Category: software

While I’ve been using Blogstreet’s Info Aggregator to send RSS feeds to an IMAP email box I’ve looked into additional methods as well to see if I might find an even better way to do things.

To quickly sum up what you might have missed on Info Aggregator — The service is free and you get an IMAP email box which automatically gets the RSS feeds you select delivered. You can check this in your email client of choice including any mobile device or use the webmail interface which is also provided. My only real complaint is the delay in delivery.

The Blogstreet network carefully polls things based on popularity and that determines the delivery frequency of each item. Some sites deliver once a day, which makes this less useful, if you tend to read at your desk in addition to on the go. I’ve found that messages received are often things I’ve seen at my desktop, but that might really vary for you if you are on the go more than I’ve been recently.

The additional services I’ve found that seem to offer similar benefits are News inMotion, IzyNews and RSS2email. I’d be open to learning about additional methods for getting RSS into an email box if you know of them, but really the only other way I’ve found was through Newsgator Online Services which unfortunately only supports POP3 and requires a payment beyond the demo period. IMAP is essential in this process for me so I can clean up things I know I’ve seen while at the desk and leave others so when I return I can either blog them or simply make a note to myself. (POP3 is an all or nothing method.. there is no memory of what’s been read or even deleted in each location you might do your reading.)

News inMotion

I just started News inMotion and it’s nice way to have daily or twice daily emails sent from up to 5 sources. Right away this seems to only make sense for a supplemental flow based on the limits (more on the number of feeds than the level of delivery, though it would be nice to see more frequency as well.) Since I am heading towards complete information overload with the RSS feeds I have coming in through all my channesl, I thought I would keep to some more major news sources as (believe it or not) they are the ones I tend to skip in my daily collection. Here’s my current subscription list…

• New York Times – Business
• New York Times – Technology
• Reuters – Top News
• StartupSkills.com – Resources for technology entrepreneur
• Washington Post – Technology News

I did throw in that StartupSkills since I had not heard of it and thought it might be interesting to read. The others are covering the bases for me given the amount of similar information I regularly track. News inMotion provides a good list to start from the usual suspects and allows you to easily add your own feed URI to the list as well.

IzyNews

IzyNews is a very interesting player in the space. First there was IzyMail which enables all your webmail accounts like Hotmail and Yahoo mail to get delivered in a mail client. IzyNews is a pretty cool yet complex way to deal with news feeds. You set up a separate account in your mail client and IzyNews automatically manages your subscriptions into folders so it’s pretty easy to see what’s going on. This is a very nice feature considering the work that many people would have to go through filtering messages appropriately from a variety of sources. Personally I like filtering mail by subject or source, Izy does this out of the gate, so I like it. I’d love to see more providers offer this server side filtering for mail as well as news since it’s such a time saver and since it (in theory) simplifies your view of information.

Here’s what the default set looks like in Thunderbird:

After I uploaded my (593 feed) subscription OPML file from Bloglines things changed pretty drastically. A new Folder was added called Subscriptions and each item from my file was added below. The folder (or outline) structure I have on Bloglines was mostly preserved which is helpful, but man is this a serious list of stuff.

For whatever reason, it’s easier to deal with this load in Bloglines, probably because the sub-folders themselves actually contain content but in mail you have to go through each and every item. I chose not to share the image of this relative chaos as this blog was getting long enough.

If you are considering reading RSS in your mail client to keep it simple for you rather than relying on separate apps or your web browser, IzyNews is pretty nice, though I’d suggest a different manner of organization than I have curently and possibly subscribing to fewer sources. My taste does not like the manner in which feeds are summarized for each source… IzyNews creates a paper for each feed you read giving you a quick extract and a link to continue reading. I personally like the full thing whenever possible…

RSS2email

RSS2email is a server based method you control. You’ll need your own server or connected machine in order t o do the processing and sending to your inbox. It’s not that hard to configure, and seems to work quite well. Of the services I’ve tried it’s my favorite. Aaron Swartz is a great contributor to the information community and has written some great tools like co-authoring RSS 1.0 and enabling a linkable URI scheme for referencing the NYT.

Meanwhile back to RSS2email… Following the directions posted on Aaron’s site was easy to do and I was able to get things running on my server. After adding a few feeds, I checked to see what they looked like and was really quite happy. If you’ve seen Tidbits, the format is similar. Each link in an entry is tagged with a number and at the bottom of each article is a list of links. I chose to limit my view to text only, though you can get HTML messages as well, which I presume would include the images rather than link to them as the text based option does. You can also set a variety of options in the main file (rss2email.py) which lets you control how the from looks, the time of the post (when it was posted vs. when it was sent) and a variety of other details.

The only trick to the whole thing is finding a machine that supports what you need to do. Fortunately my host is running linux and python was installed, because that’s how it works. I am not a programmer or a developer, I just went through the steps and it works. I know enough to find my way through the file to tweak some settings, but that’s beacause I know how to read ;). I’ve scheduled a cron job on my host to run hourly which then pumps all the new information to the email address of my choosing.

I’d like to also add that in the course of testing I ran into a few hiccups and emailed things to Aaron who promptly replied and fixed things so it would not effect anyone else. Thanks again, Aaron. You can easily keep track of fixes and additions to the RSS2email service by (what else) subscribing to the feed.

Usage Notes and Taking it With You

How you deal with, and even the amount of information you choose to manage (or not) is very personal. There is no correct way, it’s much more a matter of what works for you. I like Info Aggregator, but have found RSS2email to be more relavant for my needs since it can deliver news more timely. IzyMail is an interesting way to do things, but in the end is just not for me. Based on the imposed limitations of News inMotion makes it much more of a side player since it can’t handle the level of flow I want.

One of the key factors in my world at the moment is being able to take all this information with me on my mobile device. They can all accommodate this in different ways. Again, based on how you use your tools… Since everything is being delivered to an IMAP account on Palm that leaves a few options (Chatter Email, Snappermail, Mailwave and AgendusMail) which I’ve covered previously. Snapper and Agendus must connect upfront and you’ll have to choose which folders (keep in mind how rough this will be with something like IzyNews and it’s folder overload) to keep in sync. With Chatter and Mailwave you can set up an additional account to receive news messages and sync it how you see fit either always connected or synced over time intervals.

My preference is to use Chatter Email and sync my News account every half hour. This is efficient for me and keeps things simple as well. Chatter only works with IMAP accounts that support the IDLE command in order to push messages out to you. IzyMail does not and most likely will not support this. I did not have a chance to test this on Mailwave (I mean how many mail clients can one man actively run!), but it may work well there. Your own mileage may vary…

I’ve been a beta tester on SnappperMail 2.0 for a long time. I honestly can’t even tell you when it started it’s been quite a while and I’ve been generally pleased with the product. SnapperMail is much like a traditional email client. It offers multiple POP3 accounts, can send through different accounts than which you may have received messages and offers robust attachment support. I’ve used both the POP3 and IMAP access to both send and receive attachments and have to say it’s great – just like you would expect it to be on any email client.

IMAP support is offered only in the Enterprise level of the product which in my opinion comes at a very steep cost at $59.95. The upgrade price is like buying it again, which for me would be $29.98.

In my testing IMAP works reliably as does POP3, but POP3 is infinitely faster. If you leave your Palm in your pocket checking mail on a set schedule (say every 30 min), you might not notice, but watching and waiting for the job to get done is totally brutal. There is initial time to connect, delivery time and then clean up time which can actually take a few minutes per mailbox you are keeping in sync! Watching this over a few minutes is incredibly frustrating.

This difference is something I can’t live with easily as a solution and since I rely on IMAP for email management it becomes challenging to be satisfied when I know there are other options that very quickly (seemingly instantly) deliver mail to you.

That said, SnapperMail is an excellent, richly featured mail client with a great user interface that is very 5-way navigator friendly for Treo and Tungsten users. Full screen, HI-Res support is enabled for T3 users as well. Like most things, email software is very personal. There are choices to be made and options to be weighed. If you are only using POP3 access, I think you’ll be quite satisfied with SnapperMail.

While Mailwave actually came out before Chatter Email, it was not quite as ready for primetime until now….

Push and background capabilities within email applications is becoming a must-have feature and I’d expect customers to be demanding it soon enough from SnapperMail, AgendusMail and others. For me, it’s a personal choice… I like Chatter.

Mailwave does support POP3 accounts, calendar events (depends on your server … ala Exchange) and attachments which are still pending for Chatter at the moment. Mailwave does however, require either a subscription to the Mailwave service (a very reasonable $7/mo) or a hosted solution which they are selling for corporations.

MailWave for is intended for Palm OS 3.5 and higher. Although many handhelds carry the same OS, the features vary. MailWave is designed to take advantage of certain features when possible. For example, the TREO 600 series smartphones allow for screen object focusing. This feature allows for the user to perform everyday tasks without ever needing to use the stylus. MailWave also supports devices such as the TapWave Zodiac which has landscape and portrait viewing modes. [MailWave]

There’s a helpful testing page to see if your accounts are compatible with the service which certainly helps save the time of installing and tapping in your account info.

As I mentioned previously Chatter Email is an amazing email application that allows for IMAP accounts to push and sync messages automatically on a Treo. (For now it only works on Treo, though might eventually work on an OS 5 device with bluetooth connectivity to a phone.)

Based on a post I just read and considered at Treo Central I discovered a way for RSS Feeds to automatically get pushed to your device as well. The best part is that this added functionality is free thanks to the amazing Info Aggregator, which I had also previously mentioned and actually used briefly as a way to read feeds. Info Aggregator is unique in that you can receive your feeds directly to an IMAP email account which is exactly what Chatter wants and needs in order to PUSH the feeds to you as things get updated.

First, head over to Info Aggregator and register to create a free account. You can then either manually add feeds you want to track or import an OPML file from another reader like Bloglines or NetNewsWire.

Next you need to create a new account in Chatter, which is actually called a New Folder Mailbox from the Box Menu (menu / New Folder Mailbox). Enter the settings you received from Blogstreet / Info Aggregator. You need to manually enter the server folder name as Inbox to get it to stick.

That’s it. Everything else is the same… You can set or deactivate alerts as you like and enjoy feeds and email pushing to your Treo as things happen. You are now fully connected.

I am unfortunatley not one of the lucky ones… just yet.

The first external beta version of Skype Technologies’ free voice over IP (VoIP) software for Mac OS X has been distributed to a limited number of testers and is expected to reach public beta in the coming months. [AppleInsider | First beta of Skype for Mac OS X seeded to testers]

You might be saying, hey I already do voice with iChat, what’s the big deal? Well for starters Skype has a few tricks it can do like runs on a P2P network, encryption for your call security and can even link (through a paid service SkypeOut) make calls to phones rather than just other computers.

I’ve used it on the PC and it’s definitely cool… and the quality is excellent. We just need a better way to link all the buddy lists together. Too bad the tech is not integrated with other IM clients… perhaps in the future.

Mac based blackberry users just got a whole lot happier… This integrates throug hiSync and enables full 2-way sync.

La Jolla, CA–August 2004–Information Appliance Associates,
creators of the original Mac-to-Pocket-PC sync solution, announces
the new release of PocketMac Blackberry Edition, the first ever tool
to sync Mac users’ data with RIM BlackBerry handhelds.

“We’re incredibly excited,” said Terence Goggin, CTO of
Information Appliance Associates. “After 14 months of engineering and
testing, we’re proud to release this unique tool that for the first
time gives Mac users the ability to sync with BlackBerry handhelds.
What’s more, we’ve made sure no one’s left out — older serial-based
BlackBerry 957s can also fully sync as well.” [PocketMac]

If you use your Palm or Treo to do email you’ve probably run across SnapperMail which has been widely regarded as the best client for POP and in the current beta IMAP as well. The UI and support for many devices is great, but as anyone testing things out has noticed the price for IMAP, which is only available to Enterprise customers (though individuals can purchase, it’s just what they call it) who are willing to pay about $60.

VersaMail which is now owned and developed by PalmOne is a nice client and supports POP and IMAP, but only supports syncing the Inbox which might fall short for what many power users are looking for…

The Treo email client does some background tricks not available to users of other clients which make it attractive, but it only supports POP, not IMAP which many users (like me) prefer to manage status of messages read and replied (amongst other reasons) while on the go.

Chatter Email, formerly IMChatter is a new very serious contender in this space. The previous version would allow for email as well as IM alerts and conversations through more of an IM interface. Today’s beta release changes all that and I have to say it looks pretty killer for $25. In addition to becoming a richer email and IM client, you can get full background send and receive capabilities for your messaging needs! This is an amazing feat for the OS 5 devices and I have a feeling that Chatter will become extremely popular. Imagine turning the palm on and finding your new messages have conveniently already arrived.

The message view area is the only lacking bit in my book. It’s not as clean as the SnapperMail way, but background “push” capabilities override many details. Besides… I bet things will just get even better as today’s release shows.

Chatter Email is the first mail application for the Treo 600 that comes seriously close to matching the “Blackberry-like” push mail service. In fact, we believe it outperforms the Blackberry service because Chatter Email doesn’t rely on an additional server piece, though it does require the mail server to support IMAP. The second “killer feature” is background synchronization, something that is available in the built-in Treo Mail but not in SnapperMail. Marc is definitely pushing the “multi-tasking” boundaries of OS5 by combining push mail with background synchronization. Finally, Chatter is priced at a one-time license fee of $25 and Marc has promised that this low price includes free upgrades for life! [mytreo.net]

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UPDATED 8/19

After a day or so of use and another beta release, I have some additional thoughts to share…

Chatter allows for a couple of cool tricks since it can run in the background. First, you can get a pop-up message with notification as well as the actual message a new mail comes through while in other applications. Making a call with your headset and a new message arrives… you can read and reply – FROM the phone screen. While it politely runs in the background, you can leave your Treo in Sleep mode and turn it on to find new messages waiting to be read and filed — in ALL your IMAP folders. You can sync up to 8 server side folders, which means if you have server side filtering running with Procmail, you can be notified on more specific messages.

My personal usage is to leave notification off, since I know mail will just appear as it comes in and so I just check my Treo when I want to read mail. This is really a great thing as my Treo no reconnects to the network as I pass through spaces that don’t have connectivity (subway in NY) and constantly polls for mail.

My experience is on Treo 600 running on T-Mobile. Usage may and I believe does vary of CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) networks based on hows tasks and as a result battery life is managed.