My Google Chrome extension "Comment Save" - Off-topic

Hey all,
I made an extension for Chrome users called "Comment Save":
I'll let the description speak for itself. I have personally found it useful for keeping track of my posts on XDA and other forums. Hope you guys find it useful and any suggestions will be useful!
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ndmcbhmmonjkclhmeidccodfhlifmmco
Ever written a large post or comment on a website, click submit, only to see your comment get lost in the internet wilderness? Or your tab/window closed somehow before you could submit?
Or maybe you just like to keep track of all the posts you made on different websites.
Comment Save (CS) helps you keep track of what you have been writing as you type. Icon beside the address bar brings up a window showing you the last post you wrote alongwith a link to the page. Link in the window allows you to view your post history.
You can also filter websites where you don't want any of your posts to be tracked.
Works on sites like:
- Youtube
- Facebook
- Gawker blogs (Gawker/Gizmodo/Jezebel/Lifehacker/etc.)
- Engadget/Techcrunch/etc. (Sites which use Disqus)
- Wordpress/Tumblr
- Forums of all kinds
- Digg/Reddit
- CNN/New York Times/The Guardian/other news websites
- And lots more!
FEATURES:
------------------
* Records your post as you type so you can recover it if you lose it.
* Keeps a history of all your posts along with a link to the page and the time.
* Allows you to add filters so you can disable tracking on certain websites.
* Simple checkbox in the popup window enables/disable tracking globally.

Pretty cool idea, shame firefox is the love of my life haha, will try later though.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Bump. I might make it for FF someday

One last bump

And for Opera

Related

App List

As I did for the Nook Color community, I have created a list for people to post apps that are working and not. It's helpful to post both.
Please be nice, as I don't require any sign-on or anything....anybody and edit any post...this a community, so let's act like it .... sermon over.
http://sp.texultant.apps4rent.info/MoSo/gtab/Lists/App List/AllItems.aspx
There are other stuff out there...but the Software list will have the most value for people I think.
Cheers!
sudermatt
but I've updated The App List on the G-tab site here.
I've added a very handy GridView for those using IE.
It's pretty useful for searching and finding apps. Anybody can add and edit
I've updated the list again.... now you can add an image URL to show our community what the app might look like
G-Tab App List
Put it to good use!

Looking for beta testers for new Honeycomb App - What to Watch on Netflix

***** Updated June 3, 2011 *****
Thanks again to everyone who helped with the beta testing. Just wanted you to know that I just posted version 1 to the Android Market. It's free and you can get it here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.greggreno.whattowatch
-Gregg
***** Updated May 5, 2011 *****
Uploaded a new version to the same location. Here are the changes:
- Improved the scrolling position after adding more titles to the bottom, but still not perfect
- Fix bug leaving the Netflix registration window open
- Set maximum title list retrieval to 50 at a time
- Fixed bug with extra Edit Search Criteria icon showing in apps list
- Fixed size and look of loading images
- Added ability to turn off ads by buying an unlocker from the Android market
Netflix still hasn't fixed their problems with TV series and getting the data right in their API
***************************
Hi all. I've been working on a new Honeycomb only app called What To Watch, and I'm looking for some beta testers. Anyone interested in helping out?
I wanted a better way to browse for Netflix movies and also manage my queues. For example, I wanted to do something like "show me all Sci Fi movies available on Instant with a 3 star rating or higher, rated PG-13 or R, sorted by release date". I couldn't find any other web site or app to do this, so I figured I would build it myself.
There are 3 main sections:
1) My Searches - this is where you can create your own searches and save them for later. I create two to start with. Click on one and it will display the list in the panel on the right, 25 at a time. Once you click on one of the My Seaches items, you can edit it by long pressing it or clicking the Edit button at the top. Note that this uses a beta API from Netflix called OData. It's the only API that lets you do sophisticated searches like this, but unfortunately it is subject to change from Netflix and it may not always be current with the main Netflix library.
2) Netflix Queues - what you would expect. For example, what is in your DVD and Instant queues.
3) Top Lists - this comes from the Netflix web site rather than the API. It shows what the top titles are for each category. This method won't show the star ratings until you drill into a particular title.
You can download the apk here (note this is case sensitive):
http://jigawattlabs.com/temp/WhatToWatch.apk
Known issues:
This is the first release. Should probably call it an Alpha!
Authenticating with Netflix isn't quite right yet. You may wind up with the web browser still open after exiting the app, and you may get another instance of the app. But just exit everything and it should be ok
There is a bug with the Netflix API with TV series and specials. This is a problem on their end, so you might get some unexpected results when browsing TV shows
I would appreciate any and all comments in terms of general UI impressions, bugs, performance, usability.
You can reach me directly at [email protected].
Thanks!
-Gregg Reno
I just tried it out, seems to work great. I just wish there was a way to actually watch Netflix on my zoom
Thanks for trying it out. I'd love to be able to watch netflix movies as well, and I think we will see that at some point. Hopefully once Netflix makes that possible, I can integrate that into the app.
I'm also going to implement a friends feature, where you can mark your favorite movies and share it with friends, and see what their favorites are.
Comments from other folks are welcome!
My first impression of the app is that it has some shared elements with amazon's web page, which is great. But the reason I say first impression is that it isn't registering with netflix.
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
chbennett - thanks for testing. Can you give me some more info on the problem you had registering? When clicking almost anything it should prompt you to register. If you say ok, it should take you to a Netflix web page. You may have to log in and then it should prompt you to give permission to the What To Watch application. If you approve,it should take you back to the app and you should be able to run any of the searches on the left.
Where did you run into problems?
I installed it on my XOOM. Log in into Netflix without any problems. Searching also good, but could be good to add additional information about movie like Availability (for some of it shows when it will be available in stream).
It's a pity that we still missing Hulu or Netflix apps on our XOOM. Get used to watch it on my iPad(
greno1 said:
chbennett - thanks for testing. Can you give me some more info on the problem you had registering? When clicking almost anything it should prompt you to register. If you say ok, it should take you to a Netflix web page. You may have to log in and then it should prompt you to give permission to the What To Watch application. If you approve,it should take you back to the app and you should be able to run any of the searches on the left.
Where did you run into problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically all it did for me (ill try it again) was stall out on the "registering with netflix" in app pop up, going no further.
Edit: still doesn't work
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
Great app! Forcecloses when I click on New Instant Choices under Top Lists category
Also when going into the Instant Que list; I click one of the movies and it takes me to the description. I can also click on Similar, Drop from Instant or Add to Disc. If I choose Drop from Instant and click the back arrow it still shows in the Instant Que listing. Can we have the option of clicking the Instant Que button on the top left corner in the movie description to go back to the Instant Que listing and if we do happen to press the back arrow could the Instant Que listing automatically update with the removal of the movie?
Kozdoba - I will be adding additional information like directors and awards, but I'll also look at adding availability. Do you have an example title in mind I can test with?
bishop72 - thanks for finding the problem with the New Instant choices. I'll look at that one, but it may be because that's a really big list and I'm not handling it correctly. Also, good idea about removing titles from the instant titles if you click the remove from instant button. But the problem with that for me is if I remove it from the list, it should probably close that title window because it's no longer in the instant queue. Maybe someone hit the remove button by mistake and they want to re-add it?
Also I notice that there is some type of caching going on with the adding and removing from queues. When you add or remove, it does that action and then sends another request to netflix to get the current status. But it may not register that quickly. So you may hit remove from instant, and then I get back a status from Netflix saying it's still in the instant queue. If you click it again, it shows up ok.
I appreciate the feedback - good or bad!
greno1 said:
Kozdoba - I will be adding additional information like directors and awards, but I'll also look at adding availability. Do you have an example title in mind I can test with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look this series soon will be available online.
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Death_Note/70081003?trkid=2361637
downloaded the apk to nook but just got a parse error failed to load. I really love my netflix and was looking forward to tablet style look on nc.
The app installed fine, the Netflix login auth worked fine as well. The fit & finish look good as well. Some of the images and searches render a bit slow, but that could be my wifi. I will play with it more through the day and report back.
I believe i heard that Netflix was going to do a live stream with Netflix only productions, so a Top List of Netflix Original or something would be good.
Everyone - thanks for testing and for the comments. I really appreciate it! It's interesting it worked for some but didn't work for dbolton. Not sure why that is.
dbolton - can you post a screen shot of your error, or email it to me at [email protected]? I also took a few screen shots so you can see what it should look like:
http://jigawattlabs.com/w2w/screen1.png
http://jigawattlabs.com/w2w/screen2.png
kiteOregon - once Netflix posts a list of their own content in some type of list, I'll definitely look at adding that. For the Top Lists section, I'm just using the Netflix RSS feeds linked from the bottom of the page. Modified it somewhat to return no more that 50 at a time though since it would load too slow.
Thanks again!
-Gregg
Thus far all is working well. I really like the interface too, great job!
I am going to keep tinkering with it and let you know if I run into any issues or have any suggestions.
Thanks for the great app!
chbennett said:
Basically all it did for me (ill try it again) was stall out on the "registering with netflix" in app pop up, going no further.
Edit: still doesn't work
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard that Netflix was having problems with authorization from 3rd party apps. As a work around the suggest launching your browser and log into Netflix. Leave the browser running, and then launch the app and try to register again. Can you let me know if that works?
-Gregg
garyh2 said:
Thus far all is working well. I really like the interface too, great job!
I am going to keep tinkering with it and let you know if I run into any issues or have any suggestions.
Thanks for the great app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Working to add more features.
somehow I now have a 'edit search criteria' icon (same as main apps icon) in my app drawer as if it were a separate app.
My initial reaction is very positive, but I have the same issue as garyh2. When I tell it to uninstall, I am informed that it is part of the main application so obviously I left it there. This is a weird bug though...
The only other thing I noticed is that the placeholder icons that appear before titles and images populate are slightly larger than the images and titles that replace them. This doesn't really cause problems but is slightly distracting.
I really like the power search function and the ability to save searches and haven't really seen this functionality elsewhere. Good job!
Thanks garyh2 and vidriera - ill take a look at that. The edit screen is a separate activity rather than a fragment, which is probably its somehow getting its own icon. Just one of the differences with honeycomb I need to figure out.
Also good point about the loading graphic. I'll fix that too.

getHired app

I love that noob video while registering
Looking for your perfect job? Then, getHired can help you find one right from your phone. All you have to do is enter what you are looking for and getHired will provide job listings from 6 different job search engines (SimplyHired, Indeed, CareerJet, JuJu, LinkUp and CareerBuilder) across more than 60 countries. getHired is like classifieds on your phone and is extremely easy and simple to use.
• Displays jobs from SimplyHired, Indeed, CareerJet, LinkUp, JuJu and CareerBuilder all in one consolidated view.
• No need to enter your city and Country as your location is automatically populated.
• Your most recent searches are tabluated and displayed for quick review and access.
• Recent search list also display a count of new jobs posted from the time you last used the app.
• Jobs can be shortlisted by adding them to your Favorites list.
• Found a job that you are interested; you can send an email, SMS or save it to your Favorites list.
Download Link
Excellent idea! I had the same idea some months ago but had no clue as to how to execute. I'll check it out now.
Could you possibly add Craigslist as a source?
Thanks for you post. Yeah, I like the idea of adding craigslist but unfortunately craigslist does not provide a public api to access its data.
gb
getHired Version 1.3 has been published to marketplace. Checkout and let me know if issues and/or feedback.
Version 1.3
• Consistent UI for both dark and light phone themes.
• Ability to select country on Settings even when Location
Services is turned off.
• Ability to pick job search radius on Settings.
• Fixed app crash issues happening on few phones.
• Numerous status and UI changes to provide better search feedback.
getHired Version 1.4 has been published to marketplace. Checkout and let me know if issues and/or feedback.
Version 1.4
• Now displays jobs from CareerBuilder and LinkUp job search engines.
• You can pick your favorite job search engines (SimplyHired, LinkUp, Indeed or CareerBuilder) for your job search in Settings page.
• Don't like today's Bing background, that's fine, hide background image in Settings/app settings page.
• Need more advanced job search criteria? Then open up Settings page.
• Now the app loads much faster.
Can you please add "naukri.com" for india people. I highly doubt people from India use other than "naukri.com"
I wish I could add naukri.com but the website does not release its jobs for public use. However, SimplyHired and Indeed are both job aggregators and should include jobs from naukri.com. Are you getting good search results using getHired now? If yes and you like using getHired app please review and rate this app in the marketplace.
Thanks.
gbusam said:
I wish I could add naukri.com but the website does not release its jobs for public use. However, SimplyHired and Indeed are both job aggregators and should include jobs from naukri.com. Are you getting good search results using getHired now? If yes and you like using getHired app please review and rate this app in the marketplace.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sure.
If you don't mind, can you PM me your source code. i am working on app development which interacts with web, but failed to develop.
getHired (Version 1.5)
getHired (Version 1.5) has been published to marketplace. Check it out.
Version 1.5
• Added JuJu and CareerJet job search engines to the available search sources.
• Recent Search filter can be cleared to see all jobs on the Jobs listing page.
• Viewed/Unviewed jobs on Job listing page are differentiated by accent colors.
Download Link
getHired Version 1.7
getHired Version 1.7 has been published to marketplace with additional features.
Version 1.7
• Filter jobs by Job Type (Fulltime, part-time, etc.).
• Filter jobs to only display jobs posted within x days.
• Sort job results by date or relevance.
Download Link : Download link
getHired Version 1.8
getHired Version 1.8 has been published to marketplace with additional features.
Version 1.8
• Added multiple tiles (Search, job summary and Recent Search) you can pin to your Start Screen for one-click access to your jobs.
• Easy sharing of job summary via Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live.
• Filter jobs by Job Type, Job Age, Sort and Search Radius right from the Jobs page.
• Your recently viewed jobs are displayed on the Viewed List.
Download Link : Download link

[APP] CB+ 1.1 || Last Update: 31/05/12

Hey folks,
Bored of IE and annoyed by bad browsing-experiences of third party apps?
Use all features of the default webbrowser and enjoy some additional
tweaks implemented by me to improve your everyday web usage:
- Unlimited trial (no annoying ads in important areas)
- up to 10 tabs
- custom urlBar position
- multiple startpages
- integrated Back/Forward & search functions
- scalable brightness
- LiveTile support
- orientation-lock
- custom contextmenu
- individual style
- 100% fullscreen
- run under locked screen
- back-up-feature
- pin to start feature
UPDATE: submitted for certification
while 1.1 is going to arrive in marketplace soon, I'm already working on 1.2 which will include:
A more IE-like,stunning mainpage
A more responsive UI (input-feedback)
auto-full screen option
progressbar
Bugfixes
post feedback, bugs, complaints (...) HERE or email/PM me.
mail: [email protected], also found on the aboutpage.
Let me know what u think, everything positive and negative
So far, hope theres some use for it
roqstr
added in 1.1:
userAgent switcher (desktop,mobile)
scrollable urlbar
scalable imagequality
bugfixes
*********CHANGE-LOG*********
in-app now!
Can you give details on the app. Is it using the IE Engine or you have it from scratch etc.
wpxbox said:
Can you give details on the app. Is it using the IE Engine or you have it from scratch etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, i should have mentioned this. It's completely based on IE
Everybody who couldn't install yet, try this:
1. copy the zune-link i sent you.
2. write a mail to yourself.
3. open it on your phone.
for the 12 folks that are already in i sent a mail to their live-inbox.
hope that solves the installation issue.
Installing got no problem.Try google you tube it's quite fast and manage toplay video without any problem.The only thing I must get used to the tab.Well so far there's not any bug yet .
When I make a new tab it seems I can't search when I type xda developers it says ERROR Invalid url.I think every tab that we make if possible make to the home page.
Ttblondey said:
Installing got no problem.Try google you tube it's quite fast and manage toplay video without any problem.The only thing I must get used to the tab.Well so far there's not any bug yet .
When I make a new tab it seems I can't search when I type xda developers it says ERROR Invalid url.I think every tab that we make if possible make to the home page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search isn't implemented yet, will be in soon.
The home-page can be set in settings-> general-> new tab
thanks for fast feedback
BETA tester
My response from BETA-testing. (Note: Even if you have posted some bugs I'll still fill my list with what I experience)
Phone: LG Optimus 7
Status: Works perfectly!
My current status: Stopped BETA testing.
Positive:
100% fullscreen
Customization!
Live tile with information about current session!!
Slide up the URL tab on fullscreen to get to normal view without fullscreen.
Fast web browser
Share page function (lovely!!)
It's now my official MAIN browser!
-
-
Things to maybe improve & suggestions:
First startpage is google.de, could have been google.com (but nothing special actually)
Maybe you could make your own videoplayer to play eg. youtube videos on, instead of using the phone's player (not required since the videoplayer of the phone is also good)
Also have the abillity to press the favorites url instead of only the visit button at the bottom. But keep it.
Maybe slide with 2 or 3 fingers down on the screen for entering/exiting fullscreen mode?
-
-
Negative and or Currently found bugs:
When entering fullscreen mode, it's hard to get back to regular. I had to tap like 5 times on the black button at the bottom left. (hard to use the button)
If the application opens without internet connection it will say ERROR, no network available. But it does say it when I change to other menus such as settings (keep spamming ERROR everywhere)
Theres no suggestion of websites when entering a url for eg. if you enter www.fa it could show up some suggestions like facebook or failblog.
-
I'll edit this post with more when I find
thanks for that wonderful feedback, so much inspiration
some response to the bugs:
- i'm currently working on the suggestionlist, shouldn't be that difficult.
- for the fullscreen-button i got a new solution, what should make it much
easier.
- the Network-check must be fixxed, thanks for your discovery.
@Ttblondey: search function is now included
I have given my review here and video review here.
Overall I found the app to be very nice and smooth. A good alternative for sure but there are few things you can look into except the bugs which is already reported.
1) One is integration with skydrive for syncing bookmarks etc.
2) More Gestures
3 ) Open up option for both Google and Bing as search engine.
4 ) cookie turn on and off.
Rest is all good, keep us rolled in beta.
wpxbox said:
I have given my review here and video review here.
Overall I found the app to be very nice and smooth. A good alternative for sure but there are few things you can look into except the bugs which is already reported.
1) One is integration with skydrive for syncing bookmarks etc.
2) More Gestures
3 ) Open up option for both Google and Bing as search engine.
4 ) cookie turn on and off.
Rest is all good, keep us rolled in beta.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm really pleased about your review.
1) 2) & 4) are noticed.
for 3) view my changelog
could you sent me this app? [email protected]
thanks
Please read the first post carefully
I would like a "Search for text" function in the functions menu Would be awesome to be able to search for words on a page
And else I can say that I'm really happy with the browser, works well, and hopefully soon releasing? Because then you could like update with small minor updates incase something is needed
Happy New Year roqstr!
there's a search for text function ;O it's just not my own at the moment, a provisional solution,if you will
Yea, but i always find features that shouldn't be missing in the release-version, to make it working right
next week i'll be busy with school, shouldn't fail my exams
afterwards, i'd be able to release an open beta, just for some extra feedback
next step is fixing last issues and then i'll release ;P
if somebody do have experience with apphub, pubcenter & co, he can pm me to help me understanding
thanks, hope you all enjoyed New Year's Eve, i did ;P
Still waiting to test this thing
it looks nice, can't wait for release :O
I wrote a browser, based on IE its in my signature.
I'll be happy to test your browser and get better result to my and your app.
Biggest issue at the moment is the picture-viewer, but I hope I can handle this soon.
@sma6871: I'll test it and message you when I have questions or suggestions.
Unfortunately I forget to set trial mode, but now I send a trial mode enable update, and it will be up to date soon.
open beta out now. read 1st post!
Here is my feedback :
1.Dropdown to switch between search engines
2 Where did Advance Main Colour Gone ?
3. When I try yo change Main Colour Accent Colour it gives me sorry message "You Should not Overwrite the accent style"
4. Find Text Crashes the app
5. You can think of ignoring pics which are of very small size in the Picture view.
6. Picture viewer also picks up YouTube thumbnail as picture but does not display anything.

[APP][NST/G] Google(ish) News

5-31-21 I've ceased development on this app because I think there is a better alternative. See post #7.
*updated to version 1.3, adding error trap for discontinued or blank feeds*
It's been awhile since the demise of the last working version of Genie Widget (aka Google News and Weather) but not so long since the big G retooled news.google.com so that our browsers can no longer deal with it and also put the kibosh on the Google News RSS feeds. Sigh.
I have a work-around
Google News 1.3 for the NST/G exploits the "alerts" that Google offers on news topics. These alerts can be optioned in the form of RSS feeds. My app downloads the HTML source for the feed, picks out all the good stuff and trashes all the rest, then builds up a local HTML document which is easily displayed by our browsers (I highly recommend Opera Mobile for ease of scrolling and general all-around function). You can build up your own topics, change your mind, mix them about, read that one more story you didn't get to the first time around, etc. I'm not saying that your browser will negotiate every target link. Some newspaper sites have just become too much. That was true even when Genie Widget was still working. But updating Opera Mobile for TLS 1.2 solves much of that. See this post for details.. The beauty of this app is in the simplicity. It's entirely browser-based once the feeds are downloaded, so you're not going back and forth between the app and your browser (like the current Google News app.......). Designed for both portrait and landscape.
Requirements
1. Android 2.1 has a security issue with opening local HTML files. In order for Google News to work properly you need to address that. Included in the zip below is a tiny app, android-open-in-browser-0.0.4-4-debug. Install that. It's not my app but I have used it for years and wish I could credit the originator.
2. This is a Tasker-generated app. If you already have one of my other Tasker-generated apps or have previously installed GApps, you don't need the two Google maps library files included in the zip and can delete them. If you do need them, copy the two files into the locations shown below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
3. Create a folder in the root directory of your sdcard: Google News (exactly as shown)
4. Install the app itself, Google News.1.apk
How to use
Before you run the app you need to select some news categories, set up the feeds, get the URLs, blah-blah-blah. All of this is covered in the PDF included with the zip. It may seem a little annoying at the start, but it goes quickly once you get started and it's not like you have to do it every time you use the app. You're just setting up your news topics, just as if you were using the current Google News (either the app or the web version). Once you have your topics and URLs and have edited the included text file google_rss_feeds.txt, copy that into the Google News folder of your sdcard.
Note: recently (June 2019) the big G has not been very consistent with the RSS feeds. Some days they are "empty" but come back the next day with lots of stories. Some feed topics simply "die" and a minor change in the topic will resurrect them (change "World" to "World news", as an example). Version 1.3 includes a trap for these eventualities so that the app should not crash, even if your first feed comes up empty. To inspect/edit your feeds, point your browser (on your PC) to your Google Alerts page. If you are signed in this will be found among the options on the Google home page, in the upper right corner where the "apps" grid is shown.
Now you're good to go. Start the app, make sure you're connected to WiFi. There are only three buttons on the app screen. The first one, "Fetch the news" does just that. You will see a little toast that the first news category is being prepared. Once that is done, you will be taken to the browser and that page will open. Meanwhile the remaining pages are being downloaded and reconstructed in the background.
The news page is very simple. I tried to aim for readability over all other considerations (this is the reason the news items are in bold black, even though they are the external links). I have my Opera Mobile set to 100% page zoom. It looks good to me, but you could probably get away with 75%. External websites are another matter. At the title bar left is a drop-down menu button that gives you access to your other news topics. Since no fixed navbar schemes work under Android 2.1, there is a duplicate drop-up menu bar at the end of the page. The use of NoRefresh, or to a lesser extent FastMode, is a plus.
Edit: you cannot use this app with Opera Mini. It lacks the ability to open local HTML files.
The second option on the opening screen, "Read old news" sounds a bit daft, but I just thought maybe someone might have been looking at the topic pages, saw something that interested them and then got interrupted. So this option opens the first local file in the browser again and you can navigate from there. Strictly speaking, WiFi is not needed to browse the local files once they have been created, but it is needed to pursue any stories.
The third option simply dismisses the app screen.
Whew! So this is new...and I think I exterminated all the bugs, but I did not try other browsers. I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate feedback.
Google alert change? No option for RSS alerts anymore...
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm away from home right now but my copy of the app is working so the RSS feeds must still exist. I'll have to sit down with my instructions in front of the computer and see what mischief they've done. Thanks for letting me know.
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I've run through the instructions sitting at my PC. Everything is correct although Firefox no longer wants to open the RSS feed page as anything other than an xml "text" file. That just means the image on page 4 needs updating.
As far as page 3, everything is currently exactly as shown. Just to be sure, you have to be signed in to Google on your browser before you do any of this. Then when you get to the screen depicted on page 3 you need to change the "Deliver to" option to RSS feed. But even before that, it's important not to get sucked into the email alert business back on page 2. Do NOT click on "Create Alert" there, only on "Show options". That's how you get to the screen I show on page 3.
When you finally get to click on the little RSS symbol shown on the lower half of page 3, you (at least on Firefox) may end up at a page of xml code, or perhaps your browser may show a news feed page. Regardless, the URL shown for the page is the same and it's what you need to copy, just as described on page 4.
Let me know if you are still having issues with this.
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a few days after I wrote my last post, the app stopped working for me. It just hangs on "Preparing......News"
Google has apparently changed the format of their RSS xml file. Right in the middle of something else at the moment, but I will get it fixed.
Nope, nix that. After fooling around with the app and an xml file from the Big G, I find nothing out of place and it seems the app is now working again
They're just messing with us.
Edit: Indeed they are. Today I caught another malfunction but this time looked at the Tasker routines for an error. Google is sending out (at least today) RSS feeds with empty content fields. That messes up my app. So I wrote an error trap for that. Updated in first post. Have to watch the big G like a hawk....
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst looking around for a solution to a different issue, I came across this: https://medium.com/@cassandragraft/...tion-not-appearing-heres-the-fix-bf842ca32b88
It appears to address the issue you describe. I never encountered the issue, but obviously some people have.
The Big G is making me very angry lately. Even version 1.2 with a new error trap is crashing. I'm finding that some of my feeds are "empty". The skeleton of the RSS file is there but there is no content populating the file. A category as ordinary as "world" is simply blank. This is new and very annoying. Just a change of topic to "world news" brings up a list of stories longer than your arm. I encountered this before with "science" and fixed it with a slight change in name, so I should have seen this coming. It's a nasty game Google seems to be playing....
Anyway, if the app crashes on the first topic it leaves an overlay artifact behind when you exit. To remove this, go to the App Manager and force stop the app. I will work on a fix which will alert you to the effect that the feed appears dead but allow the app to complete the download of whatever is still working and exit properly.
Grr....
Edit: App updated to v1.3 in first post. I hope that solves the problems. For now.
As I mentioned in my edit of the first post, I think my app is exhibiting creakiness already owing to Opera Mobile's increasing difficulty negotiating many websites.
I have an alternative to suggest, however, that is totally browser based. It seems to work "OK" with Opera Mobile although text display is a bit small with a default zoom of 100%. In Opera Mini, however, it shines, especially with NoRefresh.
Thanks to XDA member @SJT75 , I found out about a list of text-only news sites. One of them is a text version of Google News! The list is at: https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/
While the Google News option does not allow for custom categories (hey, there's an app for that!), it does cover all the usual suspects. Even better, all of the links lead to text-only versions of the sources. Occasionally you go to a page and find it could not be fetched by whatever mechanism the author is using, but pages (even those error ones) include a link to the original source
Also notable on the list are the NPR and CNN sites. Both work well.

Categories

Resources