Newsgator (Denver) has released a Windows mobile RSS reader called Go!. Greg says it came out today. Earlier this year, I explained how my friend Kevin Cawley‘s company (SmartFeed) was acquired by Newsgator. Kevin, who now works for Newsgator, told to me today that Go! is “loosely” based on SmartFeed and reuses most of the RSS code from that product. However, he said that the “UI and workflow were completely redesigned.” Kevin went on to explain the critical role that synchronization must play in order for RSS to be successful.
I realized pretty early on that smartFeed was a great product that solved a problem that I had (getting RSS and podcasts on my mobile), but it absolutely needed the synchronization story to be a killer app and NewsGator had that nailed., said Kevin.
Kevin’s right in my opinion. I have tried a few mobile RSS readers and they’re not that useful to me. Basically, on my mobile device I only want to see unread items (based on my desktop). I use NetNewsWire and what I really want to see on my phone is my most important feeds, but only unread items. Unforutnately (for this purpose), I use a BlackBerry, so I’ll have to keep waiting. Go! only works on Windows Mobile devices. I switched to a T-Mobile MDA about 6 months ago and hated it so much that I had to switch back to my Blackberry. So I hope that when Kevin hints around about future support for other devices on his blog, he’s thinking about the Blackberry too. Then, I would use Go! (and pay for it).
