Over the past month or two, I’ve been jumping around from feed reader to feed reader. I used to be a faithful FeedLounge user but a mixture of me getting a MacBook which will keep me mobile and aggravation at the fact that FeedLounge does not update frequently and doesn’t support favicons (in addition to some overall sluggishness) has gotten me running for other choices. I was originally drawn to FeedLounge as it was a way to keep track of my feeds regardless of which computer I was on and where I was. However now that I have one main computer, I don’t need to necessarily have a web-based feed aggregator. I’ve branched out to using NetNewsWire and just now NewsFire. NewsFire has the advantage of being one of the most beautiful OS X apps.
After using NewsFire it quickly becomes apparent that feeds were meant to be read in such a simple manner. No fancy 3-column layout or cluttered toolbar is needed for reading your feeds. Just a well thought out interface, with options for customization like NewsFire delivers. Josue over at TUG mentioned this a long time ago.. I should have listened to him then.
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As beautiful as the interface is, the groups for sorting feeds is god aweful ugly. I started using the smart folders instead of groups for the simple fact that they look better. How shallow right?
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I’m a long time NewsFire user, I feel in love with it as soon as since 0.1 shipped. I totally agree with Derek, the Groups are kinda ugly, needs label colour options.
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In my Essential Software of 2005 list I have Newsfire added as the best RSS reader available for OSX. Feel free to check it out at http://jarkolicious.com/probes/2006/01/02/essential-software-of-2005/ ;-)
Newsfire is definitely an excellent choice however if you do not have the ability to use a Mac everywhere then using a web based reader if the best option. With FeedLounge, which I totally adore, I use the “River of News” layout (which is only 2 columns as opposed to the horribly design 3-style) and find no problems with it at all. What is your issues with FeedLounge exactly?
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I just hated how it was slow to update feeds. As in, I would check a feed and then go to the site to see that the feed hadn’t seen the latest post or two. It updates roughly every 24 hours or a bit less.. with NewsFire it can update every 5 minutes on its own, or even faster with a manual refresh.
Maybe I’ll check back with FeedLounge in 6 months or a year.. if the feeds are updated as fast as I’d like and they get some search and favicons, I might give them another try.
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Indeed, FL does have a unique algorithm that determines update frequency. It seems to be a continuous point of debate. With that, I completely understand where you are coming from.
I assume that favicons are not nearly as important as the functionality that a better update frequency would offer (it is what I would choose)? The Fl developers have been extremely responsive (something entirely opposite from that of the somewhat loathed Newsfire developer) so I suspect they will do whatever they can to help make the experience better all around, including modifying the update interval to something a little more reasonable.
… at least I would certainly hope so (can not speak for them as I have zero connection with them).
Anyhow, enjoy Newsfire. It definitely rocks all other Feedreaders out there, including those on Winblows.
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Hey Paul, I just wrote an article on what I thought about RSS readering in regards to Wordpress and online feed reading. Anywho, I wanted to Trackback to your article since it kinda relates to mine, but i don’t see a Trackback link. Am I missing something or do you not have them enabled?
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Chris, there actually is a way to color the groups. Right click on the group and select ‘Edit’. In the next window to the far right there is a color swatch that we can use to color groups. However, despite this color option, I am still no fan of the capsule like shape of the group.
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Chris, there is an option to change the label color. Click the group you want select Feeds->Edit Selected Feed (command-I). You’ll see a little color swatch in the upper left hand corner of that info window. Click, and you’ve got the color mixer. Bingo!
~Mike
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No Windows love? I really liked FeedDemon, but the cost, and then the whole Newsgator thing getting in the way was too much.
I started using a bare bones RSS reader but got on a new PC and can’t remember wheat the name of it was. I think Derek and myself anre still mourning the loss of Searchfox RSS. As of now I stick to Netvibes, it just works, but I think I want to handle more feeds and Netvibes may not foot the bill for a power user like myself.
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Excellent tip Paul. I was using Flock but you sold me!
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You may be thinking of Feedreader, Evan. As far as readers go it’s very basic, but it does have the functionality that pretty much everyone wants. Optional three-column or two-column (what I call ‘blog’) views, ability to create smart feeds, auto detection, ability to set time that each feed is checked, nice visual icon in the system tray that shows you when new feeds are available, and a pretty slick design.
It’s nothing special, but it does what it’s designed to do pretty damn well. And, it’s easy on resources.
All that said, if anybody can recommend a better Windows reader then I’d be more than willing to try it out. I tried an absolute load of them a while ago and settled on Feedreader, but finding the meat via Google is pretty difficult these days with so many half-baked readers out there.
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I just downloaded and love it, gonna purchase it b/c popups are annoying and I have WAY more than 15 feeds.
I use bloglines and it’s great. I’ve used it for 2-3 years now, but since I got my Mac, I have been getting away from web based apps. I can’t explain why just yet. Perhaps being a design junkie I just like Mac GUI over any web GUIs? Who knows.
At any rate, is there a Dashboard widget for Newsfire? I’d like to know if I have new posts to read w/o opening the program itself. I searched but came up empty and their site has one page…
Dimitry
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viperteq, just add a /trackback to the end of the URL… maybe I should put the trackback link pack.
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yes Scott, I hope they update their feed refresh frequency. I can only assume that now they don’t have enough servers to do it as frequently as everyone would like.
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Wow… nice. I can’t wait till I get my macbook (waiting till the end of summer). I just hope I’ll be able to do everything I need for school with it (starting CS at GT in the fall). Worst case I can run boot-camp and parallels, but still hoping everything will work!
NewsFire is hot! Sucks that you can’t import opml files with groups though.
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I have to say wow, NewsFire looks amazing. I’ve never been much of a feed reader and thought of trying NetNewsWire out but just the look of it put me off. Finally, a feed reader worthy of a Mac! Thanks for sharing.
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By the way Paul, I just realised NewsFire comes in brushed metal. How did you get yours Aquafied? Are you using Uno?
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I use NetVibes as my RSS reader. It’s simple, usable and blazing fast. I’ve tried tons of web-based and offline readers, but nothing seems to take me away from NetVibes!
I came across newsfire tonight, I love it. But I seem to have trouble with wordpress feeds and a few photoblog feeds. The both come up blank, Ive edited the urls a few times to see what does and doesnt work, I cant find any documentation though…I am no feed reader geek though, this is a fairly new concept to me, and I hate that I cant get it working out of the box. Is it because the feed sucks? or because newsfire is somewhat limited?
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