I was wondering if anyone could create a service that will cache the html behind an rss for true offline news reading.
The idea was brought up on BeyondPod Google group.
For people who work or live in poor reception area this would be a life saver. It could be used by browsers for “read later” as well as all the rss readers to cache the contents for offline reading. Probably developers would find many uses for that.
Is it possible that one of devs over here would start an app like that?
Related
Trying to find one that I like what do you use?
I'll try not to turn this into a ramble.
I was really spoiled by feed readers on the iPhone. This is a good example of how different the apps out there are for the iPhone and Android. I dunno if it is because us mac people are willing to pay more for stuff or what, but the Android feed readers, games, twitter apps, productivity apps, etc, are kinda lame.
So I have found myself just using Google's excellent web interface for reader. I tried NewsRob, which is one of the most popular, but it just didn't feel quite right to me. I really miss Byline and Reeder.
Ill try the web interface as I wasn't very fond of NewRob either. As a former Mac user I know about spending money to use their products
Thank you for the suggestion.
If you're looking for an offline reader then I really think newsrob is the best. I was never really a huge fan of byline on the iphone. I always wound up resorting to the web interface since it would load faster. Maybe byline can use the "task completion" multitasking service in iOS4? I dunno, I havent looked back at iOS since early June.
But the full version of newsrob + tasker can do some really advanced stuff. you can set up a widget just to initiate a sync or have automatic syncs run on a almost any criteria (location, battery level, time of day, etc.)
Finally, one of the great things about newsrob is that you can set per-feed options to download images or web pages. So, for a few photo blogs I follow it will automatically download the images. And for some of the truncated feeds I follow it will automatically download the webpage so I can read it when I'm on the subway.
newsrob isn't perfect however. the google reader web app is just too good.
I will second the use of the web app. I tried greader. It was fine, but I prefer the web interface. Link below.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.noinnion.android.greader.reader
I have used ReaderScope for a few years and like it (G1 & Evo). The developer keeps in mind that many people flash ROMS and obtaining an unlock codes isn't difficult. The current version provides a trial period.
Check it out: http://groups.google.com/group/readerscope?pli=1
Has anyone ever played with this site? I work for a souped-up answering service (answer FAQs, log into CRMs, schedule appts, etc.) and our clients frequently ask if there's an app for the main scheduling application we use.
How hard would it be to develop an app to integrate with this website? If I knew how to do it myself I would.
http://www.appointment-plus.com/
Appointment Plus has a view only/text only mobile version of the site:
appointment-plus.com/mobile
Scheduler to Go is obsolete at this point as we're all using (Android) smart phones with true web browsers.
However, full functionality can be accessed from the Android browser by logging into the administrative view, so there's really no need for an app.
appointment-plus.com/login.php
I have heard from Appointment Plus that an app is in development. However, I really don't understand the obsession with "Apps". It's a software tool, useful in some cases, integrating the features of mobile devices such as GPS/Location. For this type of software, the full site is completely usable simply from the Android browser, and the capability of an app would simply not exceed the function of logging into the site from the browser.
xda devs aren't letting me post the links, but the login page is found on appointmentplus.com - client login link
and the mobile version is schedulertogo.com
Hope that helps!
dangerrr said:
Appointment Plus has a view only/text only mobile version of the site:
appointment-plus.com/mobile
Scheduler to Go is obsolete at this point as we're all using (Android) smart phones with true web browsers.
However, full functionality can be accessed from the Android browser by logging into the administrative view, so there's really no need for an app.
appointment-plus.com/login.php
I have heard from Appointment Plus that an app is in development. However, I really don't understand the obsession with "Apps". It's a software tool, useful in some cases, integrating the features of mobile devices such as GPS/Location. For this type of software, the full site is completely usable simply from the Android browser, and the capability of an app would simply not exceed the function of logging into the site from the browser.
xda devs aren't letting me post the links, but the login page is found on appointmentplus.com - client login link
and the mobile version is schedulertogo.com
Hope that helps!
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I've been accessing the full site through the browser and I completely agree; schedulertogo is 100% obsolete.
The advantage to an app is that it can pull contact data, pop up notifications, and generally integrate with your phone instead of being a website you visit occasionally. Imagine if you only had access to google calendar through a web view. NOT the same, is it? On top of that, what if you don't have reception? With an app you can schedule your appointment and let it sync on it's own when you find signal. Through the website you need reception at that moment.
FWIW it's worth I'm no longer with that company and am now selling residential solar power systems. Big upgrade, imo.
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/01/cloud-printing-on-go.html
This has a lot of potential and i hope that it will eventually spread to browsers and apps beyond those made by Google. From what i understand the ability to use this feature is already available to Chrome Beta users, but will we see it integrated into the likes of Internet Explorer etc?
I suppose one possibility would be having the function built into the Google Toolbar so that people can use it no matter what Browser they use.
Cloud computing is beginning to get interesting, what with sync between my Android device and my online apps and now this. I wonder what else we'll see in future?
With the NHL season coming up, as well as Mango, I was wondering how easy would it be to develop an app?
Would like to do something simple (in theory) with schedule, favourite team: live score/stats. Score Push/Toast/Tile notification. Maybe team news, or league news.
Heres is the stupid part, I have no experience ever developing an app, nor have any programming knowledge.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I assume you will need Visual Studio 2010 and will have to know .Net 4 and use VB or C# as a choice of language.
Not really sure about anything else past that.
there are plenty of tutorials around which will help you with that. the designing bit is not difficult at all: it's very intuitive in fact. you'll need to go through some basics of coding though. I recommend the dev education resources in the app hub (create.msdn.com). Best of luck with the app!
Thanks for the replies. I look around and yes as mentioned the designing process is a pretty intuitive and the coding seems like something I can probably find help with.
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
I know these are newbie questions, and I know I can probably just find the info on various websites, but I am the type that like to get a conversation going and perhaps find someone that can help out..... in return I promise to make an awesome app!
N0MN0M said:
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the hard part. I considered doing something similar previously but there don't appear to be any free services for sports scores. I remember stumbling upon FanFeedr but didn't really look to deep into it.
I kind of figured ESPN would just update SportsCenter with Mango features that add everything I had in mind eventually.
Best of luck with your NHL app! I can help if you have any questions I’ve already written a multi-league football app that does the things you mention (and a few things you didn’t )
Probably the best way to start is to try and write some code that reads RSS feeds; that way you’ll be writing your team and league news functionality which will immediately make the app useful. You could then e.g. have a page that displays news for each NHL team such as using the following RSS feeds:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/rss
(note the terms and conditions on the Yahoo one say not for commercial use; but if you’re looking to make it a paid app there will still be plenty of sites that let you use their RSS feeds for free).
To start coding it there’s a tutorial video on how to write a simple RSS reader using visual studio and expression blend here:
http://www.windowsphonegeek.com/videos/creating-an-rss-reader-for-windows-phone-7-in-5-minutes
For getting the live scores data (e.g. as an xml feed) you’re most likely going to have to pay for it (and people who provide it charge wildly different prices so have a good shop around). E.g. these people seem to be popular and do NHL (although they’re not the company I use so can’t comment on what they are like – mine only do football)
http://www.xmlteam.com
http://showcase.xmlteam.com/index.php/samples/showfixtures/8/l.nhl.com
Also note that getting access to data from a provider is only the first step – you’ll also need to write some code on a web server somewhere that transmits the scores and other data out to users of your app. Most sports data providers will not want each individual app user to download from them; so they’ll expect just you to download from them, and your users to download from you (i.e. for that you need to write a ‘web service’ on your web server/hosting company, probably attached to a database).
If that all sounds too scary, and/or you’re not looking to spend any money yet (which is probably wise) why not make the main focus something other than the live scores? e.g. perhaps you could make the news reporting better than other apps out there - e.g. lots of different news feeds for each team - really in-depth background on each team, perhaps a way for fans to talk to each other, ability to post things on Facebook about their team, tv schedules, toast messages for news headlines as they come out, player profiles, pictures… etc. etc. You could even type the scores in yourself if you still want them or just provide links to websites from within the app. Have a hunt around though as you sometimes find fan sites that put live scores and stats into free RSS’s.
You asked how easy it is; mine took about 3 months (and I’m a developer with 14 years’ experience of Microsoft technologies) but it all depends how many features you’re trying to write, and how professionally (I wanted to write the best). There’s so many great forums and examples of code out there you’ll be up and running in no time.
Hope that helps,
Ian
Have you ever wondered what the rainfall is and if you log your own records what other guys around you get?
This Idea came when I searched Playstore and found No hits, not one. This might be because no one on earth cares about amount of rainfall statistics, if that is the case then this thread can be regarded as web trash...
But I have an need for being able to log it on my phone and comparing stats with others
The idea of the app is that you upload your data as rain falls and other users do the same, not only will it be convenient and quick to use android for this but if uploaded to the web, others can access regional data and check different locations rainfall stats(map view maybe).
And the best of all is that once a few people constantly upload information it will escalate into an self sustaining application requiring minimal maintenance and updates.
How hard can it be to develop such an app and what skills will be required?
Hope you can share your thoughts on this topic, if it sound like an epic fail, speak your mind...