Release of Piconews 2.0 [Archive] - BlackBerry Forums Support Community

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yann

12-21-2005, 11:38 AM

Hi everybody!

I've just noticed the release of a new version of Piconews (previously BBnews) : see http://www.piconews.com

Piconews is a news reader for different platforms, including Blackberry. News items are pushed to your device in realtime, and you can read them when you want.

This software is free and really nice :smile: , and far better than newsclip (which costs $30/year!!!)

Download link (http://www.piconews.com/Piconews_2.0.0.zip)

CanuckMakem

12-21-2005, 11:26 PM

Loaded and it won't connect. Sent a support email... :)

torifile

12-22-2005, 05:51 AM

Very nice! I've notice a graphical glitch on my 8700c. When scrolling down to the next page, the text gets all messed up (like it didn't refresh). Scrolling back up fixes it. But I'm impressed anyway. It's fast and has been easy to figure out so far. :)

KonTiki

12-22-2005, 09:53 AM

Installed and it works as good as ever.

CanuckMakem

12-22-2005, 12:34 PM

Wonder if I'm unable to use this due to my network restrictions? Still not heard back from Piconews.

finch

12-22-2005, 12:37 PM

I think Bell and Telus have blocked the ports that allow third party apps to communicate via their netwoks.
Loaded and it won't connect. Sent a support email... :)

wuberry

12-22-2005, 02:18 PM

CanuckMakem

12-22-2005, 05:39 PM

I think Bell and Telus have blocked the ports that allow third party apps to communicate via their netwoks.

Yes they have... my own little BB nightmare!! It sucks... royally.

koleary19067

12-22-2005, 06:02 PM

I downloaded it and it is great. Love it so far.

KonTiki

12-22-2005, 08:52 PM

Yes they have... my own little BB nightmare!! It sucks... royally.

You could try to find out if Telus has any ports open and find out from the tech support at Piconews if they have an alternate port some software will have alternates or allow you to change it to one that you can use, so if Telus lets you know if there are any ports that are open you may have a shot. A good example I believe is Ramble.

yann

12-22-2005, 11:55 PM

I just installed this and it's working great. However, I bet there's a lot of data being transferred.

Just to doublecheck ... I'm n ot going to need a second mortgage to pay my next bill ... right? I have a truly unlimited (Cingular) data plan.

Many thanks.

It depends on the number of feeds you subscribed to, and if they broadcast a lot of news or not... As for me, my operator charges me with around one buck per month. This is totally acceptable when you see how addictive this software is! 8-)

Jase88

12-24-2005, 12:59 AM

Installed it over the air and it works great on my 7250 on Bell Mobility (with BES).

This software is better than many subscription services, IMO. The interface is clean and intuitive, and includes battery and signal meter views at the top. This looks like a keeper...

garymcm

12-24-2005, 10:56 AM

Hi everybody!

This software is free and really nice :smile: , and far better than newsclip (which costs $30/year!!!)

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You say it is better than Newsclip. I am evaluating both at the minute and I love the Piconews interface; however, Newsclip has rich text and images. Piconews renders that as raw html. This is a deal breaker for me (yeah free but I mean in terms of usability).

So far Newsclip is the best RSS reader I have tried.

KonTiki

12-24-2005, 11:14 AM

You say it is better than Newsclip. I am evaluating both at the minute and I love the Piconews interface; however, Newsclip has rich text and images. Piconews renders that as raw html. This is a deal breaker for me (yeah free but I mean in terms of usability).

So far Newsclip is the best RSS reader I have tried.

I use an news reader on my BB for news on the fly when I have no access to my computer or television. Rich text and images are not essential at that time, to pay money to see glitz its fine if that is what you like but to say it is the best because it has them is not. Pico news is extremely user friendly, sets up nicely and easy, allows you to add your own, and it is free. The people that put it out ought to be commended after all this world sees enough commercialism, Thank You BlackTouch, I appreciate your efforts and cudos for a job well done.

SMorganPhoto

12-24-2005, 11:45 AM

I'm getting a connection refused error

koleary19067

12-24-2005, 12:58 PM

I have been getting that error on and off. No problems today but yesterday i was getting that error message

garymcm

12-24-2005, 01:00 PM

I use an news reader on my BB for news on the fly when I have no access to my computer or television. Rich text and images are not essential at that time, to pay money to see glitz its fine if that is what you like but to say it is the best because it has them is not. Pico news is extremely user friendly, sets up nicely and easy, allows you to add your own, and it is free. The people that put it out ought to be commended after all this world sees enough commercialism, Thank You BlackTouch, I appreciate your efforts and cudos for a job well done.

The problem is that the common feeds like NYT, Google News, Engadget, BlackberryCool all provide rich text and so the output is foobar in Pico. Unless I am missing some preference in the App. I don't care for Rich Text it myself, so I'm not trying to change your opinion, but if this is the way RSS is going I would have thought any reader worthy of consideration would need to support it.

The reason I like it and i have tried litenews and freenews too -- so that's my basis of comparison here -- is that it is reliable (freenews locked my system after using it for a couple of days), has helpful keyboard shortcuts and has user friendly menus (like you can delete all articles whether read or not -- this is a 2 step process in Pico) and special views.

yann

12-27-2005, 05:30 AM

You say it is better than Newsclip. I am evaluating both at the minute and I love the Piconews interface; however, Newsclip has rich text and images. Piconews renders that as raw html. This is a deal breaker for me (yeah free but I mean in terms of usability).

So far Newsclip is the best RSS reader I have tried.

I had the same problem with one of my favorite feeds. I wrote an email to support@<hidden> and they improved their HTML filter. The software team said me a new version was being prepared: it should include rich text and images support. However, none of my feeds include images for now, so that's not a problem for me at the moment...!

yann

yann

12-27-2005, 05:32 AM

I'm getting a connection refused error

Did you use the "email support" integrated function? A friend of mine had the same problem because his BB wasn't Internet-aware. A little setting given by the support allowed him to go ahead and to enjoy pico. 8-)

Ganksta187

12-29-2005, 09:40 AM

I installed it and subscribed to a few feeds. But i cant connect, to accept the terms and conditions. My APN is set up correctly. Gives me a connection refused error. Anyone have any suggestions?

DaveMode

12-29-2005, 08:19 PM

Is there no way to move the feeds around? My most viewed news feeds are at the bottom of my list.

dranger

01-03-2006, 12:53 PM

I don't like how it connects you to the WAP browser if you want to read the full story. If I wanted to use the WAP browser, I would use a WAP-based mobile reader that syncs with my desktop reader. I'm not saying it's a horrible application, just that it isn't as complete as I like.

garymcm

01-09-2006, 12:38 PM

garymcm

01-09-2006, 12:41 PM

Is there no way to move the feeds around? My most viewed news feeds are at the bottom of my list.

I have been trying to figure that out too.

I would love to get rid of the background which fades to dark about 2/3 across the screen. It is annoying and can make the list harder to read.

Also for some reason if I set auto-purge to on and 10 articles, I still get like 40 articles per feed. I tend to get the same articles over and over again. Why can't it remember what ones have been pushed to me and not mark it as unread?

sabesh

01-22-2006, 11:35 AM

Just tried it out. Not bad. However, I prefer FreeNews (http://www.freerangeinc.com/products/). I like the fact that it has an option to view the full article offline with no graphics: Saves me bandwidth. In fact, I've replaced PocketDay with FreeNews as it addresses 3 items I want: Weather, Stocks & News. Cheers, Sabesh.

Seattle18

01-22-2006, 01:07 PM

KonTiki

01-22-2006, 02:55 PM

Why is there a $20 charge for "Free" News?

Because Free is the bait and $20 is the Hook.

sabesh

01-22-2006, 09:37 PM

Why is there a $20 charge for "Free" News?
I tried all the mentioned RSS readers at BBF and decided that Freenews is the best for me. Hence, I paid for it, as I think its worth it. Cheers, Sabesh.

joginder

01-23-2006, 12:11 PM

This is really good app. So far I have been using RSS feed thru hlhawk.com and that has been really good and low bandwidth usage. So i will try thing now.. Worked well in the first try.
great app!!

yann

01-23-2006, 12:14 PM

Yeah, that's right: as for me, the bill at the end of the month has been lower than $1 more expensive than usual since Piconews installation.

99Vert

01-23-2006, 12:39 PM

OTA d/l'd, went as planned; perfect!

Inphektion

01-23-2006, 01:35 PM

except for scrolling doesn't refresh so I have to scroll back up. This makes it not worth it to me.

KOR

01-27-2006, 12:56 PM

All,

I queried the developer regarding a usage manual and shortcuts and received the following:

///
No manual is currently available, sorry for the inconvenience.
However, we will provide some help documents shortly on Piconews website.

About the shortcuts : hitting 'enter' on a closed feed opens it, on a opened feed, it closes it, and on a news, it opens it in the news screen. You can also use 'B' and 'T' to go to the bottom and the top of the feed list. When you are reading a news item, you can use 'P' and 'N' to read the previous and the next item. Hitting 'space' in the news screen will scroll the news text, and jump to the next news when you reached the bottom.
If you think some other shortcuts should be added, don't hesitate to share your wishes with us.
///

Hope this is helpful.

Ciao