Why no AvantGo?
The following letter is in response to an article, "Optimizing Web pages for handheld devices" in February's PalmPower, written by Marty Kacin, Director of Professional Services at AvantGo.

To Marty Kacin (or anyone who'll listen):

I agree with your assessments that AvantGo provides a decent "off-line browsing" tool for the Palm device.

Here's a terrific irony for you though: of all the many, many resource available as "AvantGo" channels, I find the ones that are specifically devoted to Palm device news and information are the absolute WORST!

Obviously, no one there has ever tried to actually USE AvantGo to read "PalmPower Magazine" on a Palm device! It's a complete joke! Text bleeds off the "page." Links either go nowhere (even with the default retrieval settings) or links repeat themselves in unending "link loops" that I still can't figure out. All I know is, I either see the same page over and over, or I see no page at all.

This has to be the funniest, most ironic thing I've encountered in quite some time. What gives? I mean, if USA Today can have an absolutely FLAWLESS AvantGo channel, why can't PalmPower Magazine???

Concerned,
Paul Banks
Executive Editor and Director, Editorial Edge

David Gewirtz responds
Wow, Paul. Chill out a bit. The difference between USA Today and PalmPower is the number of people on their staff. We have four people and me. Creating an AvantGo channel is on our list of things to do, but there are many things on our list to do and just so many hours in the day. Given that we need at least two hours of sleep a night, some things just don't happen right away.

What you're reading now on AvantGo is an unauthorized AvantGo channel created by an enthusiastic reader. We don't mind that it's there (we love enthusiasm in all its forms), but I also can't really comment on how that person decided to generate our content. Rest assured that when we do it, it'll be as near flawless as the gods allow.

Stay tuned. It's on our list.

Paul Banks' reply
Thanks for your reply. I think the tone of my previous message sounds a lot pissier than it was intended. It's not really that big a deal either way. My point was/is that it's just ironic that the worst AvantGo "pages" of all are the ones that have content specifically (and only) related to the Palm device. That's all -- just an observation. However, based on your response and the fact that it seems to take almost forever for ANY AvantGo Channel to update during HotSync, it sounds like there's LOTS and LOTS of room for someone to give AvantGo a run for their money! I mean, WHY should it be THAT big a deal? It appears to me like it that's the real mistake. It seems that leaves the door wide open for a competitor to AvantGo…

Thanks again for your frank response to my otherwise rather prissy previous message. No offense intended.