Since reinstalling Leopard on the MacBook a few weeks ago, I’ve been ignoring you.
Yes, you. And you too.
Ok, not really ignoring so much as not reading your feed. It’s been crazy around here and opening Google reader to see that I have over 1K unread items is a bit daunting. I could have my browswer open to it, but I already have gmail set as my default start page, and since Camino won’t open multiple tabs at start-up (come on FireFox 3!), that’s that.
This last week I’ve finally had some time on my hands to give a few of these a try. Here is what I think. Don’t fret you windows users, there is something here for you too.
If nothing else, this is a great looking app. What they have done is attempt to make reading RSS like reading a news paper, complete with pages and even a handy shelf to put stories on for later. One of the other nice things it will attempt to download full articles, even those with a jump. I’d say it kinda works, which is better than nothing.
As nice and easy to use as this is, I’ve grown accustomed to reading news in an email-type format. And being able to mark feeds as read. That is probably the 2nd most annoying thing about this app, right behind the hourly nag screen to fork over $30 for the full version. Moving on.
Now were talking! This is a pretty slick app. Works like a news reader should. And it’s free.
Trying to organized my imported feeds took some doing, and when I was done, the way it organized them wasn’t that great. I might come back to this, because I’m sure if I played with it a bit I would think it’s the neatest thing since twisted pair cable. Bonus is it’s free. That’s my kind of pricing!
Who doesn’t like this. My problem with it right now is that I haven’t been able to make the off-line thing work, and I can’t view it on start up. I’ve tried with Fluid, but it’s a little on the wacky side using that. When Firefox 3 comes out of beta, there is a chance I might use it again, but for right now, I’m looking for a desktop app.
You windows users should really look at this if you always have a connection. Especially if you are running Firefox. Oh yea, it’s free.
So, it looks like I’m back to this. I’ve always been a fan, using NewsGator back when Windows was my OS of choice. I even paid for it which you no longer have to do since they started giving it away.
I stopped using it for a spell because it started acting weird, and it would seem (like every other computer issue I have) it was a problem only I had. I’ve got it installed again and it seems to be working as it should.
One of the nice features of NNW is it’s ability to sync your feeds, read and unread, with it’s server. Handy if you need a news fix and don’t have your computer. Also handy because you don’t have to keep backups of those silly OPML files around to get out of date in case you need to reinstall. NNW also has a fair amount of configuration that I enjoy, including having the ability to open videos in the window and download podcast (automatically importing them to iTunes too).
I also played with Shrook for about 5 minutes. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I didn’t like the way it looked. I was never a fan of the brushed metal in Tiger, and this app still uses it. And it looks like iTunes, which was confusing. Check it out if you like, but go back to NNW or NewsFire if you are serious.
But, if you are trying to get Mom on RSS reading, and you’ve been able to get her on a Mac, I’d look pretty hard at Times.
If you are running Windows and are looking for a program that runs on your computer, look at NewsGator (the Win version of NNW). Or, just as good, if you are looking to replace Outlook Express (as your should) or are just tired of the bloat of Outlook (at home it’s silly unless you have an Exchange server in the basement anyway), might I recommend Thunderbird. It’s very stable, does a great job with email (smart spam filters, tagging and saved searches) plus has a top notch RSS reader built in. Follow that big FireFox link over there for more info.
Besides all that, I finally found a use for Skitch! Sweet!
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