RIM is about to launch an app called News Feeds for keeping track of your favourite websites via RSS (Really Simple Syndication, for those who are unfamiliar). The Social Feeds app built into OS 6 had a separate tab for RSS handling, but I think it makes a lot more sense as something on its own, especially if RIM wants to give the old Viigo team a chance to strut their stuff.
News Feeds lets you import any feeds you may have had with your old Viigo account, subscribe to feeds in already-populated categories (including what looks like a dynamically-generated suggestions category), share news items via social networks and messaging, and set push alerts within your Messages application for when particular feeds are updated. News Feeds uses the BlackBerry ID system introduced in App World 2.0, so presumably you’ll be able to get all of your feeds from the cloud whenever you switch BlackBerrys. If you’re having trouble finding feeds to add, you can always just enter a search term and see what pops up, or if you know exactly what you want, put in a site’s RSS address to subscribe to the feed right away. I suspect that there will be some tie-in with the native browser so that if you’re looking at a site and want to keep tabs on it regularly, the “Add Feed” option in the menu launches the News Feed app
It’s a decent, if simple app right now, but I can’t see myself switching away from BerryReader without some native two-way syncing with Google Reader. Catching up on the odd story via mobile is handy and all, but ultimately useless if there’s no desktop component since that’s where I actually do anything with the stories. In any case, News Feeds will be going live in the BlackBerry App World Test Center sometime today. I’ll update this post with a download link as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, here’s some screenshots.
