Just started experimenting with the beta of NetNewsWire 2.0. Leaps and bounds, it’s come. In-line HTML renderer so you can see full web pages inside the reader rather than launching an external browser; select text and click Post to Weblog to pre-fill an Ecto (or other posting client) entry; a bunch of built-in skins through which you can view RSS entries (I’m reading through the BeBox skin now… memories!), subscriptions to de.liciou.us and Flickr tags, tabbed views, etc. Every now and then you find a piece of software that just sparkles with excellence. NNW’s got that sparkle.
Update: I just pulled down “Show Sites Drawer” in NNW2 and was surprised to see that birdhouse.org is among the list of blogs built into the application itself. Way to go, me!
It took me a long time to drink the RSS kool-aid, but now that I have, I a complete junkie… I started using RSS on my G4 tower, but when I moved in with Corinna (who is Mac-averse), I started using the PC more out of sloth… I was using the Sage RSS reader extension for Firefox…
Now that I finally bought my Powerbook, I’ve revisited NNW, and have realized what I missed.. It really is a fantastic piece of software.. I just submitted a feature request, though, because it does have one annoying lack: I use the space bar to go to the next unread article, but sometimes I get a little spacebar happy and skip over an article… Since there’s no history in NNW, I can’t get back to the article I skipped over, and since I read 100+ feeds, it’s not easy to figure out what I missed…
I’m a fan of RSSOwl, as it’s cross-platform. I’m going to be switching to Linux on my desktop when cash permits, and geting roped into Mac-only software is not something I want to do.
If you use Windows, Linux, *BSD or such, check out RSSOwl (requires Java).
I love NNW as much for the ability to do all my navigating from the arrow keys as anything else. I wish Mail and a few other apps had this simple navigation feature!
Okay, try number three, from Safari directly this time.
I just got the netnewswire2.0/mars bundle. Syndicating blogs is a godsend, I can check them all at a glance for activity. Wonderful! Mars is also a sweet blog editor. Thanks for turning me on to this, Scot.
-Jim ($40 poorer, but richer with cool software toys)
NNW is so totally the bomb (and yes, I agree, the excellent kb nav almost makes the software by itself). I’ve been using the paid version for about 2 years, and the beta of 2.0 since it became available. I’ve tried other readers, really seriously tried them, but none have the same sparkle as NNW.
All they need now is syncing across multiple computers (a la Shrook) and they’ll be Perfect.
I’m also a NNW fan. Only feature I’d really like to see is .torrent broadcatching support similar to its podcast functionality, which is superb.