It's been just over a month since we released the alpha of the next release of RSS Bandit codenamed Phoenix. Below are a couple of posts about the alpha from some popular blogs

• RSS Bandit Syncs RSS Feeds Between Desktop and Google Reader – LifeHacker
• Sync your Google Reader, Newsgator feeds with RSS Bandit – Download Squad
• A Desktop Based RSS Reader For Your Google Reader Feeds – Digital Inspiration

The tone of the feedback was generally the same. People were very interested in the synchronization with Google Reader but were dissatisfied due to bugs or performance issues. I hadn't expected so much interest in an alpha release otherwise we would have been more diligent about bug fixing and performance improvements. Anyway, there was a ton of great feedback and we fixed a bunch of bugs including the following issues

• Application hangs on shutdown due to search indexing [bug 1967898]
• Feeds in tree view not sorted in alphabetical order [bug 1999533]
• Mouse wheel doesn't work when attempting to scroll feed list [bug 1999534]
• Removing a synchronized feed source deletes all items across all feed sources [bug 1999800] 
• Exception when loading feed list from NewsGator Online [bug 2000390]
• Feed logos are broken image links in feeds synchronized from NewsGator Online [bug 2000764]
• Context menu for a feed source doesn't contain the option to remove the feed source [bug 2000808]
• Exception when loading feed list from Google Reader [bug 20001419]
• Space not accepted in Name field of Synchronize Feeds dialog [bug 20001908]
• Google Reader synchronizes feeds but not items within feeds [bug 2001911]
• Favorite icon not downloaded for Google Reader feeds [bug 2001915]
• Selecting Unread Items search folder displays error message [bug 2001916]
• Incorrect NewsGator or Google Reader password cannot be changed [2002144]
• Crash on attempting to download an enclosure [bug 2004646]
• Google Reader password communicated over the wire in plain text [bug 2005154]
• Option to take over network settings from Internet Explorer does not allow specifying proxy server password [bug 2005687]
• Unable to play a downloaded video from the Download Manager [bug 2005854]
• Media keeps playing after closing a browser tab [bug 2014408]
• Custom column layouts not remembered for specific feeds [bug 2022242]
• Category dropdown in Add Subscription Wizard doesn't match selected feed source [bug 2026658]

There were also a couple of performance and memory usage improvements that were made along the way. I still have one or two issues that I've been having problems reproducing such as one situation where we end up getting a streak of timeouts while waiting for HTTP responses from Google Reader. I suspect it has to do with making lots of requests to a single domain in rapid succession if you're behind a proxy server but I might be wrong. Despite that one issue, the application is now a lot more usable and is feature complete for the release. If you hit that issue, you can either wait a couple of minutes before retrying to refresh feeds or restart the application to clear it up.

You can download the beta version of Phoenix from RssBandit.Phoenix.Beta.Installer.zip. There are two files in the installer package, I suggest running setup.exe because that validates that you have the correct prerequisites to run the application and tells you where to get them otherwise.

If you have any problems feel free to file a bug on SourceForge or ask a question on our forum. Thanks for using our software.

PS: As RSS Bandit is a hobbyist application worked on in our free time, we rely on the generosity of our users when it comes to providing translations of our application. If you look at the supported language matrix for RSS Bandit, you'll see the languages in which the application has been translated in previous versions. We would love to get translators for those languages again and for any new languages as well.  If you'd like to provide your skills as a translator to the next release of RSS Bandit and believe you can get this done in this next month or two then please send mail to . We'd appreciate your help.

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