October 2014 update: the developer of Power NZB, Emile Belanger, has decided to make Power NZB free. You can download the Android app directly from the Power NZB site by visiting http://powernzb.co.uk/. To learn why Emile decided to make the app free and possible future plans for the app you can join in the reddit discussion.
We recently picked up a Nexus 7 tablet and have since been taking a close look at what Usenet apps are available for Android devices. There are a few to choose from and most tie back into SABnzbd. While we really enjoy using SABnzbd, we’d also like a client to download newsgroup content directly to our Nexus. After trying some apps that didn’t hit the mark we started testing Power NZB a few days ago and it’s worked great so far.
We’ll write up a full review of Power NZB in the weeks to come. After we’ve had some more time to test out the app. For now though we’d like to share some details as I’m sure there are plenty of other Usenet fans looking for a good Android newsreader. From our limited testing we feel good recommending Power NZB. For our SABnzbd fans the app now has an integrated SAB client. You can get Power NZB from Google Play for $4.49.
The Power NZB site does a better job of presenting the apps features than we ever could. With several screenshots and a change log that details the changes made in each release. We’ve enjoyed the Power NZB interface and premium features. You can search Usenet, download and have Power NZB repair and extract the content directly to your Android device. Which is exactly the functionality we were hoping to find.
Power NZB will provide you with Usenet client features on your Android phone or tablet but you’ll still need a Usenet provider to download content. We’re guessing that most of you already have a service. If not there are plenty to choose from. We’ve been testing Power NZB with Newshosting and the performance is very good. We also like that Newshosting provides members with a free Usenet client for Windows, Mac and Linux.
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