endo
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TUAW Tip: endo's keyboard shortcuts rock
Hi, my name is David Chartier, and I'm an RSS-aholic.[your collective response: Hi David]The last time I refreshed my newsreader was... well, probably a minute or two ago, and then 30 minutes before that. You see, I'm obsessed with news, and I've been using some sort of a newsreader for around three or four years now. Since I began writing for TUAW and Download Squad, I've probably tossed my OPML (an exported list of your RSS feeds) into more newsreaders than I can imagine, and one of my greatest loves has always been Adriaan Tijsseling's endo, which we've mentioned a few times before on TUAW. While I typically use NetNewsWire as my main reader, I'm giving endo a thorough run-through again as it has really matured into a great, stable product, and it has a lot of pleasant surprises and unique features that make sifting through large amounts of feeds and headlines a pleasure. In fact, with how well things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if endo upset my newsreader balance, at least for my regular reading. See the rest of the post to find out why...
endo: powerful RSS reader updates for Safari 3 beta
Since Adriaan Tijsseling makes one of the Mac's best blogging clients, it only makes sense that he also has a slick RSS newsreader called endo that we honestly don't stay on top of as much as we should.With features like a custom Growl-like alert window which allows you to read snippets of feed items before actually bringing endo to the front, a powerful subscription manager, and a feature-packed download manager with options for adding media to iTunes and even BitTorrent controls, endo brings some clever stuff to the table with a unique UI. Upon opening endo for the first time, a short setup process allows you to enter users names and URLs to track activity and comments at sites like your Flickr account and a personal blog. The headline list on the left features favicons for your individual feeds to help you pick out items from different sites easier, as well as color labels for subscriptions and even a customizable summary + tag display below each headline. To summarize: if you want features and power - endo is a great choice. I bring all this up again because endo was yet another app that is affected by the Safari 3 beta, which includes a new version of the WebKit rendering engine than many Mac OS X apps, including endo, use to display web content. Fortunately, Adriaan has produced an update that accounts for this fix, which you should be able to grab by starting up endo or heading over to kula software and downloading a fresh copy.Another perk of endo is that, even though it's one of the most powerful and feature-packed RSS readers on the market, it only costs $17.95 for a license. Adriaan even offers a bundle deal that includes both endo + ecto for a savings of $10 at a mere total cost of $26.95 - those are some good deals for blogging + newsreading software.
Write a plugin for endo
David Chartier likes endo so much that he banished NetNewsWire from his dock. High praise, I think, and now you can make endo do even more cool stuff by writing your very own plugins for it.endo ships with some pre-built plugins (one for Technorati and another for Flickr), but if you want to build your own you'll need to know some programming (namely Cocoa).
NNW booted from my Dock, long live endo!
Scott posted on endo yesterday, and today I am happy to report that NNW has gone to that giant "poof" in the ex-Dock sky. Sure, endo has some minor "it's a 1.0 release" quirks, but this is the newsreader I've been waiting for. After putting it through its paces last night I was happy to dethrone NetNewsWire's place in my Dock, and here's why.First and foremost is NetNewWire's age. Version 2.x is old, and it's starting to feel like it hasn't been touched in a while, possibly due to it's dominance in the newsreading market or the NewsGator buyout. Now I don't mean any disrespect; Ranchero is a great company and NetNewsWire both initiated me into and carried me through the newsreading market for a couple of years now. endo simply feels like it pays a little more attention to the market and is aiming to evolve with it, as it offers some really slick integration and headline organizing options. Headlines can be added to a del.icio.us account right from within endo, without the need for snarky applescripts that make me leave the app to do the actual bookmarking in a browser.On the topic of feed management, endo is very customizable, with the ability to set refresh rates for each group and/or feed (and disabling them altogether) and even the ability to colorize particular feed's headlines so they're easier to pick out in a crowd. endo also offers a Growl-like notification system, toggled per feed, that allows you to sift through snippets of new headlines and short summaries while leaving endo minimized or even hidden. The headline column on the left is also quite tweakable, as summaries and tags can be displayed in-line with the headlines, or you can completely turn off both of those items as I have in my screenshot. To round up the feed management angle: for all those times when you can't get online, endo has the ever-obvious "offline" option.
