So what is under the covers for the next version of NewsGator Go!? Here are the high level features that I am shooting for:
 
- Enclosure Support
- Scheduled Sync
- Viewing Clipped Articles
- Subscribe/Remove Feeds
- Compression (if it makes sense)
- Emailing articles
- Navigation Enhancements - Jason Clarke has been helpful in giving feedback here
- Custom Fonts
- Today Screen Integration
I can’t promise all these features will be in the next version, but this is the hit list!
On top of that I have talked about feed level formatting and also have been working on a River of News - well, I call it a Stream of News cuz it’s not really a river. More on that in a later post.Â
Finally, integration with NGES (the enterprise server) is also high on the list. Mauricio from Geekzone has been asking about this for quite some time.
October 5th, 2006
I am still seeking a venue, a yoga instructor (you’ll have to come to see), and someone to provide drinks and food… others may want beer. I want coffee!
Check out the wiki which we will keep up to date - http://barcamp.org/BarCampBoulder
October 5th, 2006
… so why oh why can’t I!Â
After posting about my noodling with YouTube this am, one of the first folks to respond was Nick Bradbury… Nick had some suggestions for me; unfortunately, they don’t get me to the goal. But that is not the point.
Nick, the author of FeedDemon, works for NewsGator but is living somewhere far far away where birds like to crap on your car. Check out this screen shot from FeedDemon which shows how Nick has done a killer job of integrating YouTube. This looks sweet. If you want the best Windows desktop reader get FeedDemon.
 
Nick is clearly a sharp dude, but he is also a great guy who cares about his product, all the other NewsGator products and people, and the RSS space as a whole. That is cool and something to aspire to!
I still want YouTube vids in NewsGator Go!
October 5th, 2006
One of the features I am working on now for NewsGator Go! is support for fetching and consuming RSS enclosures. The most common use case for this is to download podcasts (typically mp3’s) for later playback. This works very well.
Another great use case would be to consume YouTube videos on my device… YouTube has a bunch of great RSS feeds, so I thought it would be a clear winner for NewsGator, YouTube, and ultimately consumers.
No such luck, there is no way to playback the videos on the mobile device. I can get at the underlying .flv stream but have no way to render - the existing Windows Mobile Flash Player does not support the encoding. Doh! There are ways to do this manually, but it is a pain for non-geeks. That just doesn’t cut it.
Here are a few links that describe this manual process if interested…
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=124559Â - you can do this all from your device by basically using a proxy service as the converter and then launching the file from your device
http://max.limpag.com/2006/09/15/from-google-video-youtube-to-your-phone-in-3-steps/Â - download to desktop, convert, copy to device
So, I can get this to work, but my wife wouldn’t have a clue how to pull this off. If she had an app like NewsGator Go! where she subscribed to a YouTube feed and it automagically appeared and played, that would be a winner.
I was also poking around the Adobe site and found this:
Can I use the File Format Specification to create a SWF interpreter or player?
–> No, the File Format Specification is provided for the specific purpose of enabling software applications to export to the Macromedia Flash File Format (SWF).
Can I use the File Format Specification to create a Flash Video encoder or a Flash Video streaming service
–> No, the File Format Specification is provided for the specific purpose of enabling software applications to export to the Macromedia Flash File Format (SWF).
That is a bummer.. it sure would be nice to make this a frictionless process…
I still have a few ideas I am persuing, so stay tuned for that.
October 5th, 2006