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Welcome back for the next exciting entry in our Feed Reader Friday series where we are reviewing all of the available feed reading options for BlackBerry owners. If you are just joining us here at BBGeeks.com, please make sure you go back and check out all of our previous reviews so that you can chose the feed reader that is best suited to your needs.

This week we are going to take a look at the RssNews! RSS reader which is produced by IMOBLIFE.

The RssNews! feed reading application is priced at $9.99, but is available as a free trial download.

Overview

The RssNews! feed reader is a no frills piece of software that does exactly what you would expect from it’s name. You do not get any fancy graphic styling or intricate menu options. What you do get is straight forward news browsing in an RSS format on your BlackBerry.

All actions are performed from within the RssNews! application with the exception of reading full articles. When you wish to drill down into the full details of an article you will notice that RssNews! launches your mobile BlackBerry Browser to present the content.

While RssNews! does not offer all the bells and whistles of some of our other reviewed RSS readers (eg. Viigo and their online subscription management system), it does deliver the news you want both quickly and efficiently.

Requirements

There are no special requirements for running the RssNews! feed reading software on your BlackBerry. The software should run on any OS and any model of BlackBerry you may own.

Features and Functionality

Pre Selected News Feeds
RssNews! offers you a large number of pre selected news feeds so that you can get started with the RSS experience right away. When you load up RssNews! on your BlackBerry you are immediately presented with a series of categories, each containing multiple news feeds:

• Top News (23)
• Entertainment (31)
• Technology (10)
• Health (8)
• Finance (10)
• Sports (10)
• Blog (10)
• Opinion (10)

Low Data Usage
The RssNews! feed reader as stated above is no frills, so when browsing your feeds you end up using a very small amount of data. If you are operating your BlackBerry without an unlimited data plan this is an important factor to consider.

Support of various feed types
There is full support for both the RSS and ATOM feed types.

Auto Update of all your chosen feeds
The RssNews! reader will run in the background while you use your BlackBerry for more important things. When it is time for you to take a break and digest some of your favorite news, all of your feeds will be entirely up to date. This saves you on bandwidth because there is no need to download extraneous data while trying to access the new content.

Browse Full Article Content
You have the option to dig down within the abstract of a particular article or news item in order to view the full text and images. When you choose to do so, your session will be transfered to the BlackBerry Mobile Browser ensuring you have access to all links and images.

Bookmarking and Sending to a Friend
With only a few clicks you can bookmark an article or abstract for offline viewing. This makes it a great resource for times when you may be without a cellular signal, or limited in how you use your BlackBerry (ie. on a plane or in a hospital). Additionally you will also have the option of email an article or abstract to yourself or a friend who may find it interesting.

Adding and Removing Feeds
Yes, the pre selected set of news feeds available through RssNews! by default is entirely useful and has some great resources included. This does not mean that it is comprehensive however. In the event that you wish to read an RSS feed that is not included in the RssNews! default configuration, it is really a matter of a few clicks of the trackwheel (trackball). Removing feeds from your list once they have been added is equally as painless.

My Opinion

In my opinion, the RssNews! feed reader is an excellent application choice for those of you who have never been introduced to the concepts of RSS reading before now. With it’s easy to navigate architecture and straight forward, no-frills presentation, there is really nothing to distract you from your primary task of reading the news. That being said, I think that a more experienced user will find this application to be underwhelming. If you fit into the later category, you might want to check out some of our other RSS reader reviews for a more suitable option.

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