FreeRange Communications has recently released a public preview version of a new RSS newsreader for mobile devices with Java (MIDP 1.0 and 2.0). The software, called FreeNews, is available for download at the company's website.

With FreeNews, users can set up RSS feeds (news, blogs, stock quotes, company news, etc.) on FreeRange's server via a desktop web browser. The server steps the user through the setup process, or imports OPML files if the user already has a feed list.

When the aplication on the mobile phones connects to the server, only the new articles are pulled to the mobile phone, making it extremely fast and efficient.

FreeNews also allows users to manage feeds from the phone, read full text of articles via a built-in text only browser, email articles, and change views and styles.

FreeNews runs on Java based mobile phones and PDAs, including Windows Mobile devices (with a JVM), Blackberry and palmOne Treo.