Nokia N800 & N810: How to use the RSS Feed Reader

To get the most out of this tutorial, watch the video above and then read the text below. The tutorial assumes that N800 owners have upgraded to OS 2008. If you want to find out more about upgrading your N800, click here.

If you want to comment on this tutorial, please post in the comments section at the end. If you have any questions or problems regarding your tablet, please post about them on Internet Tablet Talk's Newbie Forum.

What are feeds? Why would I want to use them? What does RSS mean?

The "feed" or "news feed" of a website is a very useful internet service. It allows you to see the latest stories posted to that website in an application called a "feed reader".

Here's why this is so useful: By adding the feeds of your favourite websites to a single reader, you can see all the latest stories on your favourite sites all on one page, and you don't have to keep checking up on sites individually for interesting new content. Clicking on a story in a reader usually takes you to the site page where the story appears, so you can still see it in its original context.

RSS is a particular kind of technology used in creating feeds, and stands for "Really Simple Syndication".


How to view feeds on the N800 & N810 built-in feed reader

The built-in feed reader on the N800 and N810 internet tablets is called "RSS Feed Reader". You can open it by clicking on the Applications icon (the green squares on the left), then "Internet", then "RSS Feed Reader".

To view the stories in a particular feed, double-click on the name of the feed on the left. Headlines and short versions of stories from that feed appear on the right, in order of publication. To read a full story, click once on its headline, which will open the web browser and take you to the web page where the story appears.

The feeds refresh automatically while the tablet is connected to the internet, and you can alter the refresh settings by clicking on the reader menu (the grey bar at the top that says "RSS Feed Reader"), then "Tools", then "Settings". "Update Interval" is how often the feeds are refreshed, and "Update When Connected To" means which kinds of connections can be used ("WLAN" refers to wi-fi, and "Any Connection" refers to wi-fi and a Bluetooth phone).

You can also refresh the feeds manually by clicking on the circular arrows icon at the bottom of the screen.


How to add new feeds to the reader

This is very, very easy.

Go to a website and let it fully load. If it has a feed available, you will see an orange square icon appear in the address bar at the bottom of the page. Just click on the orange icon, then click on "OK" to confirm you want to add the feed.

Most news sites and blogs have feeds available, and so do many other sites which regularly add new content.

Incidentally, if the reader says that it can't add a new feed because it's currently refreshing, wait a short while and try again.

Bear in mind the tablet is just a pocket device and not a full scale PC. If you have literally hundreds of feeds in the reader simultaneously, it may cause the tablet to crash when you update them all.


How to remove feeds from the reader

Again, very easy.

In the reader, click once on the feed you want to remove on the left of the screen. Then click on the rubbish bin icon at the bottom of the screen. Then click "OK" when it asks if you want to unsubscribe from the feed.

That's it.


Displaying feed headlines on the tablet desktop

You can display the latest headlines of your feeds on the desktop of the tablet.

To do this click on the "Home" menu at the top of the desktop, then "Select Applets", then tick the box marked "RSS Feed Reader", then click on "OK". The latest feed headlines should appear in a box on the desktop, and this box can be moved about (by selecting and dragging it) or resized (by selecting and dragging the bottom right corner).

Clicking on a headline opens the story in the full feed reader application, but you can change this to make it open the story on its original website if you prefer. Click on the "Home" menu, then "Applet Settings", then "RSS Feed Reader", then "Open Posts Using", then select "Web", then click on "OK".

To refresh the headlines, click on the circular arrows icon at the bottom of the box. This will change to an X while it is refreshing, then change back to circular arrows.

The headlines may be automatically scrolling. This looks very nice indeed, but it does use the tablet's battery up slightly more quickly, and you can turn this autoscrolling off if you want. Click on the "Home" menu at the top, then "Applet Settings", then "RSS Feed Reader", then untick the box marked "Automatic Scrolling", then click on "OK".

To remove the feed box from the desktop, click on "Home" at the top, then "Select Applets", then untick the box marked "RSS Feed Reader", then click on "OK".


Do I have to remove old stories from feeds, or will they disappear automatically?

As new stories appear on a particular feed, the oldest stories disappear automatically. You do not need to remove any stories manually.


Help! My battery runs down more quickly when I use feeds!

The battery on a portable gadget gets used up the most if the gadget is actively doing something. Because feeds update automatically, they make the tablets do stuff at regular intervals, which uses up the battery more quickly.

If you want to use feeds but also want to maximise the tablet's battery life, make sure you have autoscroll switched off as described above, and reduce the interval between the feeds updating.

To reduce the update interval:

1. Click on the RSS Feed Reader menu at the top of the screen.

2. Click on Tools.

3. Click on Settings.

4. Select the interval you want from the "Update Interval" dropdown menu. The longer the interval, the longer the battery will last. Remember though that a longer interval also means the feeds will be less up to date.