I think Newsfire is about as sexy as Mac apps get, but I can’t quite force myself to choose it over NetNewsWire for two reasons:
I’m hooked on NetNewsWire’s three-pane layout. It really bothers me that in Newsfire I can’t see both the item list and the content of the selected item at the same time. C’mon, NewsFire — give us a three pane option! I understand some people like the two-pane, but at least make it an option! Please?!
I don’t like that you can’t see the date/time of the item when you are in “arrange by date” mode. Just because I’m arranging by date doesn’t meant I don’t need to see the date. On the contrary. If I’m arranging by date, I probably need the date even more.
Like I said, I think NewsFire is incredibly well-done. I want to love it so bad. The look and feel is almost lickable and the overall design is incredibly Apple-like. It’s a brilliant piece of software. I just really need that three-pane layout to feel comfortable in a news reader.
A few other very minor complaints:
The keyboard navigation isn’t quite as simple as NetNewsWire. On NNW, I can navigate the whole thing, even between the feed list and item list, using just the arrow keys. In NF, I have to tab between the two. Not a big deal — I’m just not used to it yet, I guess.
There doesn’t seem to be an activity indicator. I’d like to know when it’s updating feeds, and exactly which feeds it is downloading at the moment, if possible.
There really should be a “arrange by” choice for “status.” Sometimes I just want to see my new (unread) items at the top.
The shot above is a five-minute mockup of how I would refine NewsFire — giving it a three-pane layout with dates/times in the item list.
View at flickr »
001 // red&yellow // 12.27.2005 // 9:01 PM
I might switch over from NNW if it looked and worked like that! Great job on the mockup.002 // wilsonminer // 12.27.2005 // 9:19 PM
Add bloglines sync/integration to that list and I’m sold!003 // Jeff Croft // 12.27.2005 // 9:24 PM
Bloglines sync would definitely be a nice feature, as well. I don’t NEED it personally, but it wouldn’t hurt!004 // dotsara // 12.27.2005 // 9:28 PM
I’ve never been able to get down with anyone newsreader. Perhaps it’s time to try again. (Especially since the G4 at my desk at work is now all up to Tiger-speed. Hmm.)005 // Jeff Croft // 12.27.2005 // 9:35 PM
I swear, NetNewsWire is *this close* to making my web browser defunct. I often lament the fact that I never browse the web aimlessly anymore — but news readers are just so useful that I often don’t even open Safari.006 // dotsara // 12.27.2005 // 9:53 PM
I got weirded out just now when NetNewsWire opened a page in the app. (: I don’t know why it never occurred to me until now to drop in the RSS links for my groups instead of clicking about to see which are updated. Durr.007 // oneighturbo // 12.28.2005 // 7:51 AM
ive been using NNW Lite and love it on the Mac. Simple, very clean and 3 pane. However, I’ve been struglingto find a comparable one for XP. A ton of them are just way to bloated think Office.. My fav so far is FeedReader (open source)but its very buggy. It has a very small footprint though. I’m trying Thunderbirds RSS option in RC2 but it’s a bit finicky. Nice mock-up. I’d like to see it pulled back on the visual side, bit heavy (for me).008 // Jeff Croft // 12.28.2005 // 7:59 AM
NNW and NNW Lite are both great programs, as well. I love NetNewsWire — I just think it’s not quite as visually attractive as NewsFire. I’d love to see the robust feature set of NNW in NewsFire’s visual style — that’s sort of what I was going for here. I can definitely understand how it would be too much for some people, though. When I was looking (a year or so ago), I also had a really hard time finding and XP feed reader that stood up to the good Mac ones. :(009 // Luke Dorny (luxuryluke) // 12.29.2005 // 10:33 PM
Tried them all, and I’m stuck with NNW. I say stuck, because I love everything about it, but when it grabs functionality that dupes my browser, with tabs, etc., I’m not sure which app I saw ‘that-one-website’… Especially cool use of .Mac syncing!!! I’d be lost without it. Now if Safari would duplicate this out of the box…!010 // David Watanabe // 12.29.2005 // 11:23 PM
Without giving anything away, at least several of the wishes you mention are planned.011 // Jeff Croft // 12.30.2005 // 7:53 AM
David- That’s great news! Keep up the great work! :)012 // oneighturbo // 12.30.2005 // 3:27 PM
j. thought i had tried this but if you need one for XP, look to SharpReader heres my screenie taken just for you www.flickr.com/photos/oneighturbo/79534901/ i might do a mock up as well ;)013 // edduddiee // 12.31.2005 // 3:27 AM
One other feature that NNW has But NF doesn’t is favicons. I also like the arrow keyboard navigation, so simple but so intuitive.014 // Jeff Croft // 12.31.2005 // 5:12 PM
Yeah, favicons are a nice feature. Not a necessity, in my opinion, but certainly a nice feature.015 // Luke Dorny (luxuryluke) // 01.01.2006 // 8:27 PM
I just found a new reader for OSX Tiger: www.flickr.com/photos/luxuryluke/80666146/