PENGUIRL  Meh, color me underwhelmed. It doesn't import feeds into the hierarchal structure they were exported in, and while the UI is different from all the rest I find the three pane widescreen layout more useful for me.  
(Version 1.6v84)

CHAS_M  Just a quick note on the "description" of the app -- the phrase is "dumbed down" not "dubbed down". Just FYI.

I've not had any trouble w/NewFire over the years, I continue to enjoy it and don't care one way or the other if the Newsfire blog is deletable or not -- seems a small "price" to pay for a free app to me --  
(Version 1.6v82)

MACMEND.COM  well he ballsed up a perfectly good app that some of us had paid for in the past....I dont know what gets into software developers. Good software, clean lines and easy to work becomes super annoying, irritating software  
(Version 1.6)

DR. GIRLFRIEND  To Remove The Developer's Blog From Your Feeds:

1. File-->Add Group--> name the group "Lame".

2. Drag the unwanted blog into group "Lame".

3. Right click "Lame", select Remove.

4. Remove Group and Feeds.

Done deal.

As far as the app goes, it's decent. Other than the obnoxious trick of forcing people to view and not delete his blog, it's easy to use and fairly nice looking. I actually bought this app before it went free, but it's not my RSS reader of choice; I use it because the others I've tested seem buggier. NewsFire wins by default.  
(Version 1.6v76)

MPEZ  This is a beautiful and well designed piece of software. Perhaps the only feature lacking is some kind of sync system - computer-computer-iphone. But this is a small quibble for a free product.

I've no idea what the reviewers are talking about below - it is easy to delete the developer's blog RSS. There is some kind of vendetta against this developer, so take the negative reviews with a grain of salt.

In any case it's free, so try it and find out.  
(Version 1.6v76)

YOUNKINT  Before you consider installing ANY software concocted by David Watanabe on your computer, please do a decent Google search of "David Watanabe" first. Especially do this if, for some reason, you are contemplating actually sending him your hard earned money.

It will not take you long to come to a conclusion. Even a simple search here on macupdate should suffice.  
(Version 1.6v76)

SWISSROLL  The cardinal sin committed here is that the developer's blog CANNOT be deleted from the feeds. That is just plain wrong. Now they can do what they like as this is freeware, but as I paid for this a few weeks before the app went gratis I feel aggrieved.

Also, when adding new feeds most of the time it does not download the feeds but one has to manually refresh to get the feeds. Features have also been removed such as being able to remove favicons and choosing different fonts.

Still I think it is a brilliant app but I will give it 3 stars for the evil perpetrated by not being able to banish the developer's blog.  
(Version 1.5v74)

EUJOT  I buy NewFire, but now when it's free I can not delete David Watanabe blog form RRS list. Crap.  
(Version 1.5v74)

LAURIE2  I love NewsFire but I too have received no response to my questions to the developer. The lack of tech support is very frustrating. Recently my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced. I still have all my old caches and metadata files for the items I had in the reader when it crashed, so I moved them into the corresponding files when I restored from my backup. I hoped I could then reaccess them, but I can't find a way. Spotlight finds them easily and gives me the headline of each item, but the items don't appear in the newsreader. Does anyone know how to accomplish this? Or a forum where I might post the question? It doesn't look like the developer is going to respond. Thanks.  
(Version 1.5v72)

KIDDAILEY  An interesting program, but it STILL has issues with way too many feeds to make it worth putting up with.

Case in point: after installing it, I immediately copied my Slashdot.org and Digg.com feeds into Newsfire and NEITHER ONE would display. It also seems to have issues with images embedded with escaped HTML in the body of articles too.

For what it's worth, you also can't remove his blog from the feed subscriptions in this free version. I suggest using LittleSnitch to block access to his site.

Blah.

I used Newsfire years ago when it first came out but switched to NetNewsWire because of this exact reason. I even ended up purchasing a license for NNW because it was a far better app -- it never had problems with any feed I threw into it. David on the other hand, responded to my "bug report" at the time with a simple: "the feeds don't validate."

I wish this was a better app. The interface is very nice and is the only reason that, despite David's shortness with his customers and potential customers, I continue to entertain the idea of even giving it another chance.

That said, I personally don't expect the free to last. Newsfire was free when it first came out, then wasn't, and now it is again.  
(Version 1.5v72)