Recently I’ve taken the time to set up my Google Reader to consolidate all my news sites into one easy to read location. For those of you that are new to the idea of RSS and an RSS reader allow me to explain. Basically you ’subscribe’ to sites that have an RSS or other type of feed link. Then your reader will pull news stories and articles from that site as they appear. Its kind of like an inbox for the internet. You can log in and check your reader and see all the new items in one location. I used to simply check the sites I wanted to keep track of individually, but finally there came to be so many I wanted to keep my eye on that I had to find a better way. So I sat down and subscribed to all the sites that I like to check, and have been using Google Reader ever since. One of the very nice features of Google Reader is the available Offline Mode. With the quick instillation of an add-on called Google Gears, you can take the most recent 2000 items offline with you and read them without a connection to the internet.

Because of this I’ve been using my UX all the time to check my feeds while I’m out of the house. I’ll just hit the download button then run out the door with the UX in my pocket, and if I have some down time I’ll break it out and check the latest news. Lately I’ve been using my UX a specific way when I read news through the reader. And let me tell you, it’s a very convenient solution. Because of the UX’s nice 1024×600 screen, you can get a lot of text without having to scroll. But I find the ultimate way to use Google Reader with your UX is to do the following: Rotate your screen so you are in landscape mode, then make your Firefox or other browser full screen. Once that is done, simply press the “U” button on the keyboard while you are in Google Reader which will make the menu bar disappear allowing the full width of the screen to be used to view your news content. Slide the UX’s screen partially closed so that the line of keys with “J” and “K” is still accessible. Then with your left hand (it could be your right if you rotate the screen in the opposite direction) you can get a good hold on the UX, and use the J and K keys to move forward/back through your items list (or close the screen even more and just use space bar to move forward).

For me this is such a nice solution and a great way to read through my news. It allows you to read your news easily without having to scroll frequently, and a somewhat big thing for me is that you can see the entirety of images, not just the 600 pixel height that the UX normally gives you. This method also mimics the fairly standard blog format which is to have a long column containing many posts. Its also great when you need to be mobile. You can get a great grip on the UX from the side, and it allows for perfect one handed operation. Combining this method of rotated RSS reading with the Grab and Drag add-on for Firefox would probably result in a great touch screen RSS reader allowing you to flick your way through your news and not even have to bother with the keyboard. I’d like to know how people out there use their UMPCs other than the standard two handed thumbs on the keyboard style.