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NewsFire goes free
Coming hot on the heels of the 1.5 release, Dave Watanabe's popular RSS reader, NewsFire is now free. David posted this on his blog:"After much internal debate, I've made the decision that as of today, NewsFire is totally free. No feature restrictions, no ads, no cut-down 'lite' version... this is the real deal."Newsfire is just the latest in the growing trend of free offline RSS readers available for the Mac. In January, leading reader app NetNewsWire became a free program, joining Vienna, Safari and even Mail.app as alternatives to the 800 lb gorilla known as Google Reader (also free). Whether or not some of the other freeware alternatives will be able to sustain development without the support of a company like Newsgator (which owns NetNewsWire) remains to be seen, but in the meantime, I'm loving all these new RSS choices that don't deplete my wallet.Although David Watanabe has been a controversial figure in the Mac community, he does make beautiful looking software. If you aren't already married to your RSS reader, or you have been waiting for NewsFire to have full Leopard support, now is your chance to try it out. Thanks Carlo!
Developers unleash exclusive offers for MacHeist participants
One of the appeals of MacHeist that a few participating developers cited for their participation is residual sales. Things like upgrade licenses, extra plugins and add-ons can all be big boosts to a 3rd party developer's revenue, and some of MacHeist's participating devs have certainly hit the ground running. Yesterday I received my confirmation emails and licenses from RealMac Software (RapidWeaver) and Dave Watanabe (NewsFire), both with exclusive offers for MacHeist customers. First, RealMac Software is offering a 10% discount on theme packs, and Dave is offering a 'lifetime upgrade' add-on for NewsFire for a mere $11. We've also known from early on that John Casasanta has had a version 4.0 upgrade just around the corner for iClip, and MacroMates had an offer on the table since day 1 of at least 60% off an upgrade license to an upcoming version 2 release of TextMate.It will be interesting to see how all this plays out for these 3rd party developers in the coming months. I know I'm already falling in love with TextMate, and even though I use WordPress, ecto and Dreamweaver for most of my website needs, RapidWeaver is tempting me with its sexy ease of use and purty themes. The 3rd party devs, it seems, have already made a revenue statistic out of me.
Xtorrent Public Beta 2
David Watanabe (of NewsFire fame) has released a second public beta of Xtorrent, his BitTorrent client that first appeared on the scene back in September. The largest change is one of the least visible: a major overhaul under the hood of the downloads pane to pave the way for upcoming integration between the search pane, downloads pane and a future RSS module (oh Dave, you're such a tease). The swarm column was also redesigned to be more forthcoming on seeds and leeches (expand yours if it's too thin), and the main window now allows you to drag-and-drop torrent files, complete with a "slick informational overlay."Xtorrent is free while in beta and is available from Xtorrentp2p.com.Thanks Junior
Top Mac feed readers face off
It's no exaggeration to say that the day I started using a feed reader, my internet life changed forever. Suddenly, instead of having to click through my regular cohort of a few dozen sites, I was able to scan hundreds of sites for the news I wanted. And while the debate over which feed reader is the best isn't as heated an affair as the whole Vi vs Emacs ruckus - Vi wins, of course - people are still pretty passionate about their chosen application.And so it was that I came across this post at Macintalk that compares my favourite reader, NetNewsWire, with that other darling, NewsFire.While NetNewsWire takes a few hits for its dull aesthetics, it makes up for it where it matters, offering more viewing options and a built-in browser. NewsFire has more than just good looks going for it, though, such as an in-line podcast player. In the end, as is so often the case, it comes down to what you want to use it for. I don't think I'll be changing just yet.What about you? What are you using to read TUAW's feed, or are you stuck browsing the site in Lynx? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
NewsFire adds Leopard compatibility
David Watanabe wins a tip of my hat today for being one of the first 3rd party developers to add Leopard compatibility to NewsFire, his popular, streamlined RSS newsreader. From the release notes, this new version 1.4 build 68 also adds prefix/suffix string rules (I'm assuming for feed searches?).It's great to see developers firing off Leopard-compatible updates so quickly, even though Leopard isn't going to be available to the public for at least another 4-5 months. Who wants to take bets as to how long it takes Adobe to update CS3 for Leopard? Of course, with the way things are going over there, we might have to wait for CS4 and 10.6.This Leopard-compatible version of NewsFire is available from NewsFire's site.[via Macworld]
NewsFire 1.4
There are two types of Mac RSS geeks: those who use NetNewsWire and those who use NewsFire. NewsFire 1.4 might finally be the version that I, an admitted feed junkie, can actually use. It seems that NewsFire 1.4 has many performance improvements including much better handling of a large number of feeds (I have about 700 at the moment). Amongst the other new features are: Status sort type ahead discovery in feed selection improved media player that supports video NewsFire 1.4 is a free upgrade for all licensed users while a brand new copy costs $18.99.
Top ten supplemental blogging apps
Chances are if I am sitting at my Mac I am blogging (perhaps not for TUAW, but for some blog somewhere) and so this list of the top ten supplemental blogging apps for OS X caught my eye.The apps that make the cut are: Quicksilver (a TUAW favorite) Firefox (though Flock gets a mention) Pukka NewsFire Transmit Image Trick TextMate Voice Candy Dictionary.app Adium and Skype A fairly good list, though it doesn't cover some of the apps I use whilst blogging. After the jump you'll find my list of blogging apps I can't blog without.
Newsfire first Univeral newsreader?
NewsFire 1.3 (Beta) is an Universal application, so if you are running an Intel Mac and can't stand the thought of your newsreader wasting away in Rosetta, why NewsFire might be just what the doctor ordered. NewsFire earns my reward for the most visually impressive of all newsreaders on the Mac. NewsFire doesn't really fit into my work flow but that doesn't mean it won't be right for you.NewsFire costs €15.99 for a single user license.
