Tag Archives: rss

Reeder 3 for Mac is in public beta, and it’s awesome

Reeder 3 for Mac is in public beta, and it’s awesome

Lovers of technologies like RSS, Tiny Tiny RSS + Fever and Instapaper will want to get on this.

I’ve been using Reeder 2 for Mac since it was released, and although it’s hard to imagine a better desktop blog reader, the next version is also an Instapaper client, which trumps all of the other improvements (in my opinion).

I grabbed the latest beta last night and dropped it into /Applications as a Reeder 2 replacement. It picked up my previous configuration instantly, and adding my Instapaper account was straightforward. Thankfully I was able to configure manual archiving for Instapaper (this is analogous to marking RSS posts read, which I prefer to be automatic “on-open”) and was able to catch up on most of my “Read on Desktop” folder straightaway.

Aside from a few non-critical UI glitches, this is a very stable beta. Well worth your time.

Feed Wrangler: my new Google Reader

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Like so many others, I was mildly outraged (and more than a little anxious) when it was announced that Google Reader would be “discontinued” on 1 July.

Of course I was fully aware that its $0 price tag made me the product, and that relying on ANY Google service was asking for trouble (Google’s “discontinuation” of useful features and products is legendary). But I hadn’t been able to find an equally compelling RSS reader. As of early 2013, nothing else existed.

Thankfully, a vast array of options have emerged since Google’s announcement, and I’m happily settling in with Feed Wrangler.

My selection criteria?

  • Cloud-based, i.e. automatic syncing of feeds and read posts across multiple devices.
  • Supported by Reeder and Mr Reader, to enable comfortable reading on my iPhone and iPad. Planned support in these apps was OK if a decent mobile reading interface was provided in the meantime (Feed Wrangler has its own iOS apps, for example).
  • Respectable browser-based reader, for when I’m able to catch up while on a desktop/laptop.
  • Dead-easy setup, so I can comfortably recommend it to less tech-savvy friends.
  • Not free, not expensive. No ads, minimal risk of discontinuation without notice.
  • Attractive. Nice mobile app icons, clean branding, intuitive UI.

Based on all of these, I settled on Feed Wrangler. Others have reviewed it in detail (props to Federico Viticci for this especially thorough review), so I won’t do that again here. But if you do switch to Feed Wrangler, bear in mind that your Google Reader folders won’t appear. Similar functionality is available under “Smart Streams”, but you’ll have to create these from scratch.

Still, I’ve been using it for about two weeks and am loving it!