Having seen Viigo so frequently recommend as a feed reader in the Must Have Software thread, I decided to give it a try on my 7100. Generally it's a well executed app. The interface and menu selections are clean and straightforward. Good job guys.

I find, however, that there are some usability issues on my device. Some of it's a screen size issue which may be minimized on the larger devices, but apps should have usability features to account for small screens.

What do you think are essential usability features?

Pros:
1. Slick, attractive, compact, and functional interface.
2. Intelligent feed resolution - point it at a blog's main page and it finds the feed URL.
3. Channel and Article information menu selection lets one copy essential info like links.
4. Intelligent parsing of Title, Date, and Time.
5. Fine-grained control over updating.
6. Free!

Cons:
1. Meaningless Headlines: Too little of each article's headline appears in a feed's article list. So little that the subject is virtually impossible to understand without opening the article - a major inconvenience.

A 2 or 3 line headline or a popup description would greatly increase usability.

2. Awkward article navigation: Once an article is opened there's no key-based screen navigation. Not even the default BB 1/3 = top/bottom 7/9 = page up/page down. Long articles are tedious to scroll through. I especially notice this problem after falling in love with Opera Mini 4 Beta's new keyboard navigation. Major, major usability issue.

3. Cluttered and irrelevant trailing linkage: [ed: apparently these trailing links are from the blog, not Viigo, so this complaint is misdirected.] Digg, delicious, facebook, newsvine, geotagging. All that space and bandwidth sucked up by image, not text, links - that are often irrelevant.

4. No quick link to full article. Google reader, for instance, has an in-screen link to open the full article. Viigo requires a menu click and a scroll. Moderate hassle.

[Edited] Conclusion: Generally a well executed app. I take my hat off to the developers. While cons #1 and #2 are major usability issues, I find the pre-fetching a bit more usable than Google Reader and have since resumed using Viigo. It's a slick little app that will be killer when a few issues are worked out. (See Jay's response below.)

Too many navagation issues. I have to go to each site and delete (Mark as read). That is a deal breaker for me. They need to consider placing some shortcut keys and build more choices in their options menu..

I use Bloglines to grab my feeds into it. I like Bloglines. Issue with bloglines is that it seems to have some compatibility issues with my 8830 which did not occur with my 7250 model.

We appreciate the response and feedback, both the positive and constructive. I just wanted to follow up specifically to a few of your notes:

We agree... this has been one of those things we have been wanting to get into the product for a while, but for one reason or another has just been consistently defered for some other feature. Since its #1 on your list, will move it up the priority queue

This is another issue we are improving in an upcoming release, and has been mentioned by a lot of people.

This is actually not us adding this content, and due to content terms of service from many content providers, we're not at liberty to remove it. What we can do is improve the navigation features (as you've suggested above) to help you get to the relevant content more quickly.

We are improving this.

Thanks for taking the time to post this, theBorg. We are watching & listening, and hopefully you'll have a chance to circle back and try us again when some of this issues have been address in upcoming releases.

Hi, Jay. Thanks for your thoughtful response. Again, I'd like to emphasize that generally I think Viigo is a very well executed app and look forward to future releases.

Also, I couldn't stay away from Viigo and have since re-installed. I've edited my review as such.

I agree as well. I am currently using Freerange because of the issues mentioned by TheBorg. I prefer the 'looks' of Viigo, but the navigation of Freerange is superior. Once that is improved, i will be back with Viigo in a heartbeat. Hats off to the great software. Easily #2 in my books for RSS readers..a few modifications and you guys can steal the #1 spot with ease.

Wow Jay its good to see you here and active on the forums. Im quite excited about what Viigo has in store next. Is there any feature roadmap?

You beat me to it Entropy, I was also curious to know when/if there will be the 'next' Viigo release. Or if he has anything else up his sleeve?