Marketplace Pick
Market Pick
WHAT'S HOT
Having access to thousands of RSS Feeds at your
fingertips!
SETUP
Setup requires nothing more than any other Pocket
PC software install.
PROGRAM FEATURES
Egress is easily up to the task of taking
on any desktop RSS Reader out there, the layout is well thought out
and very functional, and to top it all off Egress features a Today Plug-in.
Here's a quick run down of features
from the website.
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What's amazing about Egress is it's customizability. Having tons of information at your fingertips is definitely amazing, but if there's no way to organize the data it's useless. Egress doesn't skimp on giving the user just that, control over the RSS feeds. That's what makes Egress standout, it's easy enough to pull feeds down, but organizing them in a coherent manner on the Pocket PC requires some thought.
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A simple double tap of the topic launches Pocket Internet Explorer or any browser you choose to have launch.
If you're like me, once you install Egress you won't just have 4-5 feeds, these things are addictive! I have about 15-20 most times. Egress makes it easy to keep track of the feeds you've read and the last time you've updated them, with the time stamp feature. Notice how the title of the feed changes from bold to regular text to show that it has been read. You can control the delay for when items are marked as read too. Feeds can also auto update, the time can be set from once every 15 minutes to once a day.
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Egress has folder support for organizing all those feeds you'll collect. In the 'Manage Channels' dialog you simply drag the feeds into a folder to nest them in a category or rearrange them at the root folder. The folders keep everything nice and organized. As you can see below pruning your feeds is also as effortless as adding them.
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To make folders for feeds you simply create a new feed but enter only a Title, no RSS information, then you just drag a feed onto it. Another smart feature is that Egress automatically enters the HTTP:// portion to save you some typing when entering a feed.
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There's no end to the options Egress gives you to customize your viewing experience. Folders can be located anywhere on you Pocket PC. You also have the choice of changing the color of the feed in the collapsed and un-collapsed view. Fonts can also be selected and sized to your hearts content.
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One last feature of Egress is it's ability to read an exported list of feeds from a desktop RSS Reader. I've only tested it with SharpReader, but it works very well. Simply Export the .opml file from SharpReader and copy it over to your channels folder on the Pocket PC, bam instant feeds! Seeing as SharpReader is open source I can imagine some interesting fusion between these two. It's easier to add feeds on the desktop then export them over to Egress, hint, hint :)
HELP SUPPORT
There's no help file when Egress is installed,
but then again there's really no need for one, entering a feed is easy
enough and there are some default feeds installed for you. Karl Hessinger,
the developer of Egress is very helpful and responsive to email, so
any questions you may have will be answered swiftly. Karl also updates
Egress like a madman! I was waiting on version 1.1.7 for the review,
and what do I get? 1.2.0! If you have any doubts on support, look at
this page.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
A Pocket PC running
2000 or later, a storage card is also recommended, believe me you will
become addicted to RSS. You don't want them taking up your Pocket PC's
main memory.
BUGS AND WISHES
There
were no bugs in version 1.2.0 of Egress, Karl seems to have stomped
out most of the major ones in this version. The only peculiar thing
I've noticed is that sometimes the feeds don't download when I try to
update all channels immediately after download. Now this could simply
mean there's nothing to update, I'm not sure. I have an email into GarishKernels
and will post my findings in the forum. The only feature I wish Egress
had is a progress bar when downloading feeds. Seeing the syncing arrows
is a good thing, but nothing beats a good 'ole blue progress bar. Another
feature that would be awesome is the ability to sync feeds back and
forth automatically between SharpReader and Egress, without having to
export. Probably something totally outside the scope of Egress but hey,
this is the 'Wishes' part of the review!
PURCHASING
Egress
can be purchased at either Handango
or PocketGear
for a reasonable $10. There's also a fully functioning 30 day demo available.
PROS
Extremely customizable
Import from SharpReader
- Today screen plug-in
CONS
No progress bar
Feeds sometimes won't update again immediately after a download
OVERALL IMPRESSION
As a long time Avantgo user I have to say I had
an epiphany when I started using Egress. It's faster than Avantgo and
more RSS feeds exist than Avantgo could ever hope to have. If you have
wireless connectivity of any sort then Egress is a must. Once you get
used to having access to customized information to your liking at your
fingertips, there's no turning back! For me, aimlessly browsing the
web on my Ipaq is over. I prefer to jump to the website when I find
something interesting on a feed. I've been telling everyone who will
listen about RSS. But it seems to be one of those things you have to
actually use to see how cool it is. So, download Egress and get with
the program!
