| RSS Readers for OS X |
[26 Jul 2007|01:30pm] |
RSS is becoming a very big thing now. Not only does Small Dog use RSS feeds, but just about every blog and news website uses it also. We use RSS on our blog and on our website. RSS is great for when you have information that changes often or is added often. RSS allows a user to subscribe using a special RSS application and let's them view these changes without actually having to visit the website or blog.
There are several ways you can view RSS feeds. Most if not all modern web browsers have built-in RSS support. You can also download an RSS reader. First I'll explain how Safari and FireFox handle RSS feeds.
Safari - OS X Tiger includes a version of Safari that comes with a built-in RSS reader. If you visit an RSS feed from Safari, it'll reformat the feed into a nice looking page. You can also bookmark RSS feeds. You may also tell Safari how often to look for new updates in your RSS feeds. I enjoy how Safari lets you sort the articles by title, date, source and you can even tell it how much of the article you want to see.
FireFox - At first FireFox didn't really have decent RSS support. You could bookmark RSS feeds, and it would show you the titles of articles but it didn't display the actual article inside FireFox it would just link you to the article. Since then FireFox has been updated and now and when you click on an RSS feed it'll show a page similar to Safari's. Unfortunately it's not as feature-filled as Safari. It'll show you 3-4 lines from each article and it'll give you the option to bookmark the RSS feed. FireFox will update the feeds you've bookmarked.
For a long time I used to use Safari to manage all my RSS feeds. After the number of feeds I read hit the 300 mark or so it was time to move to something that was specifically designed to handle RSS feeds, a standalone application.
Standalone RSS readers are just like any other application you use. They're made specifically for reading an organizing your RSS feeds. When you have a lot of feeds I would recommend using this sort of application over a web browser. You'll be able to manage your feeds a lot easier. So what are some of my favorite RSS readers?
NewsFire - This application feels very Mac-like. It's very easy to use and it looks great. You can create groups, smartfeeds, search through your feeds easily, post articles to your blog, and it integrates with iTunes and podcasts very well. I love the groups feature because it lets me group all my technology feeds, blog feeds, video game feeds and news feeds into separate groups. SmartFeeds is great cause I can flag an article that I really like and all my flagged article will show up in a smartfeed. NewsFire. NewsFire costs $25 but it's well worth the money if you're an RSS power user.
NetNewsWire - NetNewsWire would be my second choice, and first if NewsFire didn't exist. It got many of the same features of NewsFire and a few more. One feature that NetNewsWire has that NewsFire doesn't is the ability to sync your feeds. This is something that I really like because it lets me read articles at work and then when I get home I don't see the same article again. Currently it lets you sync with your .Mac account, a NewsGator account or an FTP server. I am quite happy they didn't restrict it to just .Mac accounts like many other applications do. NetNewsWire also plays nicely with podcasts and offers to download and put them into iTunes for you. It also lets you post articles right to your blog, and very easily might I add. NetNewsWire is also an RSS reader that costs some money but the price is well worth it if you read a lot of feeds.
Futter - This is a very lightweight RSS reader and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the previous readers. If you don't need those bells and whistles this is definitely a great choice. Futter can open links from articles right inside of itself, saving the need to open more windows. For what Futter is, it's great, but if you need all those bells and whistles have a look at NewsFire and NetNewsWire. Futter is free though.
There are dozens of standalone RSS readers, some are great and some are terrible. One type that I didn't mention is a web RSS reader. Google has a really nice one! One nice thing about a web RSS reader is that you can access it anywhere from any computer that has internet access.
Hopefully this article has informed you about what RSS is and how you can use it. It's a great technology and it has a lot of potential to do other things besides deliver the latest articles from your favorite blog.
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| RSS Readers for OS X |
[26 Jul 2007|11:02pm] |
RSS is becoming a very big thing now. Not only does Small Dog use RSS feeds, but just about every blog and news website uses it also. We use RSS on our blog and on our website. RSS is great for when you have information that changes often or is added often. RSS allows a user to subscribe using a special RSS application and let’s them view these changes without actually having to visit the website or blog.
There are several ways you can view RSS feeds. Most if not all modern web browsers have built-in RSS support. You can also download an RSS reader. First I’ll explain how Safari and FireFox handle RSS feeds.
Safari - OS X Tiger includes a version of Safari that comes with a built-in RSS reader. If you visit an RSS feed from Safari, it’ll reformat the feed into a nice looking page. You can also bookmark RSS feeds. You may also tell Safari how often to look for new updates in your RSS feeds. I enjoy how Safari lets you sort the articles by title, date, source and you can even tell it how much of the article you want to see.
FireFox - At first FireFox didn’t really have decent RSS support. You could bookmark RSS feeds, and it would show you the titles of articles but it didn’t display the actual article inside FireFox it would just link you to the article. Since then FireFox has been updated and now and when you click on an RSS feed it’ll show a page similar to Safari’s. Unfortunately it’s not as feature-filled as Safari. It’ll show you 3-4 lines from each article and it’ll give you the option to bookmark the RSS feed. FireFox will update the feeds you’ve bookmarked.
For a long time I used to use Safari to manage all my RSS feeds. After the number of feeds I read hit the 300 mark or so it was time to move to something that was specifically designed to handle RSS feeds, a standalone application.
Standalone RSS readers are just like any other application you use. They’re made specifically for reading an organizing your RSS feeds. When you have a lot of feeds I would recommend using this sort of application over a web browser. You’ll be able to manage your feeds a lot easier. So what are some of my favorite RSS readers?
NewsFire - This application feels very Mac-like. It’s very easy to use and it looks great. You can create groups, smartfeeds, search through your feeds easily, post articles to your blog, and it integrates with iTunes and podcasts very well. I love the groups feature because it lets me group all my technology feeds, blog feeds, video game feeds and news feeds into separate groups. SmartFeeds is great cause I can flag an article that I really like and all my flagged article will show up in a smartfeed. NewsFire. NewsFire costs $25 but it’s well worth the money if you’re an RSS power user.
NetNewsWire - NetNewsWire would be my second choice, and first if NewsFire didn’t exist. It got many of the same features of NewsFire and a few more. One feature that NetNewsWire has that NewsFire doesn’t is the ability to sync your feeds. This is something that I really like because it lets me read articles at work and then when I get home I don’t see the same article again. Currently it lets you sync with your .Mac account, a NewsGator account or an FTP server. I am quite happy they didn’t restrict it to just .Mac accounts like many other applications do. NetNewsWire also plays nicely with podcasts and offers to download and put them into iTunes for you. It also lets you post articles right to your blog, and very easily might I add. NetNewsWire is also an RSS reader that costs some money but the price is well worth it if you read a lot of feeds.
Futter - This is a very lightweight RSS reader and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the previous readers. If you don’t need those bells and whistles this is definitely a great choice. Futter can open links from articles right inside of itself, saving the need to open more windows. For what Futter is, it’s great, but if you need all those bells and whistles have a look at NewsFire and NetNewsWire. Futter is free though.
There are dozens of standalone RSS readers, some are great and some are terrible. One type that I didn’t mention is a web RSS reader. Google has a really nice one! One nice thing about a web RSS reader is that you can access it anywhere from any computer that has internet access.
Hopefully this article has informed you about what RSS is and how you can use it. It’s a great technology and it has a lot of potential to do other things besides deliver the latest articles from your favorite blog.
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