Nokia N800: How to import your Google Reader RSS feed subscriptions onto the N800

To get the most out of this tutorial, please watch the video above and then read the text below. If you have any questions or comments, please click on the "comments" link at the end of the text below.

Today's tutorial on the Internet Tablet School is a very special one, as it was devised and filmed by a special guest video-maker, Thoughtfix. He's more famous for his site TabletBlog.com, which should be visited by anyone interested in Internet Tablets. Check it out!

If you regularly read lots of websites, it would be very convenient if links and excerpts for all the new articles published on your favourite websites were available in one place.

Well, this is completely possible, thanks to the magic of RSS feeds. If a website offers an RSS feed, anyone who subscribes to this feed will instantly see a link and excerpt (often even the complete article) without even having to visit the site. These feed subscriptions are viewed through RSS feed readers, which show all the links and articles from all the sites to which you're subscribed.

(In case you're wondering, RSS means Really Simple Syndication. It was originally intended just as a way for one website to easily syndicate its articles across many other websites.)

One extremely popular RSS feed reader is Google Reader, which can be accessed entirely through its website at reader.google.com. You can access it using a web browser on your PC and on your N800, it works fine in both.

However, many people prefer to use the N800's built-in RSS feed reader application, which is imaginatively titled "RSS Feed Reader". You can find this in the main menu (two white squares on the left). The built-in application is in many ways quicker and easier to use on the N800 than the web-based Google Reader, but it's a matter of personal taste which is better.

If you use Google Reader on your computer and RSS Feed Reader on your N800, you may like to know that there's an extremely easy way to export all your Google Reader subscriptions onto the tablet.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Log in to Google Reader on your computer.

2. Click on Settings in the top right hand corner.

3. Click on Import/Export.

4. Click on "Export your subscriptions as an OPML file". Don't worry too much about the name of the file, don't worry if it says XML at the end, this is totally normal.

5. If you have your N800's memory card plugged into the computer, you can save the OPML file to the memory card. Alternatively, you can save the file to the computer and transfer it to the card later.

6. Insert the memory card with the OPML file on it into the N800, if it's not already in the tablet.

7. Disconnect the N800 from the internet. This is to stop the feed reader trying to update the feeds while it's importing them, which may sometimes cause the reader to crash.

8. Open the N800's RSS Feed Reader app from the main menu.

9. Click on the "Add" icon at the bottom of the RSS Feed Reader screen (it looks like a + sign).

10. Click on Browse, select the memory card with the OPML file on it.

11. Click on the OPML file and click on Select. Then click on OK.

12. You'll be given a choice of which of your Google Reader feeds you want to import to the N800's feed reader. Tick the boxes of the feeds you want, then click on Subscribe.

13. Exit the RSS Feed Reader app, connect the N800 to the internet, then open the RSS Feed Reader again.

14. That's it! From now on your feeds will be displayed and updated by the N800's feed reader.

As stated above, this tutorial was devised and filmed by special guest Thoughtfix. Visit his website at TabletBlog.com!