Comments on: NewsFire is Free

By: Google Reader Gets Some AIR with ReadAir | MacApper

Google Reader Gets Some AIR with ReadAir | MacApper — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:42:50 +0000

[...] For awhile now, it has been relatively safe to crown Google as the king of web-based feed readers. The ability to access favorite feeds anywhere through the everyone-and-their-dog-has-one Google account has been indispensable to news-addicts such as myself. Google Reader’s interface (while excellent for a web-based solution) can often leave something to be desired, and still doesn’t quite live up toÂ competitiveÂ desktop-basedÂ newsreaders. [...]

By: Insomnic

Insomnic — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:41:49 +0000

After Watanabe’s Inquisitor mess (the unpublished “favoristism” to his Amazon Affiliates account and some other little sneakiness – some quick searches should find that info for you) I pretty much avoid all things Watanabe.
AcidSearch instead of Inquisitor for Safari searches (use the beta for Leopard). For me, Vienna has been an excellent, always free, desktop RSS client.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:49:07 +0000

I’ve been using it for a while now, and while it isn’t nearly as powerful as nnw, I like the very mac-like interface

By: ErichD

ErichD — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:23:25 +0000

Hey, you failed to mention that, lie his other offerings, NewsFire adds a little of Watanabe to itself unknown to the user, and the user is unable to delete this bit of “spying.”

So far, it’s been uncovered that if you install this “free” version of NewsFire, you have Watanbe’s blog feed installed by default, and cannot, under any circumstance, delete the feed and still run NewsFire. This may not be a problem if you upgrade from a previously licensed version.

And yes, it remains clunky and slow as all get-out.

What other bits of spyware this thing installs are unknown at this time.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:26:06 +0000

Google Reader is fine if you’re never at the same computer but still need to have your feeds. But Google Reader is virtually void of features found in any desktop apps – NetNewsWire in particular.

By: Lee

Lee — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:52:56 +0000

I’m still waiting to be convinced away from the quite-sufficient-and-accessible-anywhere Google Reader. Am I just a dolt?

By: Look

Look — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:49:47 +0000

Endo & NewsFire are now free and â€œunsupportedâ€. Both readers didnâ€™t see a real upgrade since the beginning of 2007. Until yesterday, NewsFire was unusable (10.5)..and Endo is just full of bugs.

NNW – is an ugly workhorse.
NewsFire – fast and beautiful.
Endo – is the smart one.

In the end, we lose.

By: Mark Milian

Mark Milian — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:36:58 +0000

This would have been great news a year ago, but I’ve since found Safari RSS and Mail in Leopard work well enough for me.

By: mark

mark — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:43:14 +0000

wphj:

it’s not in the prefs. you can create a smart feed entitled “New Items” quite easily though.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:41:38 +0000

As E.T. Cook stated, this is more of a “I surrender” type of move. With NNW going free, pretty much all RSS readers will have to go free, because ALL of them are years behind NNW in features and support.

Newsfire in particular is another half-baked app by the “Delicious Generation” that started out fine, but he obviously gave up well before half-way through. At least he was nice enough to move it to a freebie, rather than just letting it sit on the site at cost and never sell anything. Of course, now he’ll have to listen to all the “I want my money back” complaints.

By: E.T.Cook

E.T.Cook — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:04:29 +0000

The reason he decided to make it free is because it is vastly inferior to NetNewsWire which is also free.

Newsfire might be good for those individuals that subscribe to a handful of feeds, but starts showing its weakness quickly as your feed count raises.

Plus…the support is garbage.

NWW is the way to go, avoid this steaming pile at all costs…free or not.

By: wphj

wphj — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:58:14 +0000

Very nice, I use NewsFire every day.

Does anyone know how to get the “New Items” option at the top of your source list? It shows it in the screenshot on the site but I can’t find it in the preferences.