN may be downloading the Image cache to RAM to redraw?

[alegra]

It's a public beta, no freeware (I think it will become a commercial product). And I'm sure they will add 320x480 support and much more. I downloaded it yesterday and I like it. There are features of an RSS reader I see the first time.

[Arc Light]

Hello all, Is this meant to run on a T3 over wifi. I can't seem to update the default feeds. If I attempt to connect to the net with my wifi card, then the program will not open because it can't find my sd card (wifi card is currently in the sd slot). If I try to first open the program, then swap my sd card for my wifi card, as soon as i attempt to update the feeds it leaves the program and goes to my wifi prefs to connect, Once connected the program will not open because it can't find my sd card. Endless cycle? I think this program will be great, but technically I need some help from other 1Src's. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance!!!

[KenSong]

I think it's because the cache is located in your SD. Mine was automatically created by the program. Did you try bluetooth with a mobile phone connection to see if that works? BTW, I found out that it does flag articles and you can view only the flagged articles in one view. It is called favourites. My mistake.

[KenSong]

Just a question, what is actually in RNewsHead? Mine got bloated to about 1600K so I deleted it to see what I'll miss and it seems to hold nothing important because all my feeds and articles were still intact. Can you please shed some light?

[fanatik]

Very nice! Personally, I like it better than Quick News.

The only crash I have experienced on Treo 700p is when I go to add my own feed and press the menu button I get a reset.

[Church Punk]

guys, do you know if there is a way to make the gmail feed (https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom) to work with this? it would be great...
i would like to have it free :o with a 320x480 ver

[blues]

This app looks really nice! I can't wait to play with it some more.

[SoS]

is there a mac conduit for feed updates thru desktop??

[Jenny]

This is very cool! I've only had one problem so far: I selected Manage Feeds, then selected a feed and tapped Edit. If I drag the stylus to select the URL and then open the command bar to copy the text, I get a soft reset with the following error:

UIResource.c, Line:235, Menu rsrc not found.

I also have a question. If you update a newspaper and there is an error, it seems to stop for the whole newspaper, rather than going to the next feed. Is this the way itis supposed to work? If so, it would be good to have it just continue to the next feed rather than stop altogether.

I found that selected newspapers weren't always recognised as being selected. There were times I tried to edit or delete a newspaper but a dialog came up saying that nothing was selected and there was nothing to do, even though there was a newspaper selected.

It will be good when the font selection is implemented because at the moment there is quite a lot of text truncation, and not at consistent points - some lines are truncated after only a few characters, whereas others allow more characters.

And yes - 320x480 please!

A few other things I think would be nice:
- being able to change the display setup of the newspapers, eg to have small icons and text, or icons only, or a list format etc
- customisable display of articles. I set up a newspaper with some blogs that I read, and the articles for different blogs were separated with a horizontal line, which was good, but it would be good to have the title of the feed at the top of the article list, or in the heading of each article.
- tap to select a newspaper rather than have it automatically open (maybe make this an option). This would be handy when I want to edit a newspaper - I'd like to be able to tap and then edit rather than have it open every time.

But this looks like a great app - importing my Bloglines subscriptions was a breeze! :)

[cyberdude]

Jan,

I agree that this is a really nice app. I own both Resco Explorer and Resco Backup, and this is the same kind of quality programming I see in the other two. I would have to agree with others that have suggested support for 320x480. I also would like to be able to include the newsfeed updates in the nightly schedule of tasks I already have. I poked around the app and didn't see a way to do this. And as PCQ said I would like to be able to desigante certain feeds to download the full text. (On my TX I have wifi and am not always near a wifi network - especially while I read the feeds on the bus on my way to work)

[LanMan]

YES, 320x480! There are still some of us full-screen-types out here. Also, don't forget TH55 jog/arrow support.

[KenSong]

is there a mac conduit for feed updates thru desktop??

Not at the moment SoS. Only QuickNews do that currently.

[SoS]

Not at the moment SoS. Only QuickNews do that currently.


Thanx Kenny...happy new year mate!!

[KenSong]

Happy New Year to you too SoS and have a great two double zero seven year ahead! Cheers!

[janos]

Thank you to all who answered. I was not able to respond in real time, hence I'll try to comment all posts at once.

First of all, these are the points that got to the ToDo queue:

HiRes support, incl. preference for DIA status and orientation at startup eg Landscape + fullscreen
TH55 jog/arrow
faster jog dial scrolling
update all feeds at once
Support for Small Fonts
Ability to toggle image view on and off on the fly
Ability to export article to Memos
Select which external store eg LD's SD or MD
Option to choose browser of choice (NetFront, Xino)
Support Icon Packs eg those of ZLauncher etc
Customization of the main screen (small/large icons, with/without text etc.)

I am not able to say, when they will be implemented, but sooner or later yes.

Now comments to particular requests:

PinCushionQueen: Optional reading of full articles
Technically very difficult. Full articles are standalone web pages and as such are hard to render and the result would be huge. Any kind of filtering (to decrease the page size) would be illegal because many rss providers require unchanged display of the offered material.

jacktalking: Unicode support
Neeews! supports only those conversions that are supported by the PDA - mostly Unicode encodings UTF8 and UTF16.

KenSong: Syncing the news
While it could be done, I consider this as a controversial request.
We are generally trying to go away from the PC dependence as this seems to be a general trend.
Moreover, we would be able to support only the Windows side.

KenSong: problems redrawing image heavy feeds like Engadget. I get a NoFreeRsrc error.
Should be handled by v1.03. The problem seems to be a low memory reserve left for GUI operations.
Anyway, we shall work on the improved memory strategy further.

Arc Light: Troubles with T3 + WiFi card
Neeews! uses first card encountered and swapping the cards while Neeews! is running is not supported.
I can't test anything, because my WiFi card got somehow lost.

KenSong: what is actually in RNewsHead?
Headline database. Stores downloaded headlines. They are used during the newspaper generation and also when flagging the articles.
Generated newspaper issues do not depend on this DB.
The DB is periodically cleaned, but this needs to be optimized.
We probably switch to zipping the headline contents, which might bring 3x smaller size of this DB.

fanatik: Crash when pressing menu when adding a feed
Solved in the current release

Church Punk: Support for gmail feed.
We have https test version. In case you would like to test it, contact please palm@resco-net.com. However, https support will be a part of commercial release only.

SoS: Mac conduit
Sorry, we do not have Mac conduit and in fact are not able to develop it.
In the best case we would do Windows conduit, but are hesitating here as well.


Jenny
Crash when pasting a text:
Should be solved by the current release.

Feed error stops following feeds:
Might be solved, too. At least feed syntax error is not treated as fatal anymore.

Feed title in case of multiple feeds in a newspaper:
Done in the current issue.

Tap to select a newspaper:
What you want, can be done in 2 ways:
- Using the 5way keys
- With the pen: Tap a newspaper icon and drag the the pen (pressed all the time) away from the icon


cyberdude: Nightly update
If I understood correctly, then this feature is accessible in the newspaper options under
'Enable Background Update'. It uses scheduler similar to that employed in Resco Backup.

Best regards and Happy new year to all of you

[janos]

I forgot to announce to last free update v1.03 and the new PDF manual. The version is available at
here (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/downloads.asp)

Best regards

[cyberdude]

Jan,

Thanks for responding. Only when I tried building my first newspaper did I discover the scheduler. I went into all the other newspapers and set a schedule for them as well. They are all supposed to update nightly at aaround 2:00am (I get the previous day's feeds that way). I have yet to get this to work. I end up updating the feeds manually every morning. Am I the only one this isn't working for? I notice that there is no ! on the feeds indicating an error and no number on them indicating new articles. I like both these indicators BTW. A toggle to update all newspapers/feeds would be great.

Maybe someone can help me out here - I must be a little thick! So far I've been unable to figure out how toget the rest of an article. In the evening when I'm sitting at home, getting great signal from my wifi AP, I tap on one of the newspapers doubl tap an article and get anywhere from a few lines to a couple of paragraphs of text (usually the former). How do I get the rest of the article?

[legio]

When i try to run the app (1.03) on my T5, i only receive the error message "Install failed - dmErrCantFind", and then back to the launcher.

[janos]

I went into all the other newspapers and set a schedule for them as well. They are all supposed to update nightly at aaround 2:00am. I have yet to get this to work. I end up updating the feeds manually every morning. Am I the only one this isn't working for?
The scheduler engine is taken from RscBackup, hence it should be basically working. AFAIK, it really works for some users. But it is also true that this feature wasn't tested too much. I can't tell you more at this moment, we'll be testing it.

How do I get the rest of the article?
1. Select the article
2. Main menu > Article > Open it in Browser

Best regards

[cyberdude]

Jan,

Thanks for you informative reply. I have Resco Backup and that scheduler runs beautifully. I'll fool around some more with the scheduling. Would it give me an error if it couldn't get a wifi connection?

[janos]

When i try to run the app (1.03) on my T5, i only receive the error message "Install failed - dmErrCantFind", and then back to the launcher.
I apologize - stupid bug in the optimization. I just posted an update - v1.04 (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/downloads.asp).

Best regards

[janos]

Would it give me an error if it couldn't get a wifi connection?
I am studying the code and it looks like I cannot give 100% warranty that every error will be logged into the newspaper log. (Accessible from the Newspaper menu.) This will need some time.

I think, we shall make a special log release similar to RscBackup. It should clearly pinpoint to the problems in the scheduled update.

It might be ready tomorrow.

Best regards

[KenSong]

Janos,

Thanks for the updated ToDO list for Neeews. I am excited. There is one other feature I am hoping for. An indicator to see what are unread/read articles. As I have so many feeds, I lose track of what I have read and depend on memory to recall them. This is one feature I find really useful in QuickNews. In fact, the feeds show how many new/total articles are in a feed eg (45/160). I think this is common feature of many desktop Newsreader too.

Thanks.

[janos]

I have Resco Backup and that scheduler runs beautifully. I'll fool around some more with the scheduling. Would it give me an error if it couldn't get a wifi connection?
Sorry, apparently the scheduler has some problems. (The situation is not identical to tbe backup case.)

I did some corrections and published a log release. Please download it here (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/downloads.asp)

It might work now, but it requires more testing. We'll continue on Monday.

If something is going wrong, the log should give some clue.

Best regards

[pokeypda]

Just wanted to say that scheduling appears to be working for me. I've only tested it on one feed so far, but my TX woke up, dl'ed the articles and shut off. When I turned back on a triangle was flashing around the alert icon. Tapping the icon brought up a dialog notifying me of new articles. Tapping that notice launched the neews. Very cool.

[pokeypda]

I just tried scheduling again, this time with three feeds scheduled. Went without a hitch. This time I notice a number to the upper left of the scheduled icons, number of new articles??

[legio]

I apologize - stupid bug in the optimization. I just posted an update - v1.04 (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/downloads.asp).

Best regards

Now it's ok, thanks :)

A little feedback after testing:

1) feeds reside on RAM, and i find no way to have them on card (i see you're working on WHICH card have them, but i cannot even find the "card" orption: it's still unimplemented?)

2) Would be great the ability to use my own icons to identify newspapers (importing a jpg of the newspaper: eg this one (http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo379x64.gif) for NyTimes)

[cyberdude]

Found out the most probable reason that my scheduled updating wasn't working. I forgot to put Neeews! in my UnCache list. Since it is doing scheduling it needs to be there. You might want to alert users about this - I don't know if it is already in the PDF manual - since I didn't read the whole thing. :rolleyes:

[SoS]

Found out the most probable reason that my scheduled updating wasn't working. I forgot to put Neeews! in my UnCache list. Since it is doing scheduling it needs to be there. You might want to alert users about this - I don't know if it is already in the PDF manual - since I didn't read the whole thing. :rolleyes:


oops!!!!! ;)

[cyberdude]

After putting Neeews! in the UC list the scheduling works fine except it ran into another problem due to the fact that my wifi network was down over night. Check out the screenshots (maybe Jan can disable the interactive dialogs during scheduled updates?):
manual update screen captures in order:
http://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0000.jpghttp://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0001.jpg
http://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0002.jpg

scheduled updates screens:
http://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0003.jpghttp://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0004.jpg
http://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0005.jpghttp://slug.ca.aecom.yu.edu/screenshots/other apps/neeeews0006.jpg

The only way to recover from the last screen is to do a pin reset.

[janos]

Found out the most probable reason that my scheduled updating wasn't working. I forgot to put Neeews! in my UnCache list.
From the retrospective it looks clear: Uncache decides which apps receive reset notifications, i.e. which apps will be given a chance to initialize themselves, setup the alarms etc.
But you are right, this fact is not obvious. We'll add it to the next update of the user manual. Thank's for an advice.

Best regards

[janos]

After putting Neeews! in the UC list the scheduling works fine except it ran into another problem due to the fact that my wifi network was down over night.
Well, that's a real problem. If something goes wrong during the connection setup, Palm displays an error dialog. If this happens during an automatic update, the dialog will there for the whole night.
We are aware of the problem and looking for a solution, but do not know any at present.

Best regards

[janos]

Whoever wants to try, can go here (http://www.resco.net/palm/neeews/history.asp).

News

Because some launchers had problems when deleting Neeews!, we changed the uninstall procedure:
There is no automated removal of the card files and exported newspapers anymore. Instead, use the menu option Uninstall, that performs above cleanup.

Neeews! can now be installed on the card, too. The tradeoffs of the card installation:
- Background update will not work. (Card apps do not receive system messages.)
- If you move also the related data databases to the card (f.e. ZLauncher can do that), then
the exported newspapers won't work.

Also, the improved scheduler from the log release v1.05 is incorporated.

Best regards

[cyberdude]

Well, that's a real problem. If something goes wrong during the connection setup, Palm displays an error dialog. If this happens during an automatic update, the dialog will there for the whole night.
We are aware of the problem and looking for a solution, but do not know any at present.

Best regards
Alex Pruss's NVBackup does a time sync after a scheduled backup over wifi. The reason I never run run into problems with NVB staying on is that it also does a reset after the time sync. I don't know if Alex does anything else to prevent interactive dialogs. When you release the Neeeews! app you might wish to include this as a choice, it doesn't really solve the problem, but it does get your device back into the correct state.

[janos]

I don't know if Alex does anything else to prevent interactive dialogs.
Thank's for the tip. I'll contact Alex.

[pokeypda]

A menu item to toggle all scheduled events off/on would be nice.

[cyberdude]

Had the problem again last night. But this time there was an interactive screen up. Was there a change in the scheduler?

[janos]

Had the problem again last night. But this time there was an interactive screen up. Was there a change in the scheduler?
It was simplified because the protection was eliminated. If the interactive screen concerned the connection setup, then that's what we are trying to solve now. (Alex could not help, BTW.)

Best regards

[cyberdude]

A menu item to toggle all scheduled events off/on would be nice.
I'd second this. :)

[pokeypda]

It's been a while since anything has been posted. Anybody know what's up? Speculation?

[cyberdude]

It's been a while since anything has been posted. Anybody know what's up? Speculation?
Speculation - Jan is working on the suggestions we've made so far.

[pokeypda]

Guess I should have seen that coming. Anyway, I'm anxious to see a commercial release all polished and everything.