[Ramer84015]

We would be happy to have the ability to grant refunds. We didn't give squeff a refund, we gave him $5 -- there is a distinct difference. There is no way for us to fulfill a true refund and have the app removed from his phone.

This is something Palm most certainly will have to be involved with and one I hope they figure out. Their App Catalog is new for them, so I would cut them a little slack until they figure out how to deal with billing properly. We haven't even received a cent for all the effort we've been putting into this project, so I think it's good that we all exercise some patience with them.

I'm not asking for a refund. I just felt that the original quote that I quoted was pretty harsh from a company from a customer service standpoint. I am being critical because on the first day that I purchased this app, it wasn't even working for the first 6 hours. If you go back through this tread you'll see what I'm referring to. I did remove and reload the feeds today and they are working again, but I am an END USER, I should not have to do that. (And yes, it only took me a minute or two to do it, but what about the hundreds (thousands) of end users who are not familiar with precentral and bought the app and don't know how to solve it. It should be your responsibility, not ours to make sure what we have a working app that we paid for.

[DannyNY718]

i saw the video on youtube about this app looks interesting but $5 is not gonna fly Sorry

[mrgreenbeans]

Fine points! I agree, that comment may have come off a bit rude. We've spent many thousands making this product, haven't received a cent, and I was getting a bit frustrated with some of the comments folks were making and just realizing that it's not possible to please everybody (try as I might). I'm sorry for that, you are 100% right there.

As for all the other end users that have this problem, they won't have a problem. You don't actually have to re-add the feeds with the server change I made, it will just allow you to pick up articles it might have already missed. Going forward (assuming the server change fixed things as I hope), things should just start updating properly without any changes on your end.

If the server fix didn't help, I hope you will e-mail your experiences to newsroom@trileet.com so we can get this tracked down as soon as possible.

[squeff]

We would be happy to have the ability to grant refunds. We didn't give squeff a refund, we gave him $5 -- there is a distinct difference. There is no way for us to fulfill a true refund and have the app removed from his phone.

This is something Palm most certainly will have to be involved with and one I hope they figure out. Their App Catalog is new for them, so I would cut them a little slack until they figure out how to deal with billing properly. We haven't even received a cent for all the effort we've been putting into this project, so I think it's good that we all exercise some patience with them.

To be clear, I removed it from my phone.

I think this reflects badly on you, that imply a customer was keeping software after you gave a refund.

If you distrust your customers that much, then you should take the time to build-in functionality to prevent it. If you don't do it, you can't cry if a few dishonest people ask for money back and still use the software.

Your problem, not Palm's. They are simply the store.

Let me say it again: put out a free demo. Then you won't have the worry. Until then, I think you're giving to need to hand out $5 to people that are unhappy.

[mrgreenbeans]

I don't assume you didn't remove it and I appreciate that you are respectful enough to do so. I'm simply saying that we don't have the ability to fulfill returns. I agree that this is something the marketplace needs however.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Kyusaku]

I keep having the non-updating issue every few days after the site has been added to the list. At the moment, yes the app is "not worth" the $5, but the app has a lot of potential, and mrgreenbeans has shown that they are putting a lot of effort in the project and listening to our problems to make it worth the $5.

As long as the development continues and the app remains to be supported I feel it will be worth $5. A lot of people want what this app can do(which is format articles to the Pre as well as preload articles so an internet connection isn't constantly required.) Which Feeds cannot offer as it runs off directly from Google Reader.

Anyone who complains should really be griping to Palm. As their app approval process is really not very streamlined at all. It produces a bottleneck where it's almost a month before a submitted app or update is available in the app catalog.

[squeff]

Anyone who complains should really be griping to Palm. As their app approval process is really not very streamlined at all. It produces a bottleneck where it's almost a month before a submitted app or update is available in the app catalog.

I spoke to Palm. On issue relating to demos, refunds, and enforcing that users delete the app if a refund is given, Palms says that the developer is 100% responsible.

On the issue of how long it takes to get approval, they say they are working on it.

Of course, there is an alternative: Homebrew. While you don't reach the full audience, there are several great examples here of apps that have a homebrew audience (who get updates w/o waiting for Palm) and a different app catalog audience. QuickContacts and FriendsFlow are just two of several examples of this.

If Trileet is frustrated, they might try having a HB version. Setup a PayPal account and you can accept payments. As a product that needs a server connection, it should be easy to manage which people get to use the product and which ones don't. Again, the two apps above have already done this.

[pieler8]

I purchased this app recently and really like it. You guys did a great job! Very excited for the 9 feed limit to be lifted though i do have to say...

Any updates on the next update mrgreenbeans?

[mrgreenbeans]

I purchased this app recently and really like it. You guys did a great job! Very excited for the 9 feed limit to be lifted though i do have to say...

Any updates on the next update mrgreenbeans?

Thanks pieler! Glad you like it. Our update is sitting in Palm's hands. However, they've recently straightened out some issues with our account on their submission portal. So perhaps, you will see the update very soon.

I think you will like it. It packs in lots of cool stuff. Besides adding a bunch of feeds, it's faster and allows for more customization. You can rearrange the feeds and there is also options to get notified on a per-feed basis. Some pretty cool stuff.

[MannyZ28]

I tried a different BGR feed, still the same problem.

The others all seem to be working fine, including Engadget Mobile.

[Kyusaku]

New update is out. It blanked out my site list, just a heads up. Still testing performance.

[mrgreenbeans]

You are correct, evidently you will need to re-add your sites (but you can add a ton more now!). We coded it to be backwards compatible, but for whatever reason the data isn't being brought forward. We are working with Palm on how to deal with that for future updates. Since you can add 36 sites now, it will be far more obnoxious in the next update, so it's something we need to get sorted out.

I just added a blog post about the update including what's new over at:

NewsRoom v1.2 for Palm

[pieler8]

wow 36 sites, thats awesome. i can deal with adding the first 9 back in, no biggie.

[galavanter]

I hit Updates and it returned Pandora and NewsRoom as available. Pandora installed, but NewsRoom keeps giving me a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside it.

[ray1b]

I hit Updates and it returned Pandora and NewsRoom as available. Pandora installed, but NewsRoom keeps giving me a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside it.

Try updating NewsRoom from the App Catalog.

[galavanter]

Try updating NewsRoom from the App Catalog.

Why didn't I think of that? It worked. Thanks.

[Disgustoid]

Very early impressions of the update:

Hopefully it's not a placebo effect, but this version seems much snappier than the previous one, which tended to bog down quite frequently in my experience. I've only added in 4 of the 9 feeds I had previously so I haven't tested the new 36 feed capability yet but everything looks good so far.

[mrgreenbeans]

Very early impressions of the update:

Hopefully it's not a placebo effect, but this version seems much snappier than the previous one, which tended to bog down quite frequently in my experience. I've only added in 4 of the 9 feeds I had previously so I haven't tested the new 36 feed capability yet but everything looks good so far.

Ya, there are significant performance improvements. Along with the extra feeds, it now uses less memory as well. Plus, you don't have to leave it open to get update notifications. All these things make the app a pretty good citizen with respect to your Pre's precious resources.

[insane42]

NewsRoom will also keep things up to date for you even when you don't leave it open.

So how do you completely close/exit the app so that it's not soaking up CPU cycles or hitting the network to eat the battery?

[mrgreenbeans]

Part of the value of our server backend it that it allows the client to be extremely efficient with your phone's resources. The more feeds you add however, the more resources it will need to keep things up to date for you. That said NewsRoom is really gentle on the battery and we will be offering even greater control over how the application keeps itself up to date in the next update.