RSS Reader : NetNewsWire
RSS has really changed how we visit and read articles on websites. No longer do we have to visit a website periodically to check for new content, instead with RSS websites almost appear to contact us. We covered the theory of RSS on an earlier post and this article will look at one way in which you can easily manage your RSS subscriptions.
For a number of years I have been using NewsFire. I was even a user when it was a paid application. NewsFire is a great piece of software that enabled me to read a range of RSS feeds easily. It would check my subscriptions every ten minutes and let me know if there was new content.
I can’t fault NewsFire as a newsreader. On a single computer it really is a perfect solution for managing your RSS subscriptions the only problem I have ever encountered is the frustration of moving between two computers and finding NewsFire presenting you with the same unread news that I had actually viewed earlier on a different computer. For this reason (and pretty much this reason only) I have been using NetNewsWire.
Like NewsFire the application is free and very easy to use. The nice thing about both applications is their ability to export and import the feed list in OPML format.
This resulted in a really painless transition from NewsFire and NetNewsWire (and vice versa if I want to move back in the future). I simply exported my feed list in OPML format and imported it into NewNewsWire.
Syncing with NewsGator
Probably the best feature of NetNewsWire is the ability to sync your subscriptions with the free NewsGator system. When you install NewNewsWire you will be prompted to create a free NewsGator account. All you need is to select a username and password, no personal data such as email address etc is actually collected.
The NewsGator system means when you read your RSS subscription on one computer it will be marked read on another computer when you login. This is particularly useful if you have a large number of RSS subscriptions.
As well as displaying the article in plain text. NetNewsWire also acts as a browser allowing news items to be displayed (including nice thumbnail images along the right hand sidebar) in a full page format. Although this is a nice feature and means you don’t have to I still opt for news items to be loaded on a new tab in Safari. This ensures proper rendering of the article as well as a better viewing area.
The application also offers the ability to re-blog content. If you find an interesting article you can add it to your own blog at a click of a button. This feature works really well with the third party application Mars Edit.
I discovered when I moved to NetNewsWire that over a dozen feeds on my list were not actually updating anymore. In actual fact one hadn’t been refreshed in ten months. NNW, changes the colour of old feeds to brown to indicate it hasn’t had any new content in a few weeks.
The interface is very easy to use and feeds can be grouped in folders for easy management. One negative I have found is the minimum refresh interval is 30 mins whereas NewsFire offers the ability to check very 10 mins.
We are certainly very happy with our current RSS solution but the OPML format means we can easily change readers if a new one becomes available. Anyone else have a favourite RSS reader ?
It does look nice, though i much prefer google reader
Another benefit of the syncing feature of NetNewsWire is that you can read your feeds at http://www.newsgator.com using a browser–so you can keep up to date even when you don’t have access to your own computer.
And then there’s the iPhone app. which also keeps you in sync.
[...] have been really enjoying using NetNewsWire Desktop and using it to sync between two Macs. The next logical step was to take my RSS reading on the road [...]
I also prefer Google Reader, however I just recently switched from NetNewsWire to Google Reader. If just the iPhone app for NNW would get some more updates…