newsBlurQt debuts, early access to NewsBlur

From the Nokia Store listing:

QT client for the newsBlur.com site, a feed aggregator for RSS. 

Features feeds/folders managemente, starring items, open item in default browser, share to facebook/twitter/Pocket, ...

From my testing so far, it seems like quite early days for this tool, but if you've already signed up for NewsBlur on the web then it's obviously worth picking this up and watching it grow.

You should note that NewsBlur is a commercial RSS aggregator and with some aggressive sales tactics. For example, after sign up, there's an enforced 'queue'/delay of multiple days before you can use the service in any way for free in a desktop browser - the push being to get you to sign up for the premium service in the meantime, of course. Happily, after sign up, you can use the NewsBlur APIs (i.e. with a client like this) immediately, so it's not all bad news.

Here's newsBlurQt for Symbian in action:

Once you have your NewsBlur account registered, logging in via the Symbian client here is easy enough. Note the Twitter log-in, this tie in lets you share stories with the social service directly. (right) The newsBlurQt home screen, letting you view stories in a 'river' ('Reading list') or by drilling into each news feed individually.

At any point you can paste in RSS URLs directly or type in a search keyword. The latter ties into NewsBlur's own search engine and is very, repeat VERY, out of date. Witness searching for 'Symbian' and AAS not even in the four matches shown. Similar poor matches are experienced for other popular news sites. I suspect NewsBlur bought in a list of RSS feeds from about 2004 and haven't updated it - which is shocking. 

Happily, some of the search matches still work properly, as shown here, looking for an F1 news source. (right) Browsing the main news river, free accounts on NewsBlur are limited to just a handful of stories (see the message, top) - though free accounts can read all stories in individual feeds.

Tapping through a headline shows the textual content for the RSS story, along with various sharing links, plus tools to mark as read, save for later and (right) bringing up the story in Web, i.e. in original web form.

The system works passably, though I didn't have to add many feeds to get a 'Memory error' from the application, plus the looping indicator shown above, left. Still, this is an early version of the client, I'm sure it will improve. (right) the three built-in social sharing options.

You can buy newsBlurQt for £1 here in the Nokia Store.

Comments welcome - about the client or NewsBlur, the service. Can it compete with the free gNewsReader, based on the (also free) Feedly? Not for me, by a country mile, but your mileage may vary?