Hewlett-Packard has an interesting new service that allows users to turn RSS feeds into deliverable, printable PDFs. The service is called Tablloid and works basically like other feed readers.
How it works:
1. Enter at least one RSS Feed
2. Select Your Delivery Options
3. On schedule, they email you a print-ready PDF
Publishers that want their feeds to be compatible with Tabbloid may have to make some adjustments. When I experimented with it to see what our own Murdok feeds looked like in it, I got the common excerpt format, and for those printing out PDFs to read paper versions, they’re not going to be able to click on “read more”, so they’re not going to be able to read the full content.
Publishers that offer full content in their feeds would presumably fit right into this, though I would imagine it would use a whole lot of paper. Amit Agarwal suggests mobile uses:
You may find this very useful if your old smartphone can send & receive emails but has no built-in feed reader. Just get your favorite sites as a PDF file in your email and read the new content at leisure without your laptop.
I don’t know how often people are going to want their feeds in a PDF format, but HP making the option available can’t hurt.
