Crave

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Of the several news readers offered in Apple's iTunes App Store to date, NetNewsWire stands out as the most appealing. Unlike Mobile News from the Associated Press, NetNewsWire pulls in stories from multiple sources, and unlike Google Reader, it does so nearly instantly in a true native application (Google Readers whisks you to an iPhone-optimized Web application after you select it from a list of more options on Google Mobile.)

Like many other applications, NetNewsWire is the iPhone version of an already-brawny Web service operated by NewsGator, and one whose desktop versions CNET Download.com editors have already acclaimed for its usability on Macs and on PCs, where it's known as FeedDemon.

NetNewsWire for iPhone is a feeds repository, but a good one. You won't be able to add feeds at this early stage, but the application will syncs with any of your existing NewsGator accounts for NetNewsWire for Macintosh, FeedDemon, Inbox, and NewsGator Online. The application lets new users to sign up from the iPhone. You'll also be able to save posts in a clippings folder for later perusal, and read the full article on Safari.

Google updated the iPhone version of its Reader product Monday. For the first time, mobile users will be able to star items for later and browse through items in a large list similar to the desktop version of the Web app. To view stories, users simply need to click on the headlines and the story will expand. In previous iterations, clicking a headline would take you to a new page, requiring users to click back before expanding another story.

One thing you can't do is expand several stories at once, meaning mobile users will need to have access to a data connection to continue to open up additional stories, something social news site Digg has managed to get around in its iPhone app by loading up the front page and its story briefs as a single page in Safari. It's a lifesaver if you're going through some dodgy reception areas or read stories on a commute that involves underground tunnels.

Users who navigate to Google Reader on their phones will still head to the older version, a move chosen by Google since the new version is still in "beta." To get there on your iPhone just head to http://www.google.com/reader/i/

Below are two screens showing Google's Reader. The one on the left is the old version, while the one on the right is the new version with in-line starring and story expansion.

The old version of Google Reader for iPhone (left) doesn't let you star items or open them in-line. The new version (right) lets you star and expand items without loading a new page. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Chumby Industries, manufacturer of the eponymous huggable touch-screen Wi-Fi widget gadget, announced Monday that it has raised $12.5 million in Series B venture funding. The lead investor in the round was JK&B Capital, but existing investors Avalon Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also contributed.

A friendly-looking device that you configure online, the Chumby cycles through a rotation of custom widgets from weather to Google Calendar to cult-hit shopping site Woot.com. Many of these come from the Chumby Network, a platform of user- and partner-created applications that can be added to the little gadgets.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET Networks)

It's also, aside from the touch screen, soft and squishy.

Formally, the new Chumby cash will be used to "accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices." Does that mean they'll make a Chumby kitten or a Chumby penguin?

"We are pleased to receive this financing, which will enable us to execute our vision and grow distribution of the Chumby Network," Stephen Tomlin, founder and CEO of Chumby Industries, said in a statement. "As the next step of our strategy, we will focus on establishing relationships to broaden distribution to other screen-based devices such as digital photo frames and LCD TVs."

Oh. So much for the touch-screen penguins.

If you think of your typical RSS reader or widget as a stream, Viigo is a river delta.

Unlike many services that feed headline news from a from a preselected widget or manually-entered URL, Viigo--available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile--gathers news channels into a dedicated client that looks great on your phone. With some saving and functions similar to e-mail, and an extensive library of additional news sources, the free application is the most complete RSS-reading environment for smartphones I've seen so far. Tune in to the video below to get a taste of how Viigo can simplify and extend your collection of mobile feeds. An unlimited data plan, by the way, is a must.

>>See all First Look videos

To see our Chumby photo gallery, click the above photo.

Looking like the lovechild of a Tribble and an iPod Touch, the Chumby is an adaptable little do-anything box that can stream internet radio, browse YouTube videos, serve up newsfeeds, wake you up in the morning, and generally distract you from doing anything productive with your life. In short: the Chumby is a blast.

Want the full low-down? We've got our own Chumby photo gallery, along with the official CNET review.

Miro's search bar now lets you search all its engines at once.

(Credit: Participatory Culture Foundation)

The open-source, DRM-free video platform called Miro (download for Windows and Mac) has just released an upgrade with two small but useful improvements. A new search feature lets you search all available sites simultaneously, and torrent support has been greatly improved.

... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

A whole heap of Web 2.0 companies are competing for recognition of their phone-to-Web and Web-to-phone services. Most are mainly media storage, sharing, or manipulation companies like Thumbplay and 3Guppies, that have added a proprietary push-to-phone service to make their brand do more. ShoZu, a 2007 Webware 100 winner, is one of the few I've seen whose actual goal is to push content to your phone and from it, using as many partner services as they possibly can.

Today ShoZu announced a partnership with Flickr that lets users subscribe to friends' individual media feeds. A lot has changed since Webware.com's previous coverage, including greater handset support that made it possible to get a really thorough hands-on evaluation. While the Flickr photostreaming feed is one small part of the multimedia volley you can engage in with ShoZu, it hints at greater mobile powers to come.

I ShoZu my photos, you show me yours.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Here's how you do it. Install the ShoZu app and open it. ShoZu is divided into two functions--pushing media from your phone and siphoning media into it. In Share-It, click into the destinations menu and click or tap the soft key to pull up the Options. From there you can browse the media partners and add Flickr as a destination. Adding your password comes next, and if there's a hang-up, you can verify your account by adding Flickr at ShoZu.com. Once enabled, you'll be able to publish photos from your camera to Flickr, or Facebook, or 22 other outlets.

Next, click into the other menu, ZuCasts. Click again to "Get ZuCasts" and scroll until you see Flickr. Your contacts have been populated and you can go through and subscribe to their feeds at will. ShoZu's settings let you control photo quality and download frequency among other things, to mitigate your phone bills if you've got a less-than-generous data plan. Otherwise, you're ready to keep up with pals by swapping and commenting on Flickr photos.

ShoZu is a neat service that withstood my rigorous testing, though some of its organization occasionally bewildered. More big announcements are on the way with ShoZu's ease of use, CEO Mark Bole hinted, which will expand ShoZu's publishing network and device accessibility even more.

Mobile app publishers are obsessed with creating the fast, flawless mechanism to deliver content to mobile phones. That's great news for users, whose choices for accessing content through apps, browsers, or feed readers grow daily. Viigo for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 5 and 6 is a new contender. See the screenshot-by-screenshot blow in this Viigo slide show.

Incidentally, I've used Ilium Screen Capture (review) to nab my images. It's a great little program for Windows Mobile.

Add as many widgets as you want with Plusmo's mobile app.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Plusmo's mobile widgets application is a cool way to read RSS feeds on your cell phone or PDA, but that's not the only reason it was named a finalist on the Webware 100 list.

In true Webware fashion, Plusmo's site offers hands-on excitement--the chance to publish and share widget mash-ups and create an iPhone widget from templates. Users can also make personal blogs available as a Plusmo widget, and can install a browser bookmarklet or Yahoo plug-in to snag feeds while they surf.

Getting started with Plusmo

Multiple carriers and platforms, small screen sizes, and a glut of information out there make quickly and easily accessing mobile content a downright challenge. That's why interestingly (and wisely), Plusmo steers clear of browser turf wars raging among third-party mobile browsers like Opera Mini (new review) and Minimo (hands-on review); a good move.... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog