Feeds. Such a simple name. And yet it defines exactly the process of retrieving information from the Internet without you looking for it. If you are using your Internet connection only to read the latest information in various fields of activity, you can give up your web browser, as it becomes useless.

News readers are equipped with an internal browser that allows you to surf the Net. Its functionality is not limited to this and you can also download files. All the basic options of an Internet browser are included in most feed readers.

Awasu comes in three versions: Personal, Advanced and Professional. The last two releases are the most complete while Personal has a series of limitations; but the good news is that it is free. Developed by Awasu Pty, the Personal edition manages to bring all the necessary options the user needs from a feed reader.

Like all the feed readers, Awasu's main application window is also divided into several windows - one for the channels and one for showing the actual feeds. If other RSS reading softwares gave the user the choice to change the way feeds are displayed, Awasu will show only the titles in a separate window, above the summary of the feeds.

For a better view, the software allows displaying the feeds of your subscriptions in fullscreen. This option will occupy the entire desktop and you will no longer be able to toggle between the windows in the taskbar unless you use the keybord shortcut (Alt+Tab). If the title view of the feeds is stressing you out you can close it by enabling only the summary view.

Some users need a jumpstart when it comes to subscriptions to the feeds of different web sites as sometimes the "authorities" on the subject we are interested in are totally unknown. Awasu is equipped with a number of channel packs that cover more or less the most popular fields. Thus, you can choose to subscribe to channels from News and Current Affairs, Business, Technology, Entertainment, Comics, Sports, Podcasts or Specialist Channels. Open the desired pack and choose the channel you think is most likely to have comprehensive info about your interest.

Tasks bar on the right covers two sections: Channels and Search. In Channels, you can do everything from subscribing to the feeds of a new website, subscribe to the channels in the default channel packs, finding channels in the ones you already have a subscription to update them, organizing the favorites and cleaning up the ones that are dead.

The application can be configured to run in the system tray, so that it will not take the space in the taskbar. When adding a new channel the user can enable the display of a notifying balloon whenever a new item is added. This way you can be alerted only for certain news and the memory use is quite low (a little over 4MB).

Awasu supports customization and in the Options menu under Tools the user can set the browser windows (enable tabbed browsing, change the location of the tabs either at the bottom or at the top and their color), set the application to run from the system tray, configure the mouse actions, enable Awasu to start minimized when Windows loads etc.

The channels also support customization and colors and fonts are the means to do it with. Archives maximum storing period is one month and the user can add as many extensions for enclosures as s/he wants. The default ones are MP3, MPG, MPEG, AVI and WMV and they all can be downloaded in a user specified folder.

Awasu Personal Edition supports up to one hundred channels to be added and the update can be performed only once every hour. The limitations make this release seem a little feeble compared to the unlimited options of the Professional edition, but it does not make it less reliable or unusable.

The Good

Awasu Personal Edition handles incredibly well and the customization options will help you quickly notice the desired channels.

The alerting options are extremely useful as you will no longer have to hunt down the channels for updating (if you have automatic updates function activated). You can choose for a balloon to popup, a sound to be played or both.

The Bad

The toolbar icons are a bit small and the lack of tooltips in the browser window should be remedied. The minimum update restriction (once every hour) can be a problem as some of the news may be posted with a much greater frequency. But as this version is designed for personal use I do not suppose it is too much of an issue.

The Truth

Great RSS reader and the options are of great use. You no longer have to search the Web for news as you only have to add your sources to the channel list and get all the new information with just a few clicks.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: