Mat Harvard

There are a number of names for them, but they are commonly known as feed readers. A feed reader, is just a piece of software which aggregates syndicated content around the web. This content can come in an XML format, such as RSS or Atom. My knowledge of feed readers is limited, consequently my writing is opinionated, take from it what you will. I've only ever used two feed readers for an extended period of time: NewsFire, which I've used for the past two years; Fever, my new reader of choice for the last few months (it was released in June). Other feed readers I've tried include Times (the only other reader I'm discussing), Google Reader and NetNewsWire.

News, on Fire

NewsFire was one of my staple applications when I first switched to Mac. NewsFire to RSS was like TextMate to Ruby on Rails for me. It was a breeze to use, and worked great. I had no problems with it for the longest time. NewsFire worked great throughout Mac OS X Tiger, but when Leopard hit, the problems started. Clean installs, re-installs, nothing seemed to work. The only change in my use of it in Leopard was to, of course, add more feeds (I believe I was at around 30 back then) and sort them into groups.

The application routinely crashed. At least once a day, typically more. Even after a few updates were released, it still seemed to crash often. Enter NetNewsWire, Google Reader from internets. It was at this time I decided to give other feed readers a try, it honestly hurt, I was hooked on NewsFire and shunned people who used anything else (okay, not really). NetNewsWire was okay, but it just didn't feel right compared to NewsFire. Google Reader, in my honest opinion, is just horrible.

The Good 'ol Times

Times was special. I heard about it well before its release, and was really looking forward to it. The screencasts looked amazing, and I couldn't wait to get my hands (or pointer) on it. Time past, and I eventually forgot about it entirely, I'm not even sure when it was officially released. Along came MacHeist 3. While MH 1 was and still remains the best MH ever, 3 was not at all bad. The missions had come a long way, and advanced to a level far beyond that of MH 1 & 2. Back to the main point here, Times was included as part of the MH 3 bundle, which I bought.

One OPML export from NewsFire later, I was ready to give Times a try. I hit the import button, selected the file and boom! It crashed. Bad luck? No, after a couple clean installs and many attempts later, it still crashed while importing the file. Time for bed!

I got a Fever

About a week after those sketchy times, trying to switch feed readers, I got sick. Really sick. Shaun Inman had been hinting about his master piece for quite some time before. I was looking forward to it, even though I still didn't know exactly what it did... but hey, if it's Inman approved it must be good right? Sometime during June, in the heat of my sickness, I got a fever! Not just any fever, but Fever. It seemed like the answer to all my aches and panes (window panes that is). It was web based, which is where I spend majority of my time; it was designed well, Shaun doesn't miss a pixel; and it had this cool recommendation engine thingy built in! One screencast and multiple reviews later, I pitched in my $30 and got rolling. For web based software, the installation was almost as simple as installing a desktop app (okay I'm little biased here because I'm technically inclined). The first thing I did was import my OPML file from NewsFire. Boom, it worked.

Yeah, it worked... Why would this web app, written in PHP mind, work better than a desktop application? I couldn't tell you (Inman is a genius, maybe that's why). Sure it had it's quirks as any newly released piece of software does, but they were fixed within the week. It has shortcut keys, it never reloads a page (AJAXy goodness), and almost feels like a desktop app. I could keep going on about it, so I'll stop now. I must however mention one of the biggest advantages and selling points of Fever, that was the iPhone interface. It was just another web app, but it was done specifically for the iPhone, no corners, or pixels, were cut out (I <3 Inman).

Final Remarks

I'm very satisfied with Fever, and wouldn't look at changing any time soon. Since I started using it, I had a total of 50 feeds. Now, I have over 160 feeds and counting.