After using Octopus for a few days, I think it has a ways to go to be really useful -- let alone as revolutionary as they portray it. First of all, it's really not that different from other customizable news portals. The interface is certainly innovative and well done, but once you've set up your "views," using it on a day-to-day basis is pretty much like anything else. One of the most obvious needs, which I find sorely lacking (in a lot of sites, actually), is an indication of which headlines are new since your last visit. You can look at the date/time posted, but it's hardly quick or convenient to scan through a whole page of tiny text comparing dates. Secondly, I'm dying for the ability to add my own news sources -- even the ability to put in an URL to watch for changes, a la SpyOnIt would be great. Having the ability to select certain content from a page would be awesome (not that that's easily done).

Okay, keep in mind, Octopus is merely in preview version. The view properties option isn't even enabled yet, so I'm sure there's much more to come. But so far, it reminds me of what Tog said about OS X -- it demos well, which doesn't necessarily translate to a great day-to-day product.