Basically since I have my Powerbook I’ve been using ViennaRSS as my default news reader. I’ve tried Safari but somehow it didn’t offer me anything intersting.
Anyway, last week I’ve given NewsFire a try and so far I really like it. Especially its “Sort by most recent new item” view in the sidebar and the sidebar as a whole are really great. Sure, it also has its downsides: For example the OPML import is IMO at least partially broken when it comes to import outlines with sub-outlines in them. These will be simply imported as normal feeds (a feed without an URL since folders normally don’t have an URL ;)) instead of groups.
Neither ViennaRSS nor NewsFire offer a feature I like about Bloglines: You can view all posts of a feed with an excerpt (which can also include images) in a blog-like view, something that is quite handy if you’re having some Flickr-accounts in your Blogroll.
Somehow ViennaRSS also seems to offer more parts to be configured too. There you can select various styles for the message display and also create your own ones (probably with CSS, haven’t looked into this yet) while in NewsFire you can only change the item color when highlighted and the fontsize.
But what made me consider NewsFire in the firstplace was not really the need to configure it and things like that but it’s support for enclosures which definetly comes in quite handly if you’re subscribing to some Podcasts like What’s new now. If the reader notices an enclosed element, you get a download button and if it’s a Podcast you can listen to it right away using the integrated audio player.
All this considered I’m still not sure, if I should spend USD15 on this or save them up for something like Mint or perhaps PithHelmet. And the end of the Flickr-year is also drawing near.
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Alternatively, this website also supports Webmentions. If you write a post on a blog that supports this technique, I should get notified about your link 🙂