Torsten and I are getting ready to ship the next version of RSS Bandit and have made a beta version available.

The beta version adds a couple of features over the last version of RSS Bandit such as support for the Atom 0.3 syndication format, the ability to import OPML lists into a specific category, translations to German & simplified Chinese, ability to display logos of feeds that provide them and auto-completion when typing URLs in the address bar.

The beta version also fixes a number of bugs such as the fact that the notification bubble pops up too frequently, right-clicking URLs in the address bar makes them disappear, inability to launch the application on Win98/WinME, sometimes closing a browser tab causes dozens of IE windows to be spawned, clicking mailto: or news: links opens a new browser tab and most importantly the fact that in certain cases feeds are not updated.

Any comments about the beta version should be brought up on the mailing list or discussion board. Bugs should be filed in the bug database on SourceForge and feature requests go to the feature request database on SourceForge.

Our current plan is for the beta to last 2 to 3 weeks after which we'll create an installer for the next release.

PS: Given that RSS Bandit now supports other formats besides RSS and will support more technologies in future (e.g. NNTP) it seems to make sense for us to rename the application. Torsten and I are interested in any suggestions for a new name for the project.