BlackBerry News 1.0 for BlackBerry PlayBook has been released and is now available for download in BlackBerry App World.
With BlackBerry News, you can add any RSS feed from your favorite news sites, favorite blogs, or other popular sites with syndicated content, so all the news you’ve subscribed to comes to you in one place. This application is an extension of the BlackBerry News Feeds application currently available for BlackBerry smartphones.
BlackBerry News 1.0 for BlackBerry PlayBook has a lot of features that you can read about over on Inside BlackBerry. The one feature, or, lack there of, that will keep me from even installing BlackBerry News on my PlayBook is Google Reader support. Google Reader synchronization is a standard that any feed reader worth the time it took to develop must support. RIM doesn’t get a pass on Google Reader sync, not even in a 1.0 release, because it is something that they’ve had before back when BlackBerry News was called Viigo…
Back in March of this year Research in Motion acquired Viigo, the company behind the popular RSS aggregator for BlackBerry that has been known to make a top ten BlackBerry applications list or two. Other than the announcement that Viigo for Windows was being EOLed (End of Life), we really haven’t heard much about RIM’s plans for RSS aggregation on the BlackBerry platform… At least this was the case until yesterday when RIM announced BlackBerry News Feeds Beta for BlackBerry.
BlackBerry News Feeds is currently available in BlackBerry App World under the test center category, but, those of you familiar with Viigo will find a stripped down version of what they once new as arguably one of the best third party applications for the BlackBerry. You can import your Viigo feeds in to BlackBerry News Feeds, but, you can no longer get sports scores, flight arrival times, or the weather updates. Jay Steele, Viigo’s founder and now senior director of content distribution platforms at RIM said “Viigo was actually duplicating a lot of the things RIM and a lot of other third parties were doing. So a lot of the full-featuredness is definitely going away.”
Another thing that you won’t find BlackBerry News Feeds is two-way Google Reader synchronization. The Viigo, err, RIM team is working on adding this feature, but, it’s absence makes installing BlackBerry News Feeds almost pointless if you rely on Google Reader unless you just want to see what the new app looks like. I am sure that BlackBerry News Feeds will get better over time, however, I recommend that any BlackBerry user serious about viewing RSS feeds on their BlackBerry take a look at BerryReader.
Download BlackBerry News Feeds Beta from BlackBerry App World if you want to give it the once over…
[Via PCmag]
Not that we didn’t see this coming after RIM’s acquisition of Viigo back in March, the BlackBerry maker has decided to end of life the Windows Mobile version of the application. As of right now, you can no longer download Viigo for Windows Mobile and support will be killed on July 21st.
We just heard that Research in Motion has acquired Viigo, makers of the popular BlackBerry RSS Reader that goes buy the same name.
Our team has joined RIM’s global organization and will continue to bring our expertise in BlackBerry application development and real-time content delivery to the BlackBerry platform.
[Source]
We just heard that Viigo has been updated to Build 3.0.856 and now has native support for the BlackBerry Storm. I’ve only been playing with the latest version for the passed 10 minutes or so, but, at first glance, it seems to be a bit quicker and more stable. There is no need to run it with Compatibility Mode disabled.
The ability to update Twitter right from your feeds has been added as well.
As always, Viigo is a free BlackBerry download that you can install on your device OTA by visiting http://getviigo.com/beta directly from your device’s BlackBerry Browser.
[Source]
I case you won’t be sitting in front of your TV or computer following the polls in today’s election, Viigo has added real-time election results feed to their popular BlackBerry RSS news reader.
If you don’t already have you can get it here. You definitely can’t beat the price…
One of the most popular posts that we have here on RIMarkable is 5 Must Have Free BlackBerry Downloads which was written almost two years ago back in June of 2006. Since so many visitors come to that particular post we’ve decided to update it 2008 style.
A few of the free BlackBerry downloads from our original list remain on the updated version. You will, however, see a few additions to the the new list. So, without further ado, here is our updated list of 5 Must Have Free BlackBerry Downloads in no particular order.
[click to continue…]
Viigo, the company that brought you the popular free RSS aggregator for your BlackBerry has put up a new teaser site for Project Tango, new piece of technology coming out at WES. We can’t tell you exactly what Project Tango is, however, it looks like a new and improved RSS aggregator. If you look closely you will notice a section for Audio just below WES2008 under the red veil.
Might streaming podcast support be coming to the BlackBerry? Time will definitely tell. If you can wait a few more months however, download Viigo to your BlackBerry now. Viigo is one BlackBerry application that I use myself and the price is right too…
[Project Tango]