Pocket Feed v0.6 Alpha
(C) Copyright 2002 - Steve Makofsky
http://www.furrygoat.com

Contents [Top]

• Requirements
• License
• Welcome
• Installing
• Version History
• Features/What is Pocket Feed?
• Importing OPML from Radio/AmphetaDesk
• To-Do List
• Known Issues
• Reporting Bugs/Feature Requests

Requirements [Top]

• Pocket PC 2002 Device (ARM compatible)
• Some sort of internet connection to download feeds
• Patience for using alpha, non finished software.

License/Disclaimer [Top]

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Welcome [Top]

    Thanks for trying out Pocket Feed. This software is ALPHA, non-finished software. I warn you now - Pocket Feed may crash or hang your device (In fact, due to XML parser issues I'm working through, I know there's a really really good chance it will). With that being said, thanks for helping test Pocket Feed. Enjoy!

Installing [Top]

There is no installation program yet. To install, you can copy PocketFeed.exe somewhere to your Pocket PC 2002 device and create a shortcut in your start menu. Or, you can just drop PocketFeed.exe directly into the \Windows\Start Menu folder.

Version History [Top]

Version 0.6

• ETag and If-None-Match support added for faster downloads
• More Pocket-PC 2002 like visuals in options dialog
• Download date now saved in OPML
• Enabled Clear Type/Fit to screen/Font Sizing Menu Options
• Cache size shown in options window, wipe the cache, and view it's location
• Splitter Bar can be snapped up
• HTTP Referer can be set (stored in registry, options panel)
• Clean cache contents (options panel)
• Last imported blog list address is persisted to registry

Features [Top]

PocketFeed is an RSS/RDF news aggregator that runs on the Pocket PC 2002 PDA's. Using OPML for it's blogroll, you can now take your news, blog entries, or any other type of syndicated data with you, sync it wirelessly or read it offline. So yes, you can sit in Starbucks with your PDA and read the latest news over 802.11b.

Importing your OPML [Top]

1. Run PocketFeed.
2. Select "Options"
3. Hit the "Import" button
4. Enter your OPML feed address, this will be: http://radio.weblogs.com/xx/gems/mySubscriptions.opml You should replace xx with your Radio ID number.
5. Hit Import Now.
6. To synchronize, hit "Download All" after you return to the main window.

You can also drop a valid OPML file into the \My Documents\Channels folder that is named "myChannels.opml". Amphetadesk and Radio users can drop a copy of their OPML file directly, and Pocket Feed should automatically convert it.

TO-DO's [Top]

• Download Favorite feeds
• Download Current feed
• # channels in main
• Multithread download
• Cleanup add feed dialog
• Add progress bars to individual download feed information
• Menu popup on html view window (add rss link, sync channel now, etc)
• Move cache to storage card
• Find feeds
• Pocket Feed RSS (stock object is in place)
• FTP access to feeds? Opml?

Known Issues [Top]

• Scripting news sites wont expand (uses a non-compliant RSS format).
• Invalid XML in a feed will crash the Pocket PC MS-XML parser (the wheelie thing will keep spinning forever).
• There is no checking for network connectivity yet. I have no idea what will happen if you attempt to sync w/o a network connection.
• Using the desktop as a proxy when syncing with the cradle sometimes gets bogus error messages on an HTTP download. This doesn't seem to happen when using a network card.
• There's stuff that's not implemented yet. (no kidding)

Reporting bugs/Feature requests [Top]

There is a Pocket Feed mailing list available. Please sign up for it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pocketfeed/ - it is a low-traffic group, and will have any updates posted there.

If you encounter an RSS feed that Pocket Feed chokes on, it would be a big help when sending a bug report, to include the URL of the feed.
Please send/post any bug reports to the Pocket Feed mailing list or place the bug on the Pocket Feed: Bug Tracker.