Develop Bugs

RSS Reader recommendations

I am looking for a mobile RSS Reader. Do not know much about them. am using pRSSreader and Viigo. Brand new to both but am really liking the feeds. Obviously free is nice, but would pay if it was a good reader. Want the full article, offline ability, ease of adding links, so new that I do not even know what i want - other than not to spend a lot of time entering links into a bad piece of software.
WM 6.1 Pro

Do a search for YomoMedia. Works great, looks nice, and you can manage your subscriptions from your PC as well as from the phone. And it's free.

i like that i can organize my feeds on the desktop. it has been difficult getting the feed urls entered into my device. with yomomedia, can you download the entire article and look at them offline?

thebrenda said:
i like that i can organize my feeds on the desktop. it has been difficult getting the feed urls entered into my device. with yomomedia, can you download the entire article and look at them offline?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm testing it right now (great find by the way, thanks Commdr64!!), and on the few feeds I've tested so far, the full version of the article has been included with the downloaded updates, available when you're offline.
It's a nice clean interface, runs smooth, and I like that you can manage your subscriptions from the desktop

Correction
Ok, I've found some feeds now that don't have the full article downloaded for offline viewing...they download in the app, but only when you click a link for the full article. I can't seem to find any settings that change that behavior, so I'm guessing it's dictated by the feed and not the app.

Right now I'm using the default RSS reader installed which works great, but Yomomedia sounds also very interesting.

I use SPB News (Full Text News Reader ) it's pretty good here's a link , and it has a Free Trial. I use alot of SPB products.
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/news/

BioTecK said:
Right now I'm using the default RSS reader installed which works great, but Yomomedia sounds also very interesting.
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Click to collapse
What default RSS Reader? My HTC TP2 does not have one.

sirphunkee said:
Ok, I've found some feeds now that don't have the full article downloaded for offline viewing...they download in the app, but only when you click a link for the full article. I can't seem to find any settings that change that behavior, so I'm guessing it's dictated by the feed and not the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that some feeds would not want the article downloaded. I am new to it but why would they want to give you the full article? Would think that they would want you to go to the site. Anyway ... I will download tonight and play with it.

RSS reader
I spend almost an hour in a train on my way to work/home and need a reader that can retrieve articles for offline reading. So recently I spent my whole weekend testing about 13 rss readers and podcast catchers - all i could find on the web. thought i would share my experience. I actually installed all of them and compared one by one. In my opinion the best reader is Egress and it is far superior than any of the readers both by the number of features it has and also customizations you can do. The only feature that this reader does not have compared to all others is that it is not designed to sync with online/desktop readers. I do not need that because in the train i read specific feeds only and leave the rest for desktop reading. It has not been updated for some time (i think it went to android), but even now its touch interface and visual looks are very modern. It is not free... The second best is Yomomedia, though it installs few things on device even though you choose Storage card.

wondering if you tried pRSSreader? it is not verying finger friendly and it is pretty stripped down. but i am a stock WM person - no too interested in the flash. but so far i like thr pRSSreader. don't know enough to know all the features. i do like that i can flag and save the likes to delicious to look at later on my desktop.

thebrenda said:
wondering if you tried pRSSreader? it is not verying finger friendly and it is pretty stripped down. but i am a stock WM person - no too interested in the flash. but so far i like thr pRSSreader. don't know enough to know all the features. i do like that i can flag and save the likes to delicious to look at later on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I tried pRSSreader as well and still have it on my device. However, I do not need an article to be saved for further reading in delicious (actually, i do not think such option is available in pRSSreader , as far as i can remember viigo has it).
egress is actually not flashy at all, just very convenient for use with fingers: scrolling up and down or left and right is well thought and produces intuitive results. The real winner is actually customizations available in its Options menu. For example, pRSSreader allows you define global setting on how to retrieve offline/webcontent. Egress allows both global and per feed customizations. You can organize your feeds, say, using Google reader and then export opml file to egress. I believe you can get 30-day trial version of egress, just try it.

how do you think egress compares with pRSSreader?
i save the feeds/urls in delicious because it is an easy way for me to flag them for later review on my desktop.

thebrenda said:
how do you think egress compares with pRSSreader?
i save the feeds/urls in delicious because it is an easy way for me to flag them for later review on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe i have replied in my previous post. Also as I mentioned in my first post, there is a free excellent alternative - Yomomedia.

SpeedReader 1.5

[Q] File Browser

I just got my self a samsung windows phone 7 and was looking around for a few hours. my question is, Is there a file browser(file explorer) built into WP7. I just cant imagine Microsoft settling with Iphone like interface where you need to sync music a photos and what not.

Simple answer is no and you won't be seeing one from Microsoft any time soon if at all. You can find plenty of threads on this topic if you take the time to search for them.

thank you. yea i would searched but didnt really have time to spare :\

I moved from an HD2 to an HD7 a week ago and thus far I haven't missed having a file browser. In fact I had completely forgotten about it until now.
....
Nope, I still don't miss it.

Jim Coleman said:
I moved from an HD2 to an HD7 a week ago and thus far I haven't missed having a file browser. In fact I had completely forgotten about it until now.
....
Nope, I still don't miss it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's probably because you don't do things which require that massively.
Like me - I never watch movies on my device so I did never care about missing codecs support.
But that doesn't mean they're not needed.
And BTW, regarding users etc.
The most successfull platform today supports all those missing things
yet it didn't prevent it from boasting a massive success on the market.
I'm probably going to try it this year, there are announcements of upcoming devices in Poland
unfortunately no qwerty ones (HD7,Trophy and this great LG)

doministry said:
It's probably because you don't do things which require that massively.
Like me - I never watch movies on my device so I did never care about missing codecs support.
But that doesn't mean they're not needed.
And BTW, regarding users etc.
The most successfull platform today supports all those missing things
yet it didn't prevent it from boasting a massive success on the market.
I'm probably going to try it this year, there are announcements of upcoming devices in Poland
unfortunately no qwerty ones (HD7,Trophy and this great LG)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe we don't miss it because we are not trying to use our devices as usb sticks (of which most people have several laying around).
The OS was designed that if something is stored on the phone, the proper apps can find them.
I too have not missed having a file explorer. The only reason I ever used it was to install cabs/ tweaks/ mods which are unnecessary on this device.

nrfitchett4 said:
maybe we don't miss it because we are not trying to use our devices as usb sticks (of which most people have several laying around).
The OS was designed that if something is stored on the phone, the proper apps can find them.
I too have not missed having a file explorer. The only reason I ever used it was to install cabs/ tweaks/ mods which are unnecessary on this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I say still - you don't do things which require that. Fine for you.
Composing email with many different attachements is the simple example here, without success on WP7 right now.
Deleting unwanted files on the device en masse is the second.
Currently you cannot even put all the desired files easily on the device with one simple move
Like docs, videos, pics alltogether. Videos are compressed for instance AFAIK before beeing stored.
Zune does not support docs. All is complicated than.
Device's ability to recognize files by an app is not blocking seeing the file structure.
My SE X2 can do it like WP7, but with all the file explorer capabilities.

doministry said:
So I say still - you don't do things which require that. Fine for you.
Composing email with many different attachements is the simple example here, without success on WP7 right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never needed to do that yet, but I'm sure the ability to do so will come via an update before I need it. It was very, very rare for me to need to do that when I used WM too.
Deleting unwanted files on the device en masse is the second.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, I just deleted a folder full of photos from my HD7 by tap-holding the folder and pressing "delete".
Currently you cannot even put all the desired files easily on the device with one simple move
Like docs, videos, pics alltogether.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Docs sync to Skydrive automatically if you use Windows Live Mesh like I do. Videos, Pics and Music all sync over wireless to the phone via Zune. How hard is that? Drag 'n' drop.
Erm...have you actually USED WP7?
Videos are compressed for instance AFAIK before beeing stored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, so are photos and music, all squeezed down to fit the phone's screen and memory. You don't HAVE to let Zune squeeze them, but it's an option I use extensively. No need for a 10Megapixel image on a 480x800 screen. No need for my mp3s to be more than 128Kbps either when using a bluetooth headset.
Zune does not support docs. All is complicated than.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No the docs sync via Windows Live Mesh. Sheesh. It's all automated.

As mentioned before, just do a proper search for the answer of the thread, the other comments are off again and do not contribute.

Adobe acrobat reader alternative. [WORKAROUND]

Hate trying to read PDFs on your WP7??!!
Me too!
So after a long day of reformatting PDFs, attempts at reading already uploaded PDFs from GDOCs (mobile site and app,) I was nearly ready to give up and chalk up this experience to a wasted day... Then voila! I noticed the amazingly convenient (yet painfully under-stocked) app "media console" by Overdrive which I have used to read library books; has a great option to add your own sites where you can access EPUBs (electronic publications.)
I then discovered www.2epub.com where I could upload (or insert links) to my PDFs and convert them to EPUBs. Using some lovely JavaScripty upload and conversion, I was then able to copy my newly converted EPUBs download links to media console.
Presto change-o I can now read my PDFs (now EPUBs) from the convenience of my windows phone, nicely formatted and easy to read.
I hope this helps
Sent from my T7575 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

I use Calibre for converting important PDFs to ePub and then upload those files to dropbox, from where I can pull it via Freda, an eBook reader that supports several formats.

Good to know, can you do all that from the phone? I am unfamiliar with Calibre and Freda.
Sent from my T7575 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

For the Calibre solution that dkp mentions, you have to run Calibre on a desktop PC.
But I just checked out the www.2epub.com site, with Freda. And I can confirm that works too. The steps are:
1) Create a new 'website source' for www.2epub.com
2) Navigate to it, tap the 'URL' button and enter the URL you want to convert, and then follow the instructions ... the site's javascript runs quite slowly on WP7 but it gets there.
3) When the 2epub site displays the EPUB download link, tap on it.
4) The EPUB will open in Freda.
A neat site - thanks for pointing it out.

sounds neat, however I still do not understand how it seems impossible to get a good PDF reader on WP7 -.-
My problem with all the converters, besides extra work, is that they mostly cannot handle PDFs with lots of pictures/graphs/diagramm.... Sad but true =(

brokenflipside said:
Good to know, can you do all that from the phone? I am unfamiliar with Calibre and Freda.
Sent from my T7575 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, Calibre is a desktop software. But it's convinient and fast.

dahlai said:
sounds neat, however I still do not understand how it seems impossible to get a good PDF reader on WP7 -.-
My problem with all the converters, besides extra work, is that they mostly cannot handle PDFs with lots of pictures/graphs/diagramm.... Sad but true =(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya its weird

Because of the file association issue, .pdfs can only be opened with one default program. Microsoft handed the honor to Adobe. Adobe apparently doesn't give a ...

dahlai said:
sounds neat, however I still do not understand how it seems impossible to get a good PDF reader on WP7 -.-
My problem with all the converters, besides extra work, is that they mostly cannot handle PDFs with lots of pictures/graphs/diagramm.... Sad but true =(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have checked and where media console by overdrive has a better layout IMO and is easier to work with; Freda does allow you to press and hold onto images to view them in a picture viewer mode, I will have to look at a chart to see what happens in those instances.

brokenflipside said:
I will have to look at a chart to see what happens in those instances.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The version of Freda that's on the marketplace at the moment has an issue with GIF files (so you may find some charts don't work, as they are often stored in GIF format). The next release of Freda, now in public beta test, will fix this issue.

Creating simple contacts' application

Hello all!
I am looking into development of something which is similar to people's list in people hub. What I want is a huge list of people on one page with (of course) LonglistSelector. When I tap a member of the list, I want the user to be navigated to the details page of that item. User needs to be able to manipulate and modify the data on the details page. The list is going to be real huge. I have a few question about the approach.
1. What is the best way to store data? I am thinking of creating local database with a few columns with person's name in one column, age in another etc.
If this is the approach to go for, can anyone provide me detailed description about the databases? I have deeply gone through the MSDN, WindowsPhoneGeek and many other documentations. I feel dumb about the whole database scenario.
2. Is XML list as database a good approach for large amounts of data or it will be pain?

i would say SQL CE is your best bet to store huge amounts of data. XML is slow at large volumes of data when compared to JSON. I would prefer JSON over XML.

darthveda said:
i would say SQL CE is your best bet to store huge amounts of data. XML is slow at large volumes of data when compared to JSON. I would prefer JSON over XML.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So basically, I need to go with the local database using LINQ. Now, how do I do that? As I mentioned, I have read intensively. However, I just don't seem to get hang of it.

akshay2000 said:
So basically, I need to go with the local database using LINQ. Now, how do I do that? As I mentioned, I have read intensively. However, I just don't seem to get hang of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I created my local database with LINQ based off this sample:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh286405(v=vs.92).aspx
First define the columns which you would want to create and then modify the sample code to suit your needs.
For contacts, there is an excellent sample available:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh286416(v=vs.92)
if you are stuck with some particular piece of code then let me know, i would be glad to help you out

darthveda said:
I created my local database with LINQ based off this sample:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh286405(v=vs.92).aspx
First define the columns which you would want to create and then modify the sample code to suit your needs.
For contacts, there is an excellent sample available:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/hh286416(v=vs.92)
if you are stuck with some particular piece of code then let me know, i would be glad to help you out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had gone through those links earlier! Back then, they made very little sense to me. I have researched a bit by now. I will update here if I get stuck somewhere.

hi
i had read the thread now and maybe this example of MS can help you... it's not based on local database, but uses ASP.NET Web API!
so maybe this is a way for you..

darthveda said:
if you are stuck with some particular piece of code then let me know, i would be glad to help you out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm attaching my code file to the post. When I try to run the app and click the button (it tries to add an item to the observablecollection) I get NullReferenceException error. Apparently, the collection's instant hasn't been created. But I tried to instantiate it using 'new' keyword - no luck. Am I doing anything wrong?

akshay2000 said:
I'm attaching my code file to the post. When I try to run the app and click the button (it tries to add an item to the observablecollection) I get NullReferenceException error. Apparently, the collection's instant hasn't been created. But I tried to instantiate it using 'new' keyword - no luck. Am I doing anything wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
solution folder will be better, you are using telerik controls, i can't recreate your solution.

It's done!
darthveda said:
solution folder will be better, you are using telerik controls, i can't recreate your solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response! After a lot of debugging and (almost literally) adding Debug.writeline after each line of code, I managed to solve it. It had nothing to do with the Database or the ObservableCollection. It was totally different - GroupDescriptor issue! More details here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ion-while-adding-item-to-observablecollection
I'll post here if I get stuck with something again.
Again, thanks a lot!

Any reason you are using telerik controls? for starters and very simple programs, you can use controls from silverlight toolkit or coding4fun toolkit. i am using longlist selector which does the job just like the jumplist from telerik controls does.

darthveda said:
Any reason you are using telerik controls? for starters and very simple programs, you can use controls from silverlight toolkit or coding4fun toolkit. i am using longlist selector which does the job just like the jumplist from telerik controls does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No specific reasons except that the Jumplist provides StickyHeader functionality. And animation framework seems nice addition too!

[Q] Best PDF annotator for university

I've found a few threads on this, but nothing related exactly to the nexus 7.
Just bought mine, mostly to use for university since I have to read dozens of pdfs and books each year, and wanted to save on printing.
I've had Ezpdf for some time, and while it works really well it has a tendency to crash when I'm highlighting... not fun... its slow to save so I lose a few pages of notation each time it crashes.
I have it hooked to dropbox, which is vital.
Anyone know of a better pdf annotator that works just as well and can sync with dropbox?
btw, I've used qpdf which I found real clunky and iAnnotate which is still taking baby steps.
Anyone else?

GuySmiles said:
I've found a few threads on this, but nothing related exactly to the nexus 7.
Just bought mine, mostly to use for university since I have to read dozens of pdfs and books each year, and wanted to save on printing.
I've had Ezpdf for some time, and while it works really well it has a tendency to crash when I'm highlighting... not fun... its slow to save so I lose a few pages of notation each time it crashes.
I have it hooked to dropbox, which is vital.
Anyone know of a better pdf annotator that works just as well and can sync with dropbox?
btw, I've used qpdf which I found real clunky and iAnnotate which is still taking baby steps.
Anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you can use Mendeley for your academic purposes.
http://blog.mendeley.com/tipstricks/android-on-mendeley-an-app-guide/

_Sasan_ said:
I think you can use Mendeley for your academic purposes.
http://blog.mendeley.com/tipstricks/android-on-mendeley-an-app-guide/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sold! Thanks for the tip.

_Sasan_ said:
I think you can use Mendeley for your academic purposes.
http://blog.mendeley.com/tipstricks/android-on-mendeley-an-app-guide/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spoke too soon. Just checked and there are only beta alternate apps for android. None of them allow for pdf note-taking.

I've used iAnnotate in the past and liked it. But now since Adobe Reader has annotating capabilities, I just use it.

imho Adobe Reader is just enough for everything. I have yet to find a better one...

I was trying to use Adobe reader, but its lack of cloud support make it much more difficult.
I just found Foxit pdf for android (have no idea how I missed it last time). Looks like the perfect match for studies. Never found foxit written down on any other forum site. Its an amazing app so far and looking forward to further development.

Buy EZPDF. Now.
That is all.
But seriously, it IS the best annotator out there. Underlining, strikethroughs, double-page viewing, TONS of options and settings, drawing, highlighting, custom colours for all of these writing tools, text boxes - the works. And it's pretty quick, too.
The crashes while highlighting, by the way, have JUST been introduced - Android 4.3 seemed to cause them. They're the biggest annoyance for me, too. The crash is directly tied to the length of time you hold your finger down. Around ~3 seconds seems to trigger it on my Nexus 10. They're quick to address bug reports, I'd suggest emailing them.

Repligo is the best. Sorry but nothing comes close...