Most major news web sites do not offer their content to be easily viewed on mobile devices. The web pages include large graphics, ads, several columns, java script, style sheets and many other things. It isn't practical to view such web sites on a Pocket PC.

While some news web sites, like MSNBC, do offer there news in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) format, where you can download news headlines and summaries, you will find that there are undesireable limitations. RSS news from MSNBC is not always up-to-date with what is shown on their main web site (msnbc.com). There is also no utility program currently available on the Internet to let you download all the articles from selected news sections.and view them offline. Finally, RSS is meant more for headlines and summaries. You are not guaranteed that the actual article that it references can be viewed on a PDA. RSS was not designed exclusively for PDAs.

Snipper is the first application available that makes it possible to view 3 of the Internet's most popular news web sites: CNN.com, MSNBC.com and the Jerusalem Post (jpost.com). Snipper retrieves the front page of these news sites without any graphics. It then extracts the various sections and recreates a web page that is optimally viewed on a PDA. Snipper can also retrieve the current weather and forecast from CNN.com. Like the news, it is also displayed in a format optimized for PDAs.

In the process of recreating the web page, Snipper goes to some very sophisticated extremes that no other product on the market does: it lets you view the actual news article on the PDA without any graphics, in its original print format. In fact, Snipper doesn't even retrieve graphics at all. Snipper will create a link for each article to the web site's print version. When you click on this link in your browser, you get a lightweight article stripped of graphics and all other non-essential things. The downloaded article is stored in Snipper's own cache. Once stored, you can always view it without Snipper having to go and retrieve it again from the web.

Snipper even attempts to maintain the style of the original front page. While a few small minor graphics will get downloaded occassionally, these are generally not ads but links to other articles or news sections. The graphics that you do see, such as the section graphics (WORLD, BUSINESS, SPORTS, etc) are not downloaded but are stored locally on your PDA when Snipper is installed.

Snipper even gives you the option of including the main news picture in the recreated web page. While most GPRS users will probably want to avoid using this, it does have a spectacular look when you do want to view it. And even if you don't view it, Snipper will always still include the picture's caption so at least you will have some idea what the picture might be about.

Other features of Snipper:
- Select news categories specific to a news provider.
- Download all articles from selected news sections.
- Download articles at a time interval (1, 2, 3 hours, etc.) or once or twice a day.
- Download articles manually or automatically.
- PDA doesn't require an Internet connection.

Tests have shown that Snipper saves around one third the amount of data that you normally download when viewing the front page in a browser on a PC. This results in dramatic savings on GPRS connections.

So forget Journal Bar and all of those other Today plug-ins that only give you a few headlines and a few articles. Go for the real McCoy. If you love reading CNN.com news, MSNBC.com or JPost.com, this is the product you've been waiting for.

The download file contains only the version for an ARM 4 processor. If you need a version for one of the other processors, send an e-mail at snipper@bluebottle.com and I'll send you a CAB file. Currently the installation program has a bug preventing the inclusion of these other processors.

Best of all, Snipper is FREE.

Make sure to read the snipper.htm file included in the download, as it contains important information.

Update Description:
v1.3:
- Update to support changes to CNN, MSNBC and Jerusalem Post's websites.

v1.2:
- Update to reflect changes in Jerusalem Post's web site.
- Bug fixes.

v1.1:
- Added weather support for CNN.
- Added menu buttons to allow retrieving news from web sites individually.
- Added support for the /h command line parameter to run Snipper without a graphical user interface.
- Bug fixes.