Searching for Victims...

So, I will, stress that we're not in the App Business, at least not directly, but we have got a couple of "apps" (webapps to be accurate) that we're looking for some stress testing and general beating up on.  They work best on iPhone but we're 90% sure we've got most of the bugs out of them for Android too.

ViaNewz (www.vianewz.com)
This is an RSS and Social Networking reader.
1) Installation - open www.vianewz.com/webapp  on your mobile phone browser
2) Register an account, or Login if you've got one
3) Save the Bookmark to the Homepage - this is easy on iPhone, more involved on Android
4) At the moment to add Twitter and Facebook to your profile you need to sign in at the webpage (www.vianewz.com)
5) Import your Google Reader or other RSS OMPL file at the webpage and there's a drag and drop interface for managing your feeds at the moment

Things we know about:
- If you import more than about 150 RSS feeds at once it does choke sometimes, you'll get an ugly Python error
- The app occasionally just stops going "back" - Options - Full Resync seems to fix that.  It's a database issue, it should fix itself

- The website is buttfuck ugly - we're working on that but we've found it involves paying people who don't take stock...

 

On the app the "actions" button lets you share items on Facebook and Twitter and also Bookmark stuff to read later to the website or email/sms people with stuff.

 

ViaSearchz (www.viasearchz.com)

This is a local search bookmarking and general search related social hub

1) Installation, as above, except it's: www.viasearchz.com/webapp

2) You need to go to the web to edit your 5 top searches, which will "magically" appear every time you open the app

3) You also need to go to the web to sign into Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare

4) If you live in a Groupon zone, they might be appearing shortly too

 

Things we know about:

- The website is ugly (see above)

- Sometimes we find the device GPS function times out and the location doesn't update...  there isn't an easy work around for this except closing the browser/app and restarting - we're working on a fix for that but it might not be possible in a web app... go figure

- Not all the Check-In functionality is as seamless as we'd like

 

david (at) viafo (dot) com and nick (at) viafo (dot) com for bugs and general comments.

 

I have become a huge user of the news app myself, we're quite pleased with the UX it gives as an RSS reader. 

FEEL FREE: To tell your friends.

Another thing about the "app"...

No sooner had I posted about the "apps" but I get an email from the selection committee at CTIA that they've selected ViaSearchz for the AT&T Open Call event there.  So any ideas, requests, input and the like would be welcome as there's a $10K prize associated with that, and frankly, we could use the money badly :)