Looking for a Better RSS Reader (for Mac, Naturally)
RSS is the best way to follow the news on multiple web sites. Not only does it make my professional news-following easier – all the Mac sites I need to keep up with have RSS feeds – but it lets me add friends blog’s, sites for specific interests, and others to a single application so I don’t have to remember to check web sites. I’m sure most readers of Kirkville use RSS as well; other than those of you who land here via a Google search (I own the search result for “dead iPod”), regular readers are most likely to use RSS to see what’s new.
I currently use NetNewsWire, now owned by NewsGator, but, when I first started using it, a shareware program. I’m not happy with the direction this program will be taking, and I’m looking for something to replace it.
Now, my RSS needs are simple: I want folders to organize feeds by theme, I want a pane to display a summary when I click a headline, and – this is the deal-breaker – I want my RSS reader to be able to display web pages in tabs. You may say that I’m basically describing NetNewsWire, and you’re right; these are the features of NetNewsWire that led me to adopt it over other readers, and these are the features I want to keep.
I’ve tried a number of RSS readers, and none of them have all the above features. Maybe I should just stick with NetNewsWire, but if there’s anything out there that I haven’t heard about, I’d appreciate a heads-up. Post something in the comments about your favorite RSS reader and why you like it.
Posted: 10/15/2009 by kirk | Filed under: Apple & Mac OS X | 18 Comments »
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NewsFire.
Yea, yea, I know who you are… You know why I don’t like NewsFire. Actually, let me say why for others who read this: I don’t like the way you can’t set a fixed order for feeds in the sidebar, and I want to be able to open articles in tabs in the same program, rather than have them open in my web browser.
” I’m not happy with the direction this program will be taking, and I’m looking for something to replace it.”
Curious, what are you thinking about?
Hey Kirk, I tried several as well and ended up with RSS Menu (http://www.edot-studios.com/). Works like a charm. It may not suit your needs completely, but you may want to give it a try.
Cheers.
Jan: I don’t know exactly. It seems old, by its interface; there haven’t been any improvements to the program in years; and I’m not sure I like the way they’re introducing an ad-supported version (plus a paid version). I could very well continue using the current version, but I’m just wondering if there’s not something better that I don’t know about.
Stephan: I need a dedicated program. Menu-based things are cool if you have only a handful of feeds. That’s why I don’t like Safari’s RSS implementation (or Mail’s).
Ahh. I looked around, half heartily, some time ago but didn’t find anything. The most fun one was one that made the feeds look like a newspaper — fun but I was more efficient reading the feeds using NNW so that’s the one I’m using.
Well, the last reader I used was Vienna, which is quite good AND has tabbed browsing.
SK.
Have you tried Vienna? I used it and liked it before I started using NetNewsWire for its superior syncing.
Version 3.2 is stable now and the syncing with google-reader has overcome it´s initial shortcomings.
I paid the small shareware-fee for NetNewsWire to get rid of the ads.
I was searching around for three weeks when the NNW-beta wasn´t working right, but I did not find anything as good for my needs. So my recommendation: Stick with NNW and request the features you miss from developer Brent Simmons.
Greetings
Thomas_U
Trying Vienna; it’s interesting, it’s got a lot of what I want – it’s very much like NNW – but it looks a bit “fresher”.
I hadn’t looked at the new version of NNW since the early betas (which weren’t very stable). I just downloaded it, and I like the ability to have thumbnail tabs at the right of the window; that alone may be enough to make me stay with NNW, since I really use it a lot to keep pages open.
I switched from NetNewsWire to Google Reader. Works for me.
I just find the Google Reader interface to be a total mess… I need a dedicated program.
BTW, that “Kirk” who switched from NNW to GR was not me; that’s another Kirk. :-)
Right, although I’m an honorary citizen of Kirkville.
I don’t think it’s a total mess, definitely not as pretty as a standalone but I do Iike the ability to get on a reader through the net on a different platform if necessary.
OT: thanks for the Amazon box sale update yesterday. I think I’ll have to delete you from my blog list as it’s getting too expensive to continue. ;-)
Ha! Well, I did link to some Amazon freebies the other day as well… But, yea, I know the feeling: those sales do tempt me a lot.
I just use Safari and Mail, but before they supported it, I used MiNews. It may be too bare bones for your needs, though. I have never really tried it, but Shrook looked kind of good. Really, though, NetNewsWire was the only one I found back when I was looking that could archive feed content, which was a biggie for me at the time.
Vienna is not bad, and it’s ‘scriptable, so you can interface with Twitter and Mars Edit and Instapaper and so on. But Vienna can seem a little half-baked when used rigorously. I went with it for about a month and went back to NNW, but without Google sync. I’m going to try writing my own sync-among-machines for it ’cause Google Reader is a total clunker.