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Pure news widget

Koxx

Android Enthusiast
Hi,

I started the dev of a new widget: Pure news widget.

It can display in a single or multiple widgets all news from your Google Reader account.

Currently, it require a launcher supporting scrollable widgets, like 'ADW.Launcher', 'Zeam Launcher', 'Go Launcher' or 'LauncherPro'
. If you have empty scrollable widget, this can be due to a Launcher bug, please read this post : Scrollable widget list disappear problem Android 'Pure' widgets series (calendar)

Later, it will support standard home (without scrolling mode).


news04.png


news03.png



If you have any remarks ;)
 
Will give it a try. What do you see the main differences being from existing widgets such as Scrollable News Widget and Atom RSS (the latter being my current installation)?
 
Will give it a try. What do you see the main differences being from existing widgets such as Scrollable News Widget and Atom RSS (the latter being my current installation)?

Scrollable news : not connect to Google reader, not skinnable, no offline reading (TBC, and coming to Pure news)

Atom Rss: ugly, not skinnable, config panel is a mess, dirty internal viewer with adverts everywhere, poor management of subscriptions (no choice of what should be synced or not of Google reader), and unstable.

Pure widgets are commited to be rock stable, skinnable, and with constant evolutions ;)

If you have any wishes about Pure news, don't forget to submit your ideas : Suggestions Android 'Pure' widgets series (calendar)
 
I use NewsRob, and mostly because it syncs whole articles for offline reading. I need this because I am often in places with no signal or internet during my commute, and I want to be able to see the day's news in full (not just headlines).

I actually really like Pulse, but I can't switch to it fully because it only syncs headlines, not full text.

So, that would be my suggestion. Full text for offline viewing.
 
I am working on it ;)
Currently, it works (full article cache) but with some troubles (no images), and some memory errors. I'll fix this during next weeks. [nota: this is not yet in the beta, don't search for it ;) ]
 
I downloaded Pure News widget and have been trying it out today. I have been able to sync with google reader but have not been able to finish setting up the widget by skinning it. I keep getting the "download failed, server temporary out of order message". But the scrollable widget itself is very nice although I wouldn't mind a few changes to it. I have been using the Pulse news app and widget and really don't have too many complaints about that. Once you open the Pulse widget itself, it also scrolls, but it scrolls side to side (and up and down with another tap of icon) not up and down like Pure News which is nicer. However, I like on the Pulse widget it separates your feeds more into categories.

Sometimes I just want to look at the feeds from gizmodo and not my other news feeds, or vice versa. It would be nice if Pure News widget was more like that, the feeds all seem jumbled up together. Maybe a tab at the top for each feed, then you scroll through all the gizmodo feeds under one tab and huffpo feeds under another, etc.

Another problem I have run into, which is more just an annoyance than a problem, sometimes when scrolling through the feeds, I'll hit it so that somehow it thinks I am trying to resize the widget (I am using LP+) and I have to stop and use the back button to get out of that.

But otherwise, Pure News is a very pretty widget and has lots of potential I think, this dev makes good stuff.
 
Also getting the skin download error. Apart from that I really like it. I actually like the fact that the feeds are all mixed up so I get to see what's happening regardless of source. I also use Pulse but this is much better for quick headline browsing

If you do implement the offline caching then a WiFi only option would be good
 
Thanks for the feedback about skin server. It's now fixed (it was on server side).

For switch about different subscriptions, I agree, I'll find a way to allow this.
Tabs would be too complicated and not compliant with the layout design, but I'll find a way ;)

For launcher resize, I can't control anything about it. You need to ask to the laucnher dev.

Offline caching is work in progress. It's currently working but without images ;)

I also plan a wifi only sync with auto-enabling.
 
Not a big news user but I use all of Koxx's other great widgets. You can be assured that anything he develops will have A+ support with attention to every detail. You can't go wrong ;)
 
I am working on it ;)
Currently, it works (full article cache) but with some troubles (no images), and some memory errors. I'll fix this during next weeks. [nota: this is not yet in the beta, don't search for it ;) ]

FWIW, I personally don't care about images. Just full text (in plain text format even) is great for me.
 
About ready to uninstall Pulse and use this as my only news reader. Any idea how much it will cost when it comes out of beta? The only things I can think of that would make it better are more organization of the subscriptions; more options to tweak the appearance...someone mentioned transparency, that would be nice; and an option to tweak the sensitivity of the scrolling action. And I like the pictures....I mean it simply is gorgeous to look at and functional to use as well. Good job.

purenewspic.jpg
 
For the price, I think it will be 0.99€ (~1.29$).

For transparency, you can already set it in the skin manager.

For scrolling sensitivity, it's fully hanlded by the launcher (can't be set in Pure widget).

For apparence, soon an option to select picture size.

For subscriptions organization, what would you like ?
 
$1.29 is a good price...no a great price. And I now see the settings for transparency under the skins....perfect. And as to the organization of subscriptions, say for example you have the following subscriptions: gizmodo, huffpo, cnn, bbc, espn. Can you make it so that all posts for each subscription...all giz....all huffpo...all cnn, etc. are one after the other, together? right now they are jumbled together a bit. I've actually got used to it like that but it would be nice if you could do that. But I have no complaints, I will definitely purchare Pure News when it comes out of beta. thanks for the hard work.
 
Another vote for Koxx for president!

Err yeah. :)

Seriously though, this guy is a great dev -- responds quickly to feedback and makes pretty nice widgets (I use the Calendar widget). If I read more news I'd probably get this.
 
lol :p

but, seriously, try it: I wasn't a news addict before I started my own widget. Now, I use it everyday... more than nearly all my other widgets (Pure messenger remains my favorite)...
Just pick some Reuters, NYT, or NBA news feeds ;)
 
Just a quickie to say that Pure News is working perfectly on my CM7'd Desire Z. As it stands I'd buy it right now just to have the matching set of widgets. :)
 
Did you ever delve into weather widgets koxx? I suppose I should just look. I've grown tired of BW causing OOM errors.
 
Yep, I had developped Weather Forecast widget, but it's now nearly abandonned (only fixing major bugs).
Why ? because weather informations provided by Google are too imprecise, and servers are not stable.
Users don't understand and note the weather provider ... not the app.
 
Just a quickie to say that Pure News is working perfectly on my CM7'd Desire Z. As it stands I'd buy it right now just to have the matching set of widgets. :)

thanks for the feedback !

I am adapting it for Android 3.0 scrolling mode... for my Xoom ;)
 
Pure news 0.4 on the market !
Big news : it mark as read feed on Google reader server
 
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