8 Unique RSS Readers for Mac

Friday, October 9, 2009

8 Unique RSS Readers for Mac

Posted on 6:05 AM by -

Having a home delivery newspaper subscription is great. Every morning, we acquire our daily dose of news from all around the world right in front of our door step (well, most of the time). However, at the end of the year, we end up with a plethora of piles of newspapers (and it isn’t cheap!)/
With RSS, you can receive an infinite number of different news feeds right within one application. To help you choose how you view those feeds on your Mac, we’re listing 8 popular RSS Readers available for OS X.

NetNewsWire

With a native Cocoa interface similar to Mail.app, longtime Mac users will have no problem adapting to NetNewsWire. Create smart folders to categorize your feeds and tag subscriptions where you can filter which Flickr tags you’d like to see in your feeds.
Because it’s owned by NewsGator Technologies, you can sync your NewsGator account with NetNewsWire. Not only that, you can also sync it with Google Reader in NetNewsWire 3.2. Lastly, it has a pretty full built-in tab-supported browser so you won’t have to leave the app to view an associated website.
Price: Free
Developer: NewsGator Technologies
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher

Times

This one probably shows off the most pizzazz. Times’ interface was designed to look like a realistic newspaper — one where you get to pick the contents in each column. Perhaps the slickest feature is an animation where you “turn a page” over.
If you’re a Twitter user, you might also fall in love with it’s feature to post to Twitter directly through the app. You can import feeds via Mail, Safari, NetNewsWire or OPML but there is no built-in browser.
Price: $30
Developer: acrylic
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher

NewsLife

If you like those minimalist Mac apps that have long but narrow windows with liquid layout then NewsLife might be the RSS app for you. As you scroll along your feed subscription, NewsLife provides a brief description and a related image on the side.
Despite the lack of smart folders and further filters, there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts to use in the app which other RSS apps don’t support and you can also post an article directly to your blog.
Price: €10.00
Developer: ThinkMac
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher

NewsFire

Similar to NewsLife, NewsFire has a beautiful Cocoa interface that can also be compared to Tweetie. NewsFire has a range of customisation options e.g., displaying feeds from oldest to newest or vice versa. Using smart folders or smart feeds to organize your subscriptions is also possible.
If you have previously had an RSS account then you can import its OPML file into NewsFire. A recommended RSS app for Twitter users, since Safari140 is built in and you can post directly to Twitter with Bit.ly as the URL shortener.
Price: Free
Developer: David Watanabe
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher

PixelNews

PixelNews is one of the oldest RSS apps on the Mac seeing it supports Mac OS X 10.3! Its interface may not be the most pleasant, but it’s a pioneer in this list and deserves recognition.
One of its distinct features is the “Breaking News” where it displays all of your unread news. It has a great built-in browser so you won’t ever have to leave PixelNews to see the full story.
Price: $25/2 Week Trial available
Developer: Pixelated Software
Requires: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher

RSS Owl

RSSOwl

If you constantly use different operating systems at work, home and your favorite coffee shop and you would prefer an RSS app that is compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux, RSSOwl is your perfect sidekick. This is all possible since it’s actually a Java application.
Of course, it doesn’t have a native Cocoa interface (notice the scrollpanes) so it wouldn’t be so unified with Mac. However, RSSOwl comes with a surfeit of RSS feeds, ranging from entertainment, science and technology which we very much enjoyed.
Price: Free
Developer: Benjamin Pasero
Requires: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher

Headline

It’s obvious that the Doseido interface designers created Headline with iChat’s look and feel (the green glass orbs) in mind and that’s a good thing! It’s very intuitive to use and has a lovely Leopard interface.
There is no built-in browser or smart folders. Although, you could import feeds from Safari and Mail and share articles via iChat.
Price: $19.95/Shareware
Developer: Doseido
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher

EventBox

EventBox is a relatively new entrant into the RSS application market, but does far more than just syndicating news feeds. It allows you to browse and update Twitter, access your FaceBook account, sync with Google Reader, and also supports Flickr, Reddit, Digg and more.
It’s a good option if you’re looking for an all-in-one application that does considerably more than just RSS.
Price: $15
Developer: The Cosmic Machine
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher

Conclusion

We conclude that by using RSS feeds as a replacement for traditional newspaper subscriptions, we are able to both save our money, as most RSS feeds on websites are free, and space. It’s a great way to stay on top of many websites without needing to visit them individually each day.
Do you use any other RSS apps that are not listed on the list? Please feel free to share them in the comments section below!

Internet Dumper

Friday, October 9, 2009