This is a very exciting morning as Ilium Software is releasing NewsBreak 2.0, a major upgrade to their wildly popular Pocket PC & Windows Mobile Smartphone RSS feed reader.

As many of you with these PDAs have no doubt already learned, having updates from your favorite sites on your device is a great way to catch up on posted entries while commuting or when a free moment presents itself.

The ability to update these feeds “over the air” via a WiFi, CDMA or GSM/GPRS connection – as well as through ActiveSync or WMDC, makes it easy to always keep up with the latest news.

Here’s a fun stat: Of the 789 987 RSS subscribers that we had listed as of this morning March 9th, which includes every desktop and handheld RSS reader imaginable, 29 297 of the subscribers are using NewsBreak to keep up on their Windows Mobile devices; it is the highest ranked non-desktop reader in my FeedBurner stats.

Improvements found in NewsBreak 2.0 include:
- Full support for audio, video, image, and attachment podcasts: you can listen to your favorite podcasts, watch vidcasts, and view attached files and images
- Individual download criteria for each channel that supports podcasts: you can schedule podcasts to download when and how you want them to
- Microsoft Live Search included for adding new channels
- Save podcasts for later use
- Schedule when and how to download podcasts separately from channel updates
- Choose the maximum memory usage for podcast storage
- Store podcasts in main memory or on a storage card
- Improved menus for one-handed navigation
- Set the maximum number of channels to save
- New keyword icons plus 6 additional icons and an updated appearance 

Clinton Fitch has written yet another of his wonderfully in-depth reviews on NewsBreak 2.0, in which he says “The new features and functionality are all great steps forward for NewsBreak and make an already solid application all-the-better.”

One of my favorite NewsBreak features is its Today Screen integration. It can’t be overstated that one of the best ways to make someone (like me!) dependent upon your Windows Mobile Application is to include a Today Screen plug-in.

Clinton’s full review can be found here.

Chris Leckness of Mobility Site has also provided a great video of NewsBreak 2.0 in action…

Patrick at JAMM has also posted his full review here. He says, “Wisely – very wisely I feel – NewsBreak have not tried to revamp every single area of the program in this new version, or radically change many of the standard ways you work with it. In my view, NewsBreak has for a long time been THE standard-bearing mobile RSS app. It has always been a rock solid application – as in nearly never crashes, plays nicely with other apps running, does not hog system resources and so on. And it’s always been incredibly easy to use. No manual required to get going and using it within minutes. Oh, and exceptionally easy to use one-handed.”

Scoring massive points with me, Patrick even included a lovely screenshot from a Gear Diary review…very slick!

Still not convinced? Then there’s no convincing you! I give up! Bah!