Windows Phone Thoughts: Spb Insight Provides Window On The World

Missing Pieces
Insight lacks some options, as mentioned, and it also seems to lack some major features I would have liked to see. For example, RSS is a great technology for disseminating information to a mass audience. Part of the strength of RSS is the ability to syndicate not only from provider to individual, but also from individuals to other individuals (anyone ever read a blog comprised of news that the owner found interesting?). Insight allows providers to display their content to you in a simple and clean format, however it does not allow you to forward items through email or blog them to any blog service. Adding those abilities in future builds would be much appreciated. Another feature that may help Insight would be that of a Today Screen plugin (preferably one that interfaced with other Spb tools). While I've never been a big fan, those plugins can be nice for those who don't mind scroll bars on their Today Screen.

Another feature that Insight doesn't support is the <embed> tag for audio within feeds. For those of you not familiar with RSS, authors can embed audio into their feed (this is the basis of "podcasting"), and clients can be set to automatically download this content for offline listening. While there are only a few Pocket PC clients that support embedded audio, it is still a feature I would have liked to see in Insight - just for completeness sake.

Insight banks on its clean and clear appearance and feature set to appeal to consumers. If you're tired of bloated clients that are a bit too big or clunky for their own good, then Insight may be the RSS reader for you. However, if you're a fan of forwarding news to friends or having audio downloaded for you directly, you may wish to wait until these features appear in a future version (hopefully!).

Conclusions
Overall I have very mixed opinions on Spb Insight. On one hand, it's superb at doing exactly what is is supposed to - it downloads feeds and displays them in a user friendly manner. It is easy to use, understand, and maintain. I found no faults in the software, and no confusion at all in the UI. However, I did miss some of the more advanced features found in other RSS readers, and would have liked to see them present even if not everyone would have used them. I expect that future versions of Insight will add these capabilities, so if you're in need of them now, you may want to hold of. Otherwise, check out Insight - it should provide some insight to your world in a fairly clean and concise manner!

Jon Westfall truly does not know how to classify himself. Decision making researcher? System Administrator? Editor & Reviewer? Maybe all of those. To find out more than you want to know, you can visit JonWestfall.Com or just watch for his frequent news posts here at Pocket PC Thoughts!