I’m Giving Up On NetNewsWire (for now)

I’ve been very loyal to NetNewsWire for a long time. Whether it be NewsGator (a RSS plugin for Outlook), FeedDamon (an RSS feedreader app for Windows, NetNewsWire on the iPhone, or NetNewsWire on the Mac.

In the fall, NetNewsWire was switched to synchronize with Google Reader accounts. I just can’t take the inconsistencies in synchronization that occur when using NetNewsWire on my Mac. I spend an hour or two going through a couple hundred or more news items all for them to reappear as unread items next sync period – sometimes, other times they stay unread.

NetNewsWire is a desktop RSS application for the Mac. You can use it for free with embedded advertising, or you can buy it for $20. I’m all about supporting developers who write apps – but I can’t do that for NetNewsWire.

The best alternative that I could find for now is an app called Gruml.  Gruml also allows you to view and manage your feed subscriptions of your Google Reader account on Mac OS X.  It is in the beta stage, so there are some quirks, but the developer was releasing updates pretty regularly until the middle of November. Hopefully there is a final release or something big up his sleeve.

Nonetheless, Gruml at least gets it write when it comes to the synchronization, so for now, it’s my choice for a desktop RSS reader.