I recently downloaded NetNewsWire Lite 1.0.2 to help me stay atop breaking news via the Internet. After a few days of use, I have to tell you that Brent Simmons and friends have created a beautiful, functional, RSS news reader for Mac OS X users.
I know I keep beating this drum, but the stuff I see being developed for the OS X platform by folks like Simmons convinces me that this is a happening place for independent developers. NetNewsWire is available through ranchero software, and there are two flavors: the lite version which is freeware, and the full version that has a $29.95 USD price tag. The full version has an weblog editor and an Internet scrapbook. I’ll be purchasing it very soon.
Both flavors of NetNewsWire come chock-full of interesting, informative RSS feeds, including our own Mac DevCenter. You can subscribe, unsubscribe, find new feeds, and organize all of them in a logical, easy to use manner. Talk about the perfect mate for Safari. Internet news has never been this fun.
Bravo Brent!
chalk-full?
That would be chock-full. And even so, chock-full means "Full to the limit; as full as possible." There is still plenty of room for your own feeds.
chalk-full?
Ah, please excuse my mistake. I changed "chalk-full" to "chock-full" so as not to alarm others.
As for the literal definition of the term, I believe "brimming with" is also accepted, which was the intent here.
Best use of Dock menus i've seen, too.
Talk about an application that stays out of your way - once you have it configured, you can do just about anything you want to with NNWlite without even having a window open. I really can't emphasize enough just how convenient that is.
Cheers,
John Timmer
Great app
I discovered it myself a few days ago and it's already changed my online news reading habits. Will be registering it too when my next pay cheque comes in. Fortunately the free trial is long enough to last until then.
Just one small thing...
I really love NetNewsWire, after using countless other aggregators this one is absolutely great.
I just have one little, tiny gripe... It doesn't have an automatic way to sort all the newsfeeds, with the large amount I have it's tiring to keep them in alphabetical order.
Just one small thing...
Well, I know Brent is following this thread. So consider your suggestion registered!
I agree.
Net News Wire is great. I used to use Slashdock - which is good, but no where near as complete as NNW.
One thing I'd like ot see is the ability to either have submenus or menu dividers in the 'dock menus' so you can arrange your feeds via topics... ie news, technology, science, arts etc.
and a 'sort' function would be most useful!
I don't use bookmarks any more...
...since pairing NetNewsWire Lite with Safari. It's the perfect combo - you get all the headlines you want in NetNewsWire and Safari opens them lightning fast. The flip-side to that is that sites without RSS have suddenly become far less valuable to me while sites with RSS have been bumped up my list.
Same Here
I had the same experience. I am a recent Windows Switcher and a developer and the combo of Safari and NetNewsWire has changed my whole Internet experience. It has also pu me into one of the most exciting development communities happening today. I don't remember this much excitiement among a goup of developers for some time. Apple really has been making consistently wose decisions.
Have you noticed the amount of quality free and shareware product for OS X? I have.
Should Safari integrate RSS?
Over on Dave Hyatt's Safari dev weblog:
http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/
there have been some interesting discussion on whether RSS handling capabilities should be integrated into Safari. I am in the YES camp on this one and here's why:
- RSS is an http activity. Unlike integrating usenet or mail readers into the browser, RSS is just another angle on the same web site. The fit is very natural.
- Safari already uses XML for its bookmarks. Imagine how cool it would be if you could drill down further on your bookmarks to see top headlines on your bookmarked sites?
I would hate to see Ranchero knocked out of the game on this one, but RSS in Safari just makes sense.