You can even select entire categories if you like all of the sites that it features. I went through this list of sites and found many that were interesting, so I selected them one-by-one. These sites ranged from well-known sites like CNN and Forbes to indie sites like Six Colors and. In fact, after I created my account and wanted to add feeds, NetNewsWire had a screen with some of the most popular feeds that were categorized by topic, such as Apple, Technology, Science, World, Entertainment, and more. I wish that NetNewsWire synced with other RSS services, because this can be rather tedious.įortunately, if you are starting with a clean slate with RSS, NetNewsWire has a good setup. Since I have had to create a new account for syncing, I have to add my feeds manually, which is a pain when I have over 50 subscriptions in Feedly. The syncing is fairly quick and seamless, but I have only been using the iOS app on a single device. Signing up for a free account will sync your feeds on multiple iOS devices, as well as the Mac app ($9.99) if you have it.
And don't worry we have some face time scheduled with Simmons for WWDC week in order to get more details on what's on his plate for the future.The first thing I noticed with the new NetNewsWire is that they now use their own syncing service, appropriately dubbed NetNewsWire Cloud Sync. We're told to expect an announcement soon, though. "After nine years of work on NetNewsWire, I think it's time to let it make its way in the world with new friends and a bigger team," Simmons told Ars. I finally admitted to myself that I was hot to find it a new home.Īs for what Simmons is doing next, he won't say just yet. I went back and forth on it in my mind, and I kept taking my own temperature on it. It was, at least, an honest recognition of my own limits, though, and that was what led me, haltingly at first, against my own inner resistance, to consider selling NetNewsWire. (Everybody has thoughts not worthy of them. That was a selfish idea, not in the best interests of users or the software. But then I started to think about how long it would take to get all versions using the new shared code, and then, more importantly, about how long it would take to make them really, really awesome, which was yet another step.Īt first I just thought of killing off the iPad and iPhone versions, since I figured I could handle the Mac version myself. Having released the first of the new shared-code apps, and this release having met with some modest appreciation, I was feeling pretty good. I started thinking about this a couple weeks after NetNewsWire Lite appeared on the Mac App Store. In an exclusive interview with Daring Fireball, Simmons said the decision stemmed from his own limits when it came to updating multiple versions of the app and keeping it high quality: "I couldn't be more excited-Black Pixel is going to rock at it." Advertisement "It was my idea, my initiative, and I found the right home for it," Simmons told Ars. NetNewsWire has consistently won the hearts of Ars Technica staffers for years, not to mention those of the general Mac community.Īccording to Simmons, the sale to Black Pixel was his suggestion, not NewsGator's.
Since then, NewsGator has experimented a bit with NetNewsWire's business model, attempting free versions, ad-supported versions, and now iOS versions of the app. At the time, RSS was just barely beginning to make its way into nerd culture (some would argue that it's still working its way through) and NetNewsWire on Mac OS X was one of the first desktop RSS apps on any platform.Įventually, Brent and his wife Sheila sold the company to NewsGator, who incorporated NetNewsWire into its other RSS offerings. NetNewsWire started out as Simmons' pet project under his company, Ranchero Software, back in 2002. Instead, Simmons will move onto other projects after nine years spent working on the RSS client. That's exactly what's happening, though: Simmons has announced that NetNewsWire has been sold to Black Pixel, and that he won't be going with it. The name Brent Simmons has been joined with famed Mac (and now iOS) RSS app NetNewsWire for so long, it's hard to imagine them being put asunder.