Getting A Custom Newsfeed Using The Palm Pre
Whilst using the Palm Pre I was on the lookout for a news feed reader – there is a sample application in the webOS development area however I needed something at short notice that was up and running that I could take with me whilst travelling. There still isn’t much in the Palm App Catalog here in the UK as we await the latest firmware release for the device so it doesn’t take long scouring the catalog.
Fortunately, Hobbyist Software was at hand as they have taken the sample code fro the News Feed Reader, tweaked it a little, and made it available, for free, on the Palm App Catalog (the current version available here is v0.8.51).
The News Feed Reader comes preloaded with a number of well known RSS feeds including BBC News, New York Times, Guardian UK, Google, Engadget, and Dilbert.
You can also configure and manage your own feeds by simply entering the URL to the RSS or ATOM based feed and giving it an optional title.
Once you have the requisite feeds you can kick off a manual update of all feeds, or set a timed update which can also show a notification and wake the device from the standby screen.
The latest news section at the top can also be configured to rotate the latest headlines every few seconds.
Hobbyist Software have a number of other products available for the iPhone, Palm and Palm Pre but for this article I will be highlighting the Palm Pre applications, all of which are currently available in the Palm App Catalog:
- VLC Remote – use your device as a remote for the open source VLC media player (such as the one available with PortableApps).
- iTunes Remote – get iTunes under control and manage it from the comfort of your Palm Pre.
- Converty – Convert between currencies (conversion data is obtained via a link to Yahoo) and other units (for example pounds, kilograms, stones, hundredweight) quickly.
- News Feed – a useful RSS News Reader for web OS based on the webOS development sample.
To learn more about the range of products visit Hobbyist Software.
Update: I recently discovered the Newsweek application from the Palm App Catalog allows you to put in your own news feeds too. We’ll look at that application in a later article.
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