[akosnitzky]

New version of Viigo launched | BlackBerry Cool

[VickyPaz]

Yes, much cleaner than previous version...

[evilcaptain]

Yes, now you can open in browser on the curve. Thanks.

[rivviepop]

How's the scrolling and UI performance these days, has it quickened? I've been using Freerange for awhile, Viigo was a bit too sluggish for me in the UI, I would scroll down and there were pauses due to slow code inside "doing stuff"... and I hate laggy UI apps.

[Stinsonddog]

Viigo Virtual Reach Download

Yes I like it. Seems snapier.

[akosnitzky]

I used the Blackberry Cool download. Does it matter?

[Stinsonddog]

don't think so

[ImportSport]

This version seems quicker all around. Could just be in my head but updates, scrolling and even picture loading have been quicker.

I also noticed that this version seems to manage duplicate stories much better. I would get a lot of identical stories in the last version.

[bigberry]

Yes much better, cleaner and it would seem, faster.

[rivviepop]

As mentioned above, I haven't used it in quite some time (6mo?) - last night I reinstalled and reconnected my account. I can 100% say for sure this version is a LOT snappier and quick to respond that what it used to be, and by no small amount. They've improved the code to the point I don't notice any lag (which is the point), whereas before it was just painful.

On my 8320 Viigo and Freerange now perform at the same level, it's eerie how similar they are these days. Definitely neck-and-neck competition going on here, may the best reader win! I'll continue to compare both, I don't see a clear winner - compared to a year ago, this is a huge win-win scenario for all BlackBerry users. We go from having acceptable choices that work to having two great choices that make it hard to choose the better one.

[dbltap]

The main reason I would want a news reader is for off-line reading while traveling. I spend way too much time on airplanes. It looked like a large percentage of the feeds were only headers. So to read the full article, you have to download one at a time. Am I missing an option to download all news stories for later reading?

I can do this now with MobiPocket and store the articles on the Media Card. I do like the Viigo interface and feed management tools. But I really need to have everything already on the device once I am on a plane.

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by dbltap

The main reason I would want a news reader is for off-line reading while traveling. I spend way too much time on airplanes. It looked like a large percentage of the feeds were only headers. So to read the full article, you have to download one at a time. Am I missing an option to download all news stories for later reading?

I was curious, I just checked both - Freerange has Viigo beat hands down in this department.

Viigo offers one option to "Save all on Exit", and it does download the article text during update (but not images). So, if you enable that option (it also has a Prompt setting so you can choose dynamically) and set the app to Exit when you press escape (not move to the background, the default) then I *think* you'll get what you want. There is one setting to indicate how many (total) articles to store and that's it.

Freerange, however, goes way way beyond this - there are individual settings for how many articles to download, the sizes of each, the size of the stored article cache itself, how much image data to store, and all sorts of other fine grained controls. I have most of mine set to 0 (0 = all) and it's been working just fine. But of course, Freerange costs $$$.

EDIT: I just re-read your statement again and you specifically mention airplanes. Freerange has a specific 'Flight Mode' set of settings to cater to folks in your position, Viigo does not (yet). Maybe write them an email and request the features you need?

[akosnitzky]

I use bloglines which fits nicely with Viiigo but I would definitely like to to look at free range.

[akosnitzky]

Is Free Range the product that gives you a specific number of free reeds? If so, then that may be the reason why Viigo looks more attractive to some.

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by akosnitzky

Is Free Range the product that gives you a specific number of free reeds? If so, then that may be the reason why Viigo looks more attractive to some.

yah, I think it's... 10? feeds before you have to pay, which seems like a reasonable business model to me. One positive is that there is no reduced functionality (that I'm aware of) if you're running it in < 10 feed mode.

[akosnitzky]

I do not mind opening my wallet. I had been using bloglines and VIIGO grabs my bloglines acct which is nice. I will definitely try free range at some pt.

Thank you.

[rjw3000]

Originally Posted by evilcaptain

Yes, now you can open in browser on the curve. Thanks.

I will have to download this and finally get rid of that annoyance

[snowskier79]

Originally Posted by rivviepop

As mentioned above, I haven't used it in quite some time (6mo?) - last night I reinstalled and reconnected my account. I can 100% say for sure this version is a LOT snappier and quick to respond that what it used to be, and by no small amount. They've improved the code to the point I don't notice any lag (which is the point), whereas before it was just painful. . .

Definitely agree rivviepop; noticeable improvement!

[luckman212]

I paid for FreeRange and was using it for a while before I tried Viigo. I did not realize right away that Viigo does not download full articles so that they can be read "offline". This is a nice feature of FreeRange. However FreeRange feels "slower" and one thing which I use constantly is the "post to del.icio.us" so I can read things on my PC later, and on FreeRange it takes like 6 or 7 clicks to make these posts, while Viigo does it in 2 clicks. I would like to keep both of them on my BB but I feel they hog memory and slow down the phone so -- 1 of them must go. I am not sure which to keep!!

Someone help me decide! I sort of lean towards Viigo actually because it feels "faster"...... I wish there was a comparison/review somewhere? (is there?)

[rivviepop]

Originally Posted by luckman212

However FreeRange feels "slower" and one thing which I use constantly is the "post to del.icio.us" so I can read things on my PC later, and on FreeRange it takes like 6 or 7 clicks to make these posts, while Viigo does it in 2 clicks.

Are you using the latest (2.2.8) version of Freerange? Posting to del.icio.us takes 2 clicks (well, technically 4 if you count menu key strokes); click 1 from the menu takes you to where you add tags, click 2 posts it. If you have "show confirmation" turned on, then there's a 3rd click to dismiss that (but I turn it off).

I'm not trying to make this sound anti-Viigo, but facts are facts. I just did the same thing with Viigo and it's Delicious support is amateur compared to Freerange; you cannot set 'not shared' in Viigo, you can't post it to Delicious from the article list (you have to be in the article itself), there's no global config to store common options. Viigo also does not allow you to enter notes when posting the article, but Freerange does. In short, Freerange support all the Del.icio.us features whereas Viigo supports just the basic idea. (but it's great they both support it!)

I also don't feel slowness - Freerange 2.2.8 and Viigo 2.2.70 feel the same speed. This is on an 8320 though, I don't know how it compares to the 8300 you list, maybe there's a difference on your device or OS (it happens). Viigo is definitely really zippy though!

What I do like a lot about Viigo is adding/searching for new feeds, they've got a superb interface for this and it's much richer than what's offered by Freerange. I also like the special Viigo Bulletins channel they have, and the status messages are really cute (i.e. during setup it's "Please wait while we connect some wires..." and such, a little humour). It's nice when a piece of software has the human touches like that, it gives you the warm fuzzies.