i'd like to grab internet news to read on my pda-any advice for app?

[nausicaa]

I'd like to hotsync the news from the net to my pda (don't have wireless ISP).
Looking through the applications forums, i found "AvantGo" but the sync times are really long and the AvantGo service doesn't have ANY websites in the Korean language, just in English.

So, I looked thru the app forum a little more and noticed that on a replacements thread, people replaced Avant Go with iSilo or Repligo or Handstory or Plucker... (or something like that)

I'm not really sure how they all compare with one another and looking at the repligo website, i can't figure out if i can configure it to AUTOMATICALLY grab, say CNN and BBC newstories once a day by just hotsyncing.

Can anyone recommend a good review for me to read so I can sorta come up to speed?

Or is there anyone who has actually tried all those apps and have some insight? (Or are they all pretty much the same or very different?)

:confused:

[ziggy]

I prefer Plucker, but I haven't used iSilo or Handstory. However, Plucker is free, and AFAIK iSilo isn't. Have a look here (http://jpluck.sourceforge.net/). Repligo is not really a replacement for Avantgo, as it can't grab pages automatically.

[mamut]

Also take a look at RepliGo for none online reading. Captures webpages for you, among other things. I use it every single day.

[Unregistere]

I use iSilo and recommend it, but Plucker is good too. I actually use both, but tend to use iSilo more (IMHO it's easier to create highly-nested iSilo docs than it is Plucker docs, and also I registered iSilo so I try to use it more :D)

Not used RepliGo...

[th1nm1nt]

just started using plucker...and happy with it on my SJ33

[matrix42]

I use iSilo and like it very much have it scheduled to DL several news sites everyday, the following is also a good website for info on mobile readers and the have an excellent iSilo channel collection (100's of pre-done sites) and they have Plucker stuff as well..

http://www.mobileread.com/index.php?

[starbuckk]

Another vote for iSilo. Its not free but not expensive either. Very dynamic selection and clipping options. It also has a great filtering tool for limiting what you get from web pages (i.e. downloading Yahoo mail you can block out the folders you don't want (Bulk, Sent, Trash etc.). That feature is a little complex but not an impossible task and mobileread's forums may have the answers you need for such tasks.
I don't use any scheduling features because I am using a laptop that isn't always connected. But I am quite happy with it.

[madmaxmedia]

Both Plucker and iSilo are great, Plucker is free and has great anti-aliased font support. I also like Plucker's handling of categories much better.

I still use iSilo because I have a ton of files, but would probably use Plucker if starting from scratch.

[nausicaa]

geez i learned a lot (thank god for google--> led me right up to a page that explains that anti-aliasing means making the edges fuzzy instead of jagged to fool the eye into seeing cleaner lines on lower resolution)

also, when i clicked on the webpage matrix2 left and searched that page for "plucker" there was a "sticky thread" comparing iSilo and plucker! so that was really nice too

i want to finish reading the sticky thread on that other page before i decide, but before doing that i wanted to send a big thank you to all the awesome people who responded!

:D

[nausicaa]

Oops, i got a little confused here...

If i want to (try to) use plucker like avantgo, then do i need to be downloading the JPluck or the Python ? or both?
:confused:

[ziggy]

Oops, i got a little confused here...

If i want to (try to) use plucker like avantgo, then do i need to be downloading the JPluck or the Python ? or both?
:confused:

These are two different versions of the same distiller. I use JPluck, which is written in Java. So you need JPluck on the desktop, and the plucker reader on your palm.

[Edlin]

I use plucker. I have used the trial of isilo a few times ;) but find for my needs plucker works better.
When I first used plucker I found it easiest to download the whole thing from the plucker site, and use plucker desktop rather than jpluck but your millage will vary. (theres a couple(?) of different desktop software).

Another option, would be to use http://www.softick.com/ppp/ which lets you use your USB cradle connection to logon onto a network (ie your pc). You can thn use most of the programs that otherwise require wireless. I use this for cliemail, as I can download mail in the morning, and read/respond to it on the way to work, then plug it in at work and connect->send). You`ld then have to look for a news client that supported queuing/batch downloading which I imagine/hope would be a few.

[tnhh]

I use iSilo (http://www.isilo.com) as others have mentioned, but I also use Sitescooper (http://www.sitescooper.org) to preprocess those websites that aren't particularly PDA-friendly... :D

[poissonsouriant]

Whatever you do, don't use TealAgent. Messed up my Clie something awful.

[nausicaa]

This is really embarrassing, :p even though Plucker desktop even has this really nice "add channel wizard" I'm having trouble grabbing websites that aren't already listed in the manual as pda friendly.

- The main problem is that there are all kinds of links to other Stuff or Gunk all over the webpage surrounding the top news section and I can't get rid of the gunk. The other stuff is not outside advertisers. And the news inside the top news is culled from multiple sources so if I try to eliminate stuff from a different URL, none of the news gets downloaded but there's still miscellaneous, non-news stuff all over the place on my downloaded file.

Uh, how can I make Plucker desktop pick up the right section of the webpage in question and not the other stuff? Is there a way to take advantage of the little "RSS" or "XML" thingees for Plucker to get the right stuff?

:confused:

[shashi]

I fell in love with plucker :)

Please suggest some good channels(URLs) that you use.

Cheers,

[nausicaa]

gosh are you asking folks in general which channels they use or me which urls i'm having trouble with?

[nausicaa]

I want to download news articles from a particular site that culls newsarticles from OTHER newspaper/newswire sites. I can't use "STAYONHOST" (which is in Plucker desktop's GUI) because the actual content of the articles are all on different and various servers (not the original top page server).

-So, I'd like to try "STAYBELOW=text" , but I can't find where I can tinker with this setting in Plucker desktop.
-The manual says I can change settings "in any text editor" by changing the "$HOME/.plucker/home.html" file. But I couldn't find this file with "Find File or Folder" on my desktop computer or with zlauncher or clie files on my handheld (even though it's also supposed to be the first page you see when you start plucker :confused: ), much less open it to edit it in any text editor... (maybe I am running into trouble because I didn't understand this whole part of the manual???) :o :o :o

I must be overlooking something really obvious, but as often happens in such cases, I have no clue what that may be. Where can I input the "=text" for "Staybelow=text" in the Plucker desktop gui??? OR, where can I find the file $HOME/.plucker/home.html so that I can manually input "STAYBELOW=text" in a text editor???

:confused: [perplexed] :(

[Soulcarver]

hi nausicaa,

I've also just started using plucker and find it quite great. Thought the pages I am downloading on my clié do not contain stuff from different sources, I think you might have a look at the following: go to your "configure channel" or whatever it's named (my plucker is in german ;) ) and select the card where you can select the link depth for your webpages. Below this setting is a area called "channel specific inclusion/exclusion list filter" (hmm..this part isn't translated to german :) ) there is in my version already an example of a filter for blocking some advertising stuff. You could this filter list and the "URL pattern filter" (above the include/exclude) use to specify more detailed the pages you want and the pages you don't want... this might help you a bit. Maybe other people can help you more as I've also just startet using plucker.

;)

[nausicaa]

Thanks for your quick and kind reply, soulcarver! I just tried both the exclusion and setting the URL pattern=text. But I still get all the titles for those banners and excessive other (non-news) stuff?

I don't want to pick up those (banner and non-news) titles... because there are soooo many (i have to scroll way way way down to finally get to the news)...
What setting should I fiddle with so that I can avoid getting banner and other irrelevant titles downloaded onto my top page?

[Soulcarver]

hmm.... if you don't want ANY pictures.. you could simply uncheck the "include images" (or whatever, damn I love these half-translated GUI's ;) ) that would give you some kind of pure-text version of the webpages you want...
:)

[nausicaa]

once again, danke!

but, umm, i already unchecked the "include images"

I guess I am not making myself that clear, but what I want to get rid of is the "titles," and i don't have any images. The "titles" are for banners and links that go to "FAQ" and "About this website" and "give us feedback" and "forums" and "network" and "website of the year" and "website of the month" and "donate" and other stuff with a "Pass it on!" link and links to the same website in Indonesian, Dansk, Esperanto, Spanish, French, Italian... (14 languages)... that is, the website has a whole bunch of banners and links on the first page surrounding the news, which is in the middle.
So when I say I have "titles," I mean that on my pda I see all those words filling up the screen and have a hard time finding the news articles sandwiched somewhere in the middle... Once i find the news on my handheld plucker viewer, then I can click on it and see the article, but the problem is that with all that extra junk, it takes forever to "update" (Plucker desktop frequently hangs.. and then crashes).

Are pda users supposed to use RSS feeds or some XML (whatever they are)?
Or does anyone know where to input the "staybelow=text" (is URL pattern the right place to enter the "=text" thing ????)

[shashi]

gosh are you asking folks in general which channels they use or me which urls i'm having trouble with?

actually asking which are some good channels that u all use daily?
plucker friendly i mean..

:D

[ziggy]

actually asking which are some good channels that u all use daily?
plucker friendly i mean..

:D

If you use JPluck on your desktop, click on showcase. There you will find a long list of Plucker-friendly sites. My favourite news site is BBC news.

[tanker_bob]

I'm surprise that HandStory hasn't received more of a mention here. I've been using it for a couple of years with great results. It not only clips web pages/site by right-clicking them in IE, but reads Palm docs and ebooks, reads/edits memos, and clips/views images. I primarily use its image clipping/downloading capabilities to put maps on my Palm, although it will do any image. It even allows you to crop/resize the images to be usable on the Palm. There's an updated version coming out shortly that has more flexible updating schedules and other improvements.

I also have iSilo, which I use to clip complex site-based html docs. While it is more flexible in clipping sites, it requires more overhead in tweaking than HandStory and I don't find it well-suited for routine downloading of news. Both programs have their uses, but I prefer HandStory for the bulk of my routine news and image work.

[Grey]

So when I say I have "titles," I mean that on my pda I see all those words filling up the screen and have a hard time finding the news articles sandwiched somewhere in the middle... Once i find the news on my handheld plucker viewer, then I can click on it and see the article, but the problem is that with all that extra junk, it takes forever to "update" (Plucker desktop frequently hangs.. and then crashes).

If it's a one-off conversion (ie you don't want to update this regularly) download the html, edit it, then convert. If you want this stuff to be removed on the fly during the conversion you got a few options (none very simple I'm afraid):

Find a PDA friendly mirror / subsite:
Not as uncommon as you may think - ask the webmaster if they have a wireless or pda version of the site. If they don't have one, perhaps they will be interested in creating such a thing - compatibility with more readers is always something a webmaster will like. Alternatively, search for portals that have the same content but in different formats.

Set your advertised browser type to something ancient:
I don't know if plucker can do this, but iSilo lets your specify the browser id string it passes to websites - you can fill avant go entries in there or just early versions of netscape if needs be. If the site supports it, it will dumb itself down to accomodate what it thinks is a primative browser.

Make your own index file:
If you are lucky enough that your target website use predictable filenames for it's articles, write your own html index to get around a gross main index on the site.

Make your own feed:
Automate using a tool like wget to pull the file down, use a regular expression parser like perl or awk to get the good stuff out of the document, then point your plucker tool at it instead (it'll go and get any images you need that are referenced in your edited version of the doc when it creates your plucker formated file). I do this myself in a few cases where the website is so unfriendly towards PDAs.


Are pda users supposed to use RSS feeds or some XML (whatever they are)?

RSS feeds are generally written in XML and are a simple way to deliver short news items (these are usally a headline, a brief description and a link to the full article) in a nice widely understood format. You can use news 'Tickers' (like on the bottom of CNN on TV) to display the feeds.

For example, I have a news ticker scrolling the latest forumn threads from 1src along the top of my screen - it goes off and grabs the latest version of the XML file from 1src every 15 minutes or so. Mixed in with those are any new movie trailers apple.com have available and a few other feeds from random news sites I'm interested in. I can see the headlines scrolling past (along with a little icon showing what site it came from) and can click them to have it open the full article in my browser.

You could use an RSS feed as an index for plucker and have it follow each link and go and grab all the full articles but I've not seen it done (I just use the website's index or write my own for things I sync to my PDA).

[Grey]

Hey cool! I just checked out SiteScooper (previously mentioned on this thread) - it might be what you want to cull the big text headers away
http://www.sitescooper.org