What in the world is 'Awasu'?

hacker · 02-23-2005, 12:28 AM

During my walkabouts across the Web this week doing research for a client, I stumbled upon a tool called Awasu, that just happened to link to us..

I don't run Windows, so this isn't useful to me, but its list of features and plugin API look pretty impressive (hint to those here who write software for Windows.. take note, hint hint. You know who you are).

Awasu™ is a free Windows news-reader that runs in the background on your computer and monitors these sites for you. When it sees that something new has appeared, it will let you know. Awasu will also keep track of what you have already read which saves you even more time since you no longer need to search through your favorite sites for new stories.

Just imagine. No more surfing the web looking for interesting stuff to read. Instead, Awasu will watch what's happening around the globe and let you know about events almost as soon as they happen. No more trawling through pages full of ads or popups. Now you can get only the stuff you're interested in, delivered to your desktop.

You're not limited to just news services either. You can keep an eye on the current weather in New York, the latest sales data from your London office or which band is playing at your favorite club this weekend. You are limited only by your imagination!

Can anyone download this and give it a try and see how it works? I'd love to see a review here on it. Any takers?

Chaos · 02-23-2005, 12:39 AM

I would, but like you, I don't touch Windows...

Seems interesting. I wonder if there's anything similar for any other platforms?

Laurens · 02-23-2005, 04:23 AM

Well, I gave Awasu a quick run and I was not impressed. There are tens, maybe hundreds of RSS newsreaders and I don't see how this app is really any different. It tries to differentiate itself by offering advanced features like XSLT and SOAP, but I think that, in practice, you won't use these much anyway.

I'm a strong believer in the "less is more" philosophy, and this product fails to make the grade in this respect. My newsreader of choice remains FeedDemon, which is pretty much perfect for me.

Alexander Turcic · 02-23-2005, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurens

My newsreader of choice remains FeedDemon, which is pretty much perfect for me.

Ditto! I only wish Nick would give us the option to sort channels in a Windows-typical hierarchical folder tree instead of using channel groups.

ignatz · 02-23-2005, 05:37 AM

I notice it does have an option to sync across multiple machines, which seems pretty cool for home and work use. I don't remember another RSS reader doning that. But I've been using Bloglines and though it's a little slow, it's perfect for me so far.

Taka · 03-13-2005, 01:18 AM

Glad to have piqued your interest (I'm the Awasu lead developer) :-)

Closer integration with other apps such as Plucker is something we're definitely interested in doing so if you'd like to talk more about this, send us an email (support@awasu.com).

We offer a lot more power than just XSLT/SOAP. The key differentiating idea behind Awasu is that information lives in a wide variety of places, not just via RSS feeds and by using plugin channels, this information can be fed into Awasu. Furthermore, additional scripts can be attached to channels that analyze and respond to the information as it comes in, turning Awasu into a seriously powerful information management tool, not just a dumb blog reader.

And yes, the ability to sync multiple installations is a pretty useful feature.

Finally, the latest alpha release lets you organize your channels in a hierarchy, but with more sophisticated tagging facilities than just a simple tree structure. More details here: http://www.awasu.com/downloads/2.1.1/alpha1/

Taka · 03-13-2005, 01:29 AM

BTW, the original reason we were interested in Plucker was because one of our users asked for closer integration between the two apps.

He wanted Awasu to monitor a bunch of RSS feeds and generate a dummy HTML page full of links pointing to stuff that he was interested in. He would then run Plucker with that page to download all the content to his PDA. There was a little app written that tracked which items he actually read and we added a little hook in Awasu to re-import this information back in.

Alexander Turcic · 03-13-2005, 09:02 AM

Welcome Taka. This is a nice app that you wrote!

Taka · 03-13-2005, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander

Welcome Taka. This is a nice app that you wrote!

Thanks. Hopefully, we'll be able to prise you away from FeedDemon... :-) FeedDemon is great, especially for non-techies, but if you want something with more power and start doing some interesting things with all the information that's coming in, we think that Awasu is a much stronger offering.

02-23-2005, 12:28 AM	#1
hacker Technology Mercenary Posts: 617 Karma: 2561 Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: East Lyme, CT Device: Direct Neural Implant	What in the world is 'Awasu'? During my walkabouts across the Web this week doing research for a client, I stumbled upon a tool called Awasu, that just happened to link to us.. I don't run Windows, so this isn't useful to me, but its list of features and plugin API look pretty impressive (hint to those here who write software for Windows.. take note, hint hint. You know who you are). Awasu™ is a free Windows news-reader that runs in the background on your computer and monitors these sites for you. When it sees that something new has appeared, it will let you know. Awasu will also keep track of what you have already read which saves you even more time since you no longer need to search through your favorite sites for new stories. Just imagine. No more surfing the web looking for interesting stuff to read. Instead, Awasu will watch what's happening around the globe and let you know about events almost as soon as they happen. No more trawling through pages full of ads or popups. Now you can get only the stuff you're interested in, delivered to your desktop. You're not limited to just news services either. You can keep an eye on the current weather in New York, the latest sales data from your London office or which band is playing at your favorite club this weekend. You are limited only by your imagination! Can anyone download this and give it a try and see how it works? I'd love to see a review here on it. Any takers? Last edited by hacker; 02-23-2005 at 12:31 AM.

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02-23-2005, 12:39 AM	#2
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	I would, but like you, I don't touch Windows... Seems interesting. I wonder if there's anything similar for any other platforms?

02-23-2005, 04:23 AM	#3
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	Well, I gave Awasu a quick run and I was not impressed. There are tens, maybe hundreds of RSS newsreaders and I don't see how this app is really any different. It tries to differentiate itself by offering advanced features like XSLT and SOAP, but I think that, in practice, you won't use these much anyway. I'm a strong believer in the "less is more" philosophy, and this product fails to make the grade in this respect. My newsreader of choice remains FeedDemon, which is pretty much perfect for me.

02-23-2005, 05:37 AM	#5
ignatz mechanoholic Posts: 582 Karma: 1000217 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sarasota, FL Device: Nook STR/iPhone 4S/EVO 4G	I notice it does have an option to sync across multiple machines, which seems pretty cool for home and work use. I don't remember another RSS reader doning that. But I've been using Bloglines and though it's a little slow, it's perfect for me so far.

03-13-2005, 01:18 AM	#6
Taka Nameless Being	Glad to have piqued your interest (I'm the Awasu lead developer) :-) Closer integration with other apps such as Plucker is something we're definitely interested in doing so if you'd like to talk more about this, send us an email (support@awasu.com). We offer a lot more power than just XSLT/SOAP. The key differentiating idea behind Awasu is that information lives in a wide variety of places, not just via RSS feeds and by using plugin channels, this information can be fed into Awasu. Furthermore, additional scripts can be attached to channels that analyze and respond to the information as it comes in, turning Awasu into a seriously powerful information management tool, not just a dumb blog reader. And yes, the ability to sync multiple installations is a pretty useful feature. Finally, the latest alpha release lets you organize your channels in a hierarchy, but with more sophisticated tagging facilities than just a simple tree structure. More details here: http://www.awasu.com/downloads/2.1.1/alpha1/

03-13-2005, 01:29 AM	#7
Taka Nameless Being	BTW, the original reason we were interested in Plucker was because one of our users asked for closer integration between the two apps. He wanted Awasu to monitor a bunch of RSS feeds and generate a dummy HTML page full of links pointing to stuff that he was interested in. He would then run Plucker with that page to download all the content to his PDA. There was a little app written that tracked which items he actually read and we added a little hook in Awasu to re-import this information back in.

03-13-2005, 09:02 AM	#8
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Welcome Taka. This is a nice app that you wrote!

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