Download Squad

Doppler Mobile

First up is Dopple Mobile, a Windows Mobile version of the free Doppler podcast aggregator. It also functions pretty well as a feed reader, with a few caveats.

Doppler runs on Windows Mobile 2003 or Windows Mobile 5 devices, but it requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0. While the .NET framework is a free download from Microsoft it'd be nice if the program took up a little less storage space. The latest version can be installed to a memory card, which helps a bit.

Doppler does a pretty good job of organizing feeds. You can view a list of feeds, click on a feed for a list of story headlines, and click on a headline for a complete story. There's also support for a couple of more advanced features:

• Downloading podcasts
• Import feeds from an opml file
• Synchronizing with Newsgator
• Update your blog (if it uses the Blogger or MetaWeblog API)

Unfortunately Doppler Mobile crashed on us when we tried the last two features. But since this is beta software, we're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope these bugs will be worked out in future releases.

News Interceptor Pocket

News Interceptor Pocket is another mobile port of a desktop feed reader. There's no support for importing opml files, but if you don't feel like typing all of your favorite feeds in by hand, News Interceptor has a handy feed search engine.

You can add the newest or most popular feeds. Or you can search for feeds by keyword.

News Interceptor doesn't do a great job of organizing feeds. The main page shows a list of headlines from all of your feeds. So if you only wanted to read the local newspaper's RSS feeds and not Cute Overload, you have to weed through the links.

You can set News Interceptor to check for new feeds at startup. You can also schedule it to check for updates at regular intervals. Like Doppler, News Interceptor lets you download podcasts.

pRSSreader

pRSSreader is probably the most full-featured free RSS reader available for Windows Mobile devices. It includes a ton of cool features:

• Customizable today plugin that scrolls through unread messages
• Search for new feeds by keyword
• Download enclosures and automatically create playlists
• Download updates manually or at scheduled intervals
• Change the look and feel of the program by customizing the reading dialog, font sizes, or use an external browser for viewing messages

pRSSreader also lets you import OPML files, but it takes much, much longer to import large files than using Doppler. Unlike Doppler, however, pRSSreader lets you export OPML files.

A few other options

There are also a number of programs out there that we wouldn't classify as RSS readers per se, but which provide an interface for checking your feeds.

QMAIL is a free email application that supports POP3, IMAP4, NNTP, and RSS protocols.

Webby is a commercial Pocket Internet Explorer plugin that adds tabbed browsing and adblock functions. It also supports basic RSS reading. The free version has a few limitations, such as allowing only two tabs at a time.

Mobipocket is an ebook reader that allows you to read RSS feeds. But rather than downloading feeds on your mobile device, Mobipocket includes a desktop client that does all the heavy lifting. You transfer the feeds to your device through scheduled or manual synchronization. Mobipocket works well if you have a PDA without an always available internet connection.