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Alternatives to AvantGo?
docricketts asks: "I've been scoping out some ways to expand the content of a few sites that I manage and have been considering creating versions for PDAs and phones. I've looked around but it looks like AvantGo, at least on PDAs, is the only option for those folks not connected via wireless networks. Now that they have changed their pricing structure, charging $1000 for 'channels' that have one to 100 subscribers, this looks completely inaccessible for content sites that are there to provide info rather than make money. Is AvantGo it, or are there alternatives that I'm not seeing?"
Try Pluker
http://www.plkr.org/index.plkr
Check out Plucker. It's better than AvantGo in nearly every way.
HandStory Suite reviewed as AvantGo Alternative by the Handheld Computing Weekly.
'HandStory Suite' 'Almost every Palm powered user knows about AvantGo. It's bundled on the installation disc with new PDAs, and it's long been billed as the killer app for your Palm. Its appeal is undeniable; the program is a free, convenient Web clipping service that delivers freshly-updated content you've subscribed to -- like the New York Times, Joke of the Day, and The Weather Channel--directly to your PDA at each HotSync to read on the road.' 'The once undisputed king of offline content is starting to show some cracks, though. AvantGo can't take advantage of the Sony Clie's popular full-screen, HiRes+display, for instance, and financial difficulties at the company have forced it to adopt a two-tiered service plan, with content beyond 2MB no longer free. Worse, the company has clamped down on its Web partners, charging them fees that have driven many to scale back their support for AvantGo.' 'But there are alternatives. If you'd like to experiment with offline browsing and want to see what the world has to offer beyond the reassuring AvantGo logo, step right up to... HandStory...' 'HandStory is the most complete and elegant of the AvantGo alternatives. Designed to be a complete media reader that features an integrated memo pad, doc reader, image viewer, eBook reader, and Web clip browser, it can also take advantage of the Clie's HiRes+mode. Armed with HandStory, you may be able to abandon several other apps and rely almost exclusively on one program.' 'The program's desktop component has conduits for converting Web pages, text documents, and graphics to the Palm. The big news, though, is that HandStory is trying to take on AvantGo in a big way, with a library of about 150 clips ready for download. That's small potatoes compared to the thousands of AvantGo channels available, but HandStory promises to continue building its collection.'
Have a look at our project at www.plkr.org and try it out for yourself. If you want to help us out, please do. We believe we have the superior product, for dozens of reasons. We're smaller, faster, more feature-rich, secure, and we put the user and content provider back in control of their own content.
The Plucker Desktop application can be found at desktop.plkr.org. It is written in wxWindows, and works on Linux, Solaris, and Windows.
The High-resolution viewer application for Sony and Handera high-resolution devices can be found at hires.plkr.org.
We also have an irc channel, so feel free to join and talk to other Plucker users and developers. Point your irc client to irc.plkr.org and join #plucker to chat with us.
If you wish to help out with PDA-sized websites, take a look at OpenURLS and help us out maintaining the list. I've done all of the work so far to fetch these urls (600+), but we need some help sorting them and categorizing them.
We have a lot of other things going on, and we are quite active. Jump aboard and help us out!