Comments on: AvantGo Fires Up New Version

iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, today launched the latest version of its AvantGo service, delivering superior features for managing and viewing mobile Internet content offline or online, anywhere at anytime.

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I never expected them to hang in there this long!

hkklife @ 1/11/2005 3:22:58 PM #

That said, the latest AG client is pretty nice! Full-screen mode works pretty well on my T3 and it seems a bit faster and more stable than any of the previous OS5 versions. Online functionality seems improved considerably and you can even use it as a poor man's WWW browser in a pinch. I also like the new UI layout. I just wish that the various channels/content providers could come to some sort of unified font size/resolution. It's irritating as heck to be blinded by tiny text on one site and then have screen-filling characters formatted for 160*160 on another site. Of course, considering the free nature of the service you can't really complain.

Despite having a 1x cell connection over BT, I still find AvantGo to be useful enough to keep installed and sync'd on a daily basis.

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

radleyp @ 1/11/2005 3:40:13 PM #

Yes, but it's still the same unreliable AG, with correct syncs only most (rather than all) of the time. I have gotten utter gibberish at times on my T3, and the font size varies with the site, which is ridiculous. The only feature it has that is absent in the much better (and also free) Plucker is that it can sync wirelessly. Some users are reporting total inability to sync, others (like me) see where suddenly sites that were syncing no longer sync at all. I still can't recommend it, except to those who are willing to endure such inadequacies. Philippe Radley

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

hkklife @ 1/11/2005 5:01:13 PM #

I was having the same problem with sporadic syncs until I reconfigured it to save the channels in internal memory. I have no idea if that was just a fortuitous coincidence or if there's something to it but about 90% of my woes went away as soon as I did that (after first completely removing all traces of the previous build of AG on my desktop and my T3).

The font issue...well, there's nothing that can be done about that at the present time.

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

Sartre @ 1/11/2005 5:01:16 PM #

For my money, AvantGo has been one of the few near-perfect applications for Palm. It does exactly what it claimed to do, and exactly what I wanted.

So far, I haven't had the need to browse the net live. AvantGo easily lets me choose sites to download and synchronizes efficiently (albeit a little slowly). This allows me to review content updated daily.

On my T3, I have never had garbled text, or any problems synching (to both internal and external memory). I've used the app for more than four years at least - from a Palm V, to a Sony Clie, to the T3.

Always reliable, dependable and well-used.

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

tooele @ 1/11/2005 7:56:54 PM #

I love avantgo it is one of the best programs. Now that it has full screen support for the T3 it's even better.

Tungsten T3 + T610

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

LiveFaith @ 1/12/2005 9:41:36 AM #

While switching desktop PCs the other day, I had to go to AG.com and download the software, and VIOLA. OS5, HVGA & expansion card support on a new attractive interface. Great work AG and they even get you up to 3MB for free. What a great time to be alive.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: I never expected them to hang in there this long!

rsc1000 @ 1/12/2005 12:16:34 PM #

a quick off-topic question fro rcartwright: what is that quote from ("The Anglo-Saxon-Scots-Irish people are the most warlike people in history, and their enemies forget it at their peril. ")?

AvantGo is TOAST

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/11/2005 9:55:35 PM #

AvantGo was killed by:

Wireless web via real browsers + Bluetooth cellphones/Wi-Fi.
Plucker.
Daring to try to charge for the service a few years ago.
iSilo.
Plucker.

They never had a realistic revenue model, and now they've become redundant. Life is hard. Then you die.™

******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

rcartwright @ 1/11/2005 11:06:54 PM #

Yes, tasty toast that I use every day. Yes, Plucker is technically better but AvantGo is much more useable.

BTW, VoR you are one of the few people I have encounter that could be perishing from thrist, see a full glass of clean cold water, and then complain about the design of the glass.

"The Anglo-Saxon-Scots-Irish people are the most warlike people in history, and their enemies forget it at their peril. "

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

Sartre @ 1/11/2005 11:44:30 PM #

It seems extremely unreasonable to proclaim that an application is "toast" when it's quite obviously well-liked and popular.

I love the application - for my needs it performs well. The other applications mentioned serve different needs.

As to whether they "try" to charge or not, the service is still free for my needs. If they tried to charge for the amount I use, I would gladly pay. It's a service, and not everyone subscribes to the "entitlement philosophy."

For example, when Vindigo went pay-for-service, I subscribed, without any regret.

By the way, what's the deal with the trademark symbol? That has got to be the most ignorant thing I've seen on a message board ever. Like, this guy will sue me for doing this:

Life is hard. Then you die.™

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

drw @ 1/11/2005 11:56:06 PM #

RSS is the new king of the offline readers IMHO.

---
David

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

Wolfgard @ 1/12/2005 6:42:26 AM #

Just like french toast, I like my AvantGo very much:)

Only thing I wish they would implement is the ability to scroll the page by tapping the screen as in Plucker and iSilo.

pen & paper -> m515 -> Zire72 -> TH55 & Handera 330

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

LiveFaith @ 1/12/2005 9:46:29 AM #

Wolfgard,
I think you meant "freedom toast", right? Actually, I think they have some screen tapping options to set now. I have a T3 and the d-pad works great for 1 handed navigation. Others probably too.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

Wolfgard @ 1/12/2005 11:19:49 AM #

@LiveFaith
Lol...I'll have my freedom fries along with my freedom toast please. Oh my, Politics!

And no, I don't think there's a screen tap feature on the new AvantGo. I might be wrong, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Oh yeah, I meant the region tap feature as in Plucker and iSilo.

pen & paper -> m515 -> Zire72 -> TH55 & Handera 330

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

rsc1000 @ 1/12/2005 12:18:04 PM #

a quick off-topic question fro rcartwright: what is that quote from ("The Anglo-Saxon-Scots-Irish people are the most warlike people in history, and their enemies forget it at their peril. ")?

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

TwinTurbo @ 1/12/2005 6:02:40 PM #

I disagree with VOR about AvantGo being TOAST. They're still around and that's more than you can say for a lot of their peers from the bubble days. Also if you followed the company before they were acquired, most of the revenue did not come from the consumer facing channels model. It came from the corporate facing side of the business and licensing. I agree that the proliferation of wireless enabled devices made it unecessary for many users, but it's good to see that they are still around and trying to incorporate more wireless features to stay in the game. Plus it's free. Why complain?

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/12/2005 10:44:53 PM #

Complain? I'm not complaining. Merely stating that they are now redundant for many (most?) power users. If YOU "followed the company before they were acquired" then you would know that they would have also disappeared like "their peers from the bubble days". They had a single big contract (a healthcare company) that kept them barely alive for years. What do they have now that's bringing in revenue? Enlighten us, Amigo.

Sorry, but like the song says, "Wi-Fi/Bluetooth killed the AvantGo star..."

******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/13/2005 9:16:02 PM #

Complain? I'm not complaining. Merely stating that they are now redundant for many (most?) power users. If YOU "followed the company before they were acquired" then you would know that they would have also disappeared like "their peers from the bubble days" had they not been bought out. They had a single big contract (a healthcare company) that kept them barely alive for years. What do they have now that's bringing in revenue? Enlighten us, Amigo.

Sorry, but like the song says, "Wi-Fi/Bluetooth killed the AvantGo star..."

******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: AvantGo is TOAST

TwinTurbo @ 1/14/2005 5:42:00 PM #

Actually VOR, AvantGo picked a very poor time to sell out, probably the worst possible time. They were close to break-even financially but sold the company at the very end of the bust (early '03) for around $1 per share which was less than cash value. They had enough cash to keep operations going for several quarters but decided the better option was to be acquired. Management probably thought it was a good long term decision at the time due to poor market conditions, but it was a very shortsighted move. They initiated the buyout process literally the month before the stock markets would begin to stage a recovery. It was a classic case of selling at the bottom.

They had enough going for them that they would likely still be around today and with a higher market cap, maybe even a $5 plus stock if they had decided to do a better job in the email sync space and OEM licensing. Look at SYNC, OPWV and a few others from the same time period. Even RIMM was only a $6 a share back then. It was a bad time to sell. Sybase got a good deal and AvantGo shareholders did not. Just my opinion.

Any reason to come back?

Strider_mt2k @ 1/12/2005 10:48:51 AM #

I got kinda spoiled on surfing WiFi at home and when travelling with my TH55, so my Avantgo usage dropped off and I eventualy dropped it altogether.

Any compelling reason to come back?

I never had complaints about the service, it just wasn't suiting my needs. Avantgo does rock.

Avantgo causes problem with Mac Hotsync

asiayeah @ 1/12/2005 12:46:41 PM #

Everytime after I performed a wireless sync of AvantGo on my Palm, my Mac will hotsync with my Palm as if my Palm has never hotsynced before! The hotsync process will takes ages.

This bug has been around for a long while, unfortunately the latest 5.7 release still has this problem.

Will this be fixed at all?

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Avantgo causes problem with Mac Hotsync

bhall_markspace @ 1/12/2005 6:04:08 PM #

We reported this bug to AvantGo a while back. In the meantime, we include a fix for it with Missing Sync (install the file "/Applications/Missing Sync for Palm OS/AvantGoFixer.prc" to your handheld).

Also the new 4.0.3 includes our own Mark/Space AvantGo Conduit. 4.0.3 will ship shortly, and there is a beta (requires a 4.x reg code to operate) at http://www.markspace.com/testing/

Brian

RE: Avantgo causes problem with Mac Hotsync

asiayeah @ 1/13/2005 5:24:55 AM #

Is the AvantGoFixer.PRC free for everyone use? But one needs to buy a license of the Missing Sync in order to use it.

Thank you.

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Avantgo causes problem with Mac Hotsync

ChiA @ 1/17/2005 4:35:25 PM #

http://www.markspace.com/ftp/avantgofixer.prc.sit

Still no native MacOS X compatibility

critic @ 1/12/2005 12:52:44 PM #

At least, none that I can find without having to dig out my old user ID from lord knows how many years ago. Thanks but no thanks - I'll stick with iSilo.

----
What do you think, sirs?

RE: Still no native MacOS X compatibility

ChiA @ 1/17/2005 4:38:39 PM #

I don't understand how needing User ID is relevant to OS X compatibility. From what I see on their website, you'd need an Avantgo User ID whatever Desktop and Handheld combination you use, be it Windows, Pocket PC, OS X or Palm.

Just for the record, MAL conduit software on OS X with a Palm OS 4 device and it's been a problem free combination 99.5% of the time: nothing in life is perfect!