RSS readers

RSS can be used to synchronize text (newsfeeds but also auctions), audio (also known as podcasts) and video (also known as videocasts or vodcasts) between a supplying server and a client, without all the hassle of markup. Because the content is structured, a newsreader can detect what you already have read, making it easier to just show you the new content since last time you downloaded the rss feed.

RSS readers are by nature reasonably good applications: they allow you to download your news when it is convenient for you (i.e. using a cheap connection) and allows you to read it when you can spare the time to do so. Most good RSS readers also make sure that only new articles will be shown to you, reducing the overhead for you and allowing you to watch many sites without being bothered with reading the same information twice.

Please be aware that the performance of a RSS reader does greatly depend on the quality of the content providers you use. There are content providers that do not follow the specifications of RSS feeds, introducing a lot of irritation. Most common problems are that publication dates of articles are calculated wrong (making the RSS reader show the article is updated), or just providing headlines without any articles. We also have a list of RSS feeds and podcasts that should not have this problem.

Doppler

Dopplerradio is a freeware RSS reader that also allows you to synchronize podcasts. It is optimized for podcasts but it also works good for RSS feeds. It is a clean RSS reader with many features:

• It is multithreaded, allowing you to download multiple RSS feeds and podcasts
• Automatic retry for podcasts
• Check feeds at specific times of day
• Allows synchronisation with NewsGator
• Allows management of your own blog

DualExec RSS

Dealexec is a freeware RSS reader especially designed for the bargainhunters among us: it allows to download the latests bargains from eBay etc.

Egress

Egress is a commercial RSS reader ($12,95), is one of the most flexible RSS readers out there. One of it's bigger powers is to organize the data presented to you. It also has many functions/options:

• Todayscreen plugin (including running display of RSS content)
• Auto-update feeds
• Progress bar of updates
• Categories for RSS-feeds
• Supports Podcasts
• Allows for retention of RSS-items

FeederReader

Feederreader is a commercial product (free for simple version with 8 feed maximum, professional version is $9,-) RSS reader, and probably one of the very few that support podcasting (besides it's freeware alternative Dopler).

• Podcast (audio) support
• Vodcast (video) support
• Enclosure support
• Multi-level categories
• Installation and Storage on Flash Card.
• Easy one handed Message Reading.
• Read while updating.
• Update multiple feeds at the same time.
• Retain individual feed-items, even when removed from the original feed.
• Settings per feed per category

Hubdog

Hubdog is a freeware (but registration required) RSS reader. It is not just an application, it is a service and social network where users can reccomend content. Features include:

• Podcast support
• VodCast support

Insight

SPB Insight is commercial newsreader ($19.95) based on the philosophy that it should be a good application, even if the supplier of the content is not such a good provider. Some suppliers (like CNN, Reuters or newspapers like the De Telegraaf) only supply you with just headlines or just the intro of the article, forcing you to go on-line when you really want to read the article. This is annoying, even when you have access to (free) internet, but becomes extremely frustating when you want to read your news in a place where internet connectivity is limited, like airplanes. SPB will create channels for you with all the content, and they allow you to add your own channels. Other features include:

• Today plugin 
• Can limit access to only use free connections (Activesync, WiFi) to update all the feeds 
• Downloading of articles, making sure that you can read the content (even if the feed does not supply it)
• Thumbnail views of articles
• Good memory management: you can place the feeds and off-line content on a memory card and can limit the volume on a per-feed basis.

Con's of Insight:

• No background updates if the application is not running
• Can't mail a news item

Newsbreak

Illiumsoft's NewsBreak is a commercial application ($19.95)

• Todayscreen integration
• Triggering on keywords
• Enable of logging into password protected feeds
• Allows storage of feed content of memory card
• Allows configuration of update frequency per specific feed
• Support for attachments to podcasts:
• Support for Podcasts, vodcasts and image attachments
• Save attachments (podcasts) automatically to memory card
• Set quota for attachments: both per channel and in total
• Incorporation of Microsoft Live services to find podcasts

NewsCopier

MaximumSoft NewsCopier is a freeware RSS reader. Features include:

• hiding of read articles,
• Cleartype support,
• allows feeds to be stored on your memory card,
• support for a wide variety of RSS-feed formats: RSS 1.0 (including RSS 0.9, 0.91, 0.92), RSS 2.0 and Atom
• Automatic (periodic) updates of feeds

The basic user-interface is quite similar to Illium's NewsBreak, but it lacks advanced features like alerting on keywords and loggin into protected feeds.

NewsGator

NewsGator is a commercial RSS reader ($29,95). Unique about this application is the integration with a desktop version: if you read the article on you PocketPC, it will be marked as read on yur desktop as well (and vice versa).

NewsInterceptor

NewsInterceptor is a freeware RSS reader. Features include:

• Automatic download of content
• Podcast support
• Support for multi-language websites

Con's of NewsInterceptor:

• Requires .Net Framework 2.0 (not included in Windows 5.0. It is a free download but requires 6MB of space on your device).

Newsland

NewsLand is a freeware service that will select the news for you based on your personal preferences. It will provide the full article text including pictures. Please note that this service is limited to a (huge) number of channels provided by Newsland.

NewsRaider

NewsRaider is a commercial service ($15.00) that will stream text content to your PocketPC. The content is limited to the feeds NewsRaider provides.

PocketFeed

PocketFeed is an extremely basic, free (open sourced) RSS reader for PocketPC.

PocketRSS

PocketRSS is a commercial application ($5.95) that has the following features:

• ability to use Today Screen plugin within PocketBreeze
• namespace/xml mapping feature for advanced users
• custom view modes (including dynamic, keyword-based views)
• Feed Wizard to easily add/find new RSS Feeds
• support for "stylus-free" viewing (D-pad optimized)
• feed item control (read,unread,locked,delete,etc.)
• ability to download full article links for offline viewing
• ability to download audio content (aka podcasting)
• support for WM2003 SE landscape mode (and VGA)

pRSSreader

pRSSreader (by David Anders) is by far the most popular  freeware RSS readers in the field. It handle multiple feeds, with features that include:

• Today screen plug-in showing the titles of the new feeds
• Site Manager for entering & grouping feeds
• Ability to cache the content of a feed for off-line viewing by the web browser of your choice
• Ability to include pictures in the feeds
• Ability to download enclosures & automatically create playlists
• Configuration of update schedule
• Sequential reading of feeds
• ClearType
• Todayscreen integration
• Triggering on keywords
• Possibility of flagging items
• Enable of logging into password protected feeds 

QMail

QMail is a freeware RSS, mail and NNTP reader.

RSSToGo

RSSToGo is a small and simple commercial RSS reader ($5.93)

SmartRSS

SmartRSS is a commercial RSS reader and podcast manager ($14.99).

Pro's of SmartRSS:

• Scheduled updates of feeds
• Categorize RSS feeds
• Today Plugin

Con's of SmartRSS:

• Requires .Net Framework 2.0 (not included in Windows 5.0. It is a free download but requires 6MB of space on your device).

Subscriber

Skookum Subscriber is a freeware RSS reader and podcatcher. It also has support for Audible content.

TopStory

iambic TopStory is a freeware RSS reader with professional build quality, it does provide advertisements in the top of the screen.

Summary and conclusions 

There are a lot of RSS readers out there. THis is partially because they are simple to develop, partially because there is a genuine need for RSS readers, podcast clients, vodcast clients or specialised applications (like bargainhunters). Summarized, the results are:

The abundance of RSS readers has the benefit that there is a lot of choice. Unfortunatly, this also means that there are less well-designed applications. Fortunatly, there are also very good readers leading the pack.

Newsreaders 

In our opinion Illiumsoft's NewsBreak is the best usable and most advanced RSS-reader. Best freeware alternative is MaximumSoft NewsCopier, which has many similar features as Newsbreak but lacks more advanced features like alerting on keywords or logging into protected site. A noteworthy innovation in this field are SPB Insight, which not only downloads the feed but also the associated article to allow you to have a full browsing experience even while you are  disconnected from the internet.

Podcatchers

Podcasting is new and according to some analysts, it might even replace radio. In order to listen to a podcast, you need a Podcatcher to automatically download the podcast and good provider of podcasts for your content. Egress and Illiumsoft's NewsBreak are the best podcatchers, but Doppler is a very close (freeware) second to them.

VodCatchers

Videocasting is a newer technology, also based on RSS feeds. FeederReader is one of the few VodCatchers, with HubDog being the freeware (and perhaps even better) alternative.

References

• Modern Nomads recommended RSS feeds
• About top 10 RSS readers
• PocketPC central RSS reader overview
• RSS Copendium PocketPC reader overview