Snowball Reviews...NetNewsWire for Mac

For those who listen to This Week in Geek you may know already that Mike, Pierce, Stefan, Jordan, and myself have been doing reviews of DVDs, Video Games, and Geek Gadgets since last summer.

Well, I thought I would give it a go on my own with my own reviews of software, hardware, and other geeky gadgets I can get my hands on.

This review is going to be for NewsGator's now free RSS Reader, NetNewsWire

Click "Read More" for the full review...

So here is how the reviews are going to break down, I will give a rating out of 5 Snowball's on several different categories, Setup, Ease of Use, Aesthetics, Geek/Fun Factor, and Overall Rating.

So let's dive into NetNewsWire:

Summary:

A few weeks ago, I was perusing my Twitter stream, and people were talking about their RSS Readers of choice. A lot of people liked Google Reader a lot, and I was thinking of giving it a try. However, I don't know why, but I like having access to an actual desktop client more-so than accessing a service through my browser. I do agree Google Reader does do everything I would want in an RSS Reader, but I wanted to try something else. Hence, I remembered that one of the best Mac RSS Readers was NetNewsWire. It used to be a shareware application, and you had to pay to use it, but that has recently changed, and now NetNewsWire is completely free to use.

I have been using NetNewsWire for about three weeks now, and so here is my review.

Setup:

Setup couldn't be more painless. Obviously the benefits of a Mac is the installation is literally drag and drop, so I had no problems there. It did ask for a NewsGator account, which wasn't that big of a hassle, because I had the ability to turn the NewsGator feeds off, so I didn't have to worry about getting feeds I don't want.

It did set me up with several feeds, so I could get started. Feeds such as Wired, MacWorld, and so on. I kept the two I mentioned, and removed the rest.

Setup - 5/5 Snowballs

Ease of Use:

When I started adding RSS feeds on my own, it couldn't have been easier. With the ability in Firefox to read RSS XML in it's own format, it allowed me to add NetNewsWire to the Default Application list when reading RSS. Literally within five minutes I had almost 40 feeds ready to go.

It's setup like a Mail client, so I was able to grasp the usability of the program much easier.

As soon as you open NetNewsWire, if you have a connection to the Internet, it automatically refreshes all your feeds and let's you know if there are new updates. Like I mentioned the GUI was much like a mail client, so I could go through items in each RSS feed easily and read the ones I wanted to read very quickly. Which I think is the point, because I wanted something I could read quickly without having to go to each site individually.

You can flag items that you can either read later or keep handy just in case you would like to read the post or use it later. What I did was, I would read feeds from my friend's blogs, and if I comment on the post, I flag the item. That way I can go back later, and check for any new comments on those posts, and be a part of the conversation. I haven't tried subscribing to comment feeds on some sites, only because the sites I read have a lot of comments, and I don't want to be bogged down by those comments. Maybe I will try that later, but for now it's fine without it.

Ease of Use = 5/5 Snowballs

Aesthetics:

One thing I look at when I choose a desktop client for me, is you have to look good. A lot of times, a program may be great, but the Graphical User Interface is lost, or only implemented near the end of the software production cycle. That is mainly the case with Windows programs, but for Mac it's a bit different. With Mac, I like programs that look good and work great. If it's attractive but doesn't work, then to me it's not a good Mac program.

However, NetNewsWire does look great and works great. The GUI is definitely attractive for the Mac, and looks great on my desktop.

Asthetics = 5/5 Snowballs

Geek/Fun Factor:

Okay, so i decided to take a cue from the TWiG Reviews and talk about the Geek/Fun Factor of NetNewsWire.

The Geek Factor is that I can read RSS feeds from any site that has one, and I can read them extremely quickly.

I guess there is no "real" fun factor other than what I just said, however I do find it cool whenever the program updates it's feeds, and I can see all the new items in each feed. Maybe that's just me.

I would give this 5 out of 5, but honestly, how can I have fun with an RSS Reader. It's not like I jump for joy each time it loads. If I did, I would get weird looks from the people at Starbucks.

Geek/Fun Factor = 4/5 Snowballs

Overall:

So Overall, I am extremely happy with my RSS reader of choice, and I find no reason to look at Google Reader, if this does everything for me. Unless there is some uber noob pwning thing on Google Reader that I don't know about, please let me know, and I will pwn noobs with the rest of you.

Overall = 5/5 Snowballs

Wow, a glowing recommendation from Snowball! That doesn't happen very often guys. Just listen to my Review of Spiderman 3 for the PSP and you'll know why I don't give glowing reviews all the time. If I find a product I don't like, I am going to give it a bad review; plain and simple. If for whichever reason I receive products from companies, I will still have my "Journalistic Integrity" and if it sucks, I will say it sucks.

So that's it for me, please feel free to comment on RSS Readers, and tell me what you like about them; and if you use NetNewsWire, let me know what you think as well.

So that's it for this weeks edition of Snowball's Reviews, tune in next time, Same Snowball Time, Same Snowball Channel!!!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve "Snowball" Saylor