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Task:RSS feed reader

This task is in the list of maemo.org development proposals, please help planning and getting it ready for a sprint. Put a note on the talk page if you're interested in helping work on this task. Please see the talk page for discussion.

The official RSS Feed Reader and related home applet are being ported to Fremantle. Even if it's 100% open source, the development is nowadays closed and the input from the community is very small. Unless we all do something about it.

Interested in having an excellent feed reader in Maemo? Get involved!

See also the discussion Love feeds? Read this

[edit] Core features

Just an idea.

• Handles efficiently feeds of text, images, audio, video...
  • Would it be ok if audio/video triggered media player of choice? (I.e., the next point.)
• Well integrated with browser (and media player?)
• Connects regularly for updates and small transfers.
• Downloads volumes of data when wlan is available.
• Basic usage through desktop plugin.
  • Unread feed count on app icon (or via desktop plugin)
• Smart syncing with my other feed readers (via online?)
  • Or with an online service like Bloglines?
• Developed in Maemo but easy to deploy in other platforms.
• Filtering (blacklisting, whitelisting, priority) combined with modus operandi based on situation user is in (work, home, travel, etc)
  • I.e., Smart Lists?
• Feed categorization (and/or folders)
• Full text search (or downloaded items)
• Ability to cache feeds/envlosures (to user-specified location) for offline usage
• Import/export OPML
• TTS (text-to-speach) support

[edit] How to get there

There are different ways to get there:

• Everybody gets involved in the development of the official RSS Feed Reader
• Existing Maemo community alternatives are pushed. Candidates:
  • Feed Circuit - buggy; locks up on BBC feeds and Wired mag feeds
  • Penguin TV
  • How crazy would be to extend Mauku as a RSS feed reader with a very smart home applet? - or with any microblog app.
  • gPodder
  • And how crazy would it be to mix it with a podcast app.
  • And how crazy would it be to mix feed reader, microblog reader and podcast app?
    • In my opinion, it would be better to keep things separate, because of different usage patterns (if you don't think keeping apps and use cases separate, why not make the all-in-one browser+email+feed reader+microblogging+podcasts+chat+phone+contacts+notetaking+drawing app?) --thp 19:44, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
• Ports from GNOME/KDE or anywhere native. Not that Maemo's RSS Feed Reader derives from Liferea. Candidates:
  • Your candidates here.
• Firefox extensions
  • Your candidates here.

[edit] Competition

What great products are other (mobile) platforms offering? Name, link and remarkable features that make the app/service so good.

Note also the potential discussion about local app versus web service (and a way in between).

[edit] Local apps

[edit] Linux

• Liferea
  • Features:
    • Synchronization with Google Reader
    • Browser integration (with Add-ons)
    • Podcast/enclosure support
    • Folders/categories
• PenguinTV
• gPodder
• Gwibber is an open source microblogging client for GNOME developed with Python and GTK. It supports Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, and RSS.
  • While this is an aggregator of sorts (like Mauku is), should it really be added to this list? Can custom feeds be added? Does it support podcasting? --timsamoff 14:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Mac OS X

• NewsFire
  • Features:
    • Podcast & Enclosure support
    • Integrated blog editor (for posting to personal blog)
    • Groups
    • Labels
    • Smart Groups
    • Search
    • Import/export OPML
• NetNewsWire
  • Features:
    • Built-in tabbed browser (no need to launch an additional browser to view actual sites)
    • Desktop integration (can notify the user via various desktop widgets)
    • Synchronized clippings (synchronize feeds and feed status with various online services like Bloglines)
    • Will download and transfer podcasts to iTunes (i.e., transfer to another media player)
    • Supports multiple Smart Lists (display filtered results of feeds)
    • Supports custom styles (CSS)
    • Supports grouping/folders
    • Supports article flagging
    • Supports microformats (for Calendar and Contacts)
    • Import/Export of OPML
• Vienna
  • Features:
    • Podcast support
    • Customisable toolbar
    • Built-in tabbed browser
    • Global search
    • Smart Folders
    • Custom styles (CSS)
    • Three layouts
    • Blogging integration
    • Enclosure support
    • Article filters
    • Manual reordering of the subscription list

[edit] Windows

• SharpReader
  • Features:
    • Handles all RSS versions, ATOM 0.3 and 1.0, modules like dublin core, content:encoding, xhtml:body, etc.
    • Advanced threading support allowing you to view connected items together in a threaded fashion (detects and shows connections between items if they have same link, if one item links to another, if two items both link to the same external webpage, or if an item has comments)
    • Grouping/categories
    • Feed settings (refresh-rate, purge timeout, and category-wide settings)
    • Drag-and-drop subscription method
    • Feedster integration
    • Support for proxy-servers and proxy authentication
    • Reduces bandwidth by using HTTP Conditional GETs and gzip/deflate encoding
    • Desktop integration
    • Import/export OPML
    • Filtering
    • HTTP Authentication support

• Popppr
  • Features:
    • focused on Media RSS feeds; pops image content onto desktop
    • free, lightweight software

[edit] Cross-Platform

• RSSOwl
  • Features:
    • SWT-based (Standard Widget Toolkit)
    • Search (word, phrase, and other feeds)
    • Easy organization
    • Feed sharing
    • Integrated browser
    • AmphetaRate (for acquiring news tailored to user's tastes)
    • Export to PDF, RTF, and HTML
    • Import/export OPML
    • Supports exchange collections with others
    • Automatic updates
• BogBridge
  • Features:
    • Categories and subcategories
    • Cross Listing (any category can be cross listed in one or more other categories)
    • Categories and subcategories available as OPML Reading Lists
    • Synchronization via Reading Lists
    • Top 10 and Top 100 List (automatically monitors the number of users looking at any feed and dynamically compute a Top 10 and Top 100 list, each of which is available as an OPML Reading List)
    • Tree and List display of categories

[edit] Online services

• Bloglines
  • Features:
    • All-in-one Blog and news feed search, online subscriptions, news reader, blog publishing and social sharing tools
    • Mobile version optimized for handheld computers and cell phones
    • Email subscriptions help manage your e-newsletter traffic
    • Package Tracking (UPS, USPS & FedEx)
    • Custom weather forecasts
    • Personalized recommendations to find new subscriptions
    • Bookmarklet for single-click subscriptions to any source
    • Notifiers for all browser types to remind you when new articles have arrived
    • Saved Searches deliver future articles matching your key words and phrases
    • Most Popular lists show the days hot topics and which blogs are getting the most noticed
    • Add-on tools for bloggers such as automated blogrolls, subscription buttons
• FeedBurner
  • FeedBurner has recently been aquired by Google.
• Google Reader
  • Features:
    • Single page that lets you see new items at a glance
    • Import/export OPML
    • Choice between list view or expanded view
    • Automatic marking of items as read as they are scrolled past
    • Search
    • Sharing (share feeds and articles with other users)
    • Offline access
    • Desktop/browser integration
• FeedShow
  • Features:
    • Import/export OPML
    • Folders/categories
    • Save items locally
    • Convert to PDF/print format
• My gPodder

[edit] "Host Your Own" Solutions

• Gregarius
  • Features:
    • Web-based
    • Import/export OPML
    • Supports themes and plugins
    • Search
    • Basic i18n support
    • Committed to web standards (renders XHTML/CSS)
    • FREE software, released under GPL
• Tiny Tiny RSS
  • Features:
    • Server-side application (user only needs a web browser)
    • Import/export OPML
    • Free software, licensed under GPL
    • Support for generation of aggregated feeds
    • Supports Technorati-style tags
    • Filtering
    • Supports multiuser operation
    • Categories
    • Supports HTTP Digest and Basic authentication for reading protected feeds
    • Supports feed enclosures (podcasts)
    • Supports XML-RPC API
    • Supports article scoring
    • Supports inline XSPF MP3 player for podcasts
• zFeeder
  • Features:
    • Import/export OPML
    • Supports autodiscovery of feeds
    • Bookmarklet to easily add feeds
    • Custom styles (CSS)
    • Online/offline refreshing of feeds via browser or cron
    • Categories
    • WAP (wml) output
• Simple Pie
  • I'm not sure SimplePie should be included in this list (i.e., it allows users to manipulate and display feeds, but it's not really an aggregator in the true sense of the word). --timsamoff 21:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Open enhancement requests

[edit] Open bugs