NewsFire2.0

I buy NewFire, but now when it's free I can not delete David Watanabe blog form RRS list. Crap.

Newsfire 2.0 no longer work with El Capitan. It crash on startup. Fix please

Wish he would implement google reader syncing, then I could switch back from netnewswire

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.

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 --

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.

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.

I buy NewFire, but now when it's free I can not delete David Watanabe blog form RRS list. Crap.

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.

Running 10.5.2 and NF won't import my NetNewsWire subscriptions so it's not much use.

NewsFire doesn't run on 10.5 You can not open any of the articles that are listed in any of the feeds. Writing to the developer produces nothing. I feel that after supporting this application from its inception I should get some information from the developer as to what his plans are for an update. I feel that after reading other comments about Dave that it would appear that he doesn't give a Tinker's Dam about his customers. Consequently we should reciprocate by shrinking his wallet. Maybe if enough of us don't buy this product he will pay some attention to those who support his product.

I'll be honest : most of David Watanabe's software is useless to me. Acquisition became irrelevant a long time ago (gnutella) and is hobbled by a resource intensive java engine. Xtorrent may be relevant today (bittorrent) but is a victim of feature bloat right out of the gate. Transmission runs circles around it in terms of performance. Inquisitor might be useful if it actually worked with my browser of choice, Camino, but it doesn't. You can take the above as a bit of constructive criticism, David, but regarding NewsFire, nothing but aces. NewsFire has everything I need and nothing I don't, all packaged in a wonderfully minimal interface. Where every other RSS client attempts to walk the dividing line between newsreader and browser, NewsFire sticks to one thing and does it well. One missing feature I'd like to see in a future release is individual feed disabling. Still, paired with a capable browser, NewsFire simply offers the best RSS experience on the Mac. As long as David keeps NewsFire lean and focused for v2.0, he's guaranteed to get my upgrade fee.

No updates for 8 months, is NewsFire still under development or has it been relegated to a dormant project? I would love to see the one missing key feature being implemented: (.Mac) syncing. I tend to divide my RSS reading time between my MacBook (office) and iMac (home), but it's really cumbersome having to weed through the onslaught of news items twice. Other than that, NewsFire fits me like a glove. As a recent switcher, I've come to appreciate applications that mirror Apple's minimalistic approach to hard/software design.

I've been using Newsfire for almost a year now. I also tried out NetNewsWire and Endo, but always come back to Newsfire. If sync-ing with a web client is important to you, you should certainly go for NNW. It isn't to me. On the other hand NNW doesn't support Spotlight, which is deal-breaker. And it also slows down my system. Reading feeds is educational and important, but I can't have it slow down my work. If you are going to look at an app for several hours every day, you'd prefer to look at a pretty face. I was charmed by Endo, which is also richer than NF in terms of functionality. It's very customizable and has very sweet applescript-support. It still has some stability issues that turn me off for the moment, but I'll be keeping a close eye on it. Newsfire has a smaller scope, but has proven solid, responds and performs quickly, goes easy on my resources and the UI is as clean as it will ever get. I read quite a few complaints about NF and the developer. If there are people out there to break Mr. Watanabe's reputation they are sure doing one hell of a job. It put me in serious doubts about whether or not I would spend money on a NF license. Until now I certainly don't regret it. I needed customer support on one occasion and it has been swift and competent, by email. That said, there is a support issue. I don't know how Mr. Watanabe organizes his business, if he works alone or whatever. Frankly, I don't care. NF is very straightforward to use, but some basic user documentation or a forum is the minimum of support you could expect for any kind of app, no matter how easy to use it is. Keeping in touch with your customers, or helping them help each other is important. 4/5 because of the lack of support. Otherwise a model OSX app.

This is the best software I have ever used. I really think that Apple should intergrate this software into Tiger. Perfect looks, perfect functionality. Can't recommend it enough.

People who want a feed reader that has a "realtime" popup aspect to it would be better advised to try Feedpopper, which works great and only costs $1.50.

Good program, until it breaks mysteriously. This company (read: developer) has zero customer support. There isn't even appropriate documentation for this application. Check out NetNewsWire or NewsLife, even. 2 for stability and value only in light of the lack of support to fix what may be minor problems. who knows?

Purchased this program after using Vienna for long time. It looks stunning, but it just doesn't feel right. It behaves very different from Vienna or NNW. I really wanted to like it, but as I couldn't find any help, documentation, tips'n'tricks or any other piece of documentation I'll have to let go. Too bad, little effort in writing some documentation could easily convince me to convert from Vienna.

STEER WELL CLEAR OF THIS DEVELOPER - he is an idiot! "Answers" to my emails are nothing more than incomprehensible spam. It's like I wandered into his own personal twilight hell-zone. Zapped!

I would also recommend not purchasing this app. After buying a lifetime upgrade option through PayPal, the developer claims no record of any such payment in a terse email. After supplying a copy of the PayPal receipt by return have heard nothing. Intend informing PayPal with a view to recovering the payment.

Strongly recommend NOT purchasing this product. The developer sat on my PayPal payment for 4 days and would not activate the application even when supplied with a copy of the cleared amount form my checking account. Arrogant isn't exactly what I call it - but I do know Mac users will find his slow responses to emails frustrating. I've NEVER had this kind of experience with a developer.

I am more and more disappointed with this product. I email the developer to ask a question and get no reply. If I do, it comes in the form of spam. Anyone notice that NF only fetches a chunk of the items that NNW or Vienna does. It seems like when I run my screensaver or lock my CPU for the day I do not get all of the feeds I should. Kinda wish I could get a refund. Beautiful app, just not as reliable as one would think.

NewsFIre does have a nice interface. However, it is lacking in functionality. Shrook and Vienna, for example, of which I have no association, at least provide three columns of information making it as easy to absorb information as reading a daily newspaper with fewer clicks. In the end it's the ease of obtaining information and not so much an app's looks. Possibly in a future release this will be addressed. That said, I will keep checking back on the progress of NewsFire.

Almost two months ago, I stopped trying one "RSS" (feed) reader after the other (Vienna, Netnewswire,...), never being completely happy, and settled with NewsFire, which complements my way of reading and working perfectly. I have found no other feed reader that I would recommend more! + excellent functionality, smart features + stunning looks - no support section on homepage, no manual. BUT: NewsFire is very straight-forward, mac-like and intuitive, so I personally have never needed any help. Also, the author is reported by posters below to be quick responding to personal questions via e-mail. I love it. Definitely worth the purchase.

I was hesitant to buy Newsfire for two reasons - it doesn't have a three paned interface option like NetNewsWire or Endo, and the RSS finder (enter a web site URL and have it find the feed) didn't seem as robust. However, I liked everything else about it and it feels more mac-like than the others. After a week of use, I have to say I love it. Regarding the two-paned interface, I've gotten used to this. I still think it should be an option to use three, although I'm not sure I'd even use it now as the two-paned interface feels very clean and simple. I still think the RSS discoverability could be improved, but I've actually found that I usually add feeds by simply dragging the RSS URL into the icon in my doc. Super easy. I love the look and feel, keyboard navigation, simplicity, smart feeds, etc. Great app!

I love this app. Why? - It looks good. - Downloads the full feed in the background. This was very helpful when travelling in third world countries. I'd pull my feeds when online, then when back in my hotel I could read up on the world. - Just the feeds. No ads (or rather text ads) like some browsers do when showing you the full web page. If I wanted that I'd just use a browser. - Good developer feedback. I entered a feature request, and got an answer back within a couple of hours. The feature was already there - I don't know where it was documented, but it was there. Can't recommend it enough.

The more than ugly look of version 1.2 is gone and the app did some speed improvements over time, but I have still some minor complaints: I often experience stalls in the automatic download of podcasts, i.e. podcast items often hang in "preparing download" state. A quit and restart is necessary to download the file. I also have complaints about the implementation: NewsFire seems to have a thread that constantly polls the state of its metadata cache directory => ugly software design. I'm considering a switch to Vienna.

Good job, the beautifullest news reader. Very stable and usfull. A pref to choose the size of summaries would be great, ie less click when the news is not so indispensable to look at.

This program is an offense to any rational human being's moral sense; although so elegant and so intelligent, the program when in beta timed out before the inordinately expensive and relatively featureless full version came out. Although the program is beautiful, so is Vienna; and if one wants functionality, NetNewsWire has this beat (and it's not that ugly, either). Also it should be noted that this programmer is notorious amongst the Mac community for being odious.

I've been a paid user of NewsFire for over a year. For now, I've switched to Vienna. The central reason is that NewsFire is too slow. It seems increasingly sluggish ... and start ups take forever. I exported all my feeds to Vienna and despite it being a little buggy, I prefer it for now. The other nice thing about Vienna is the ability to display multiple tabbed web pages within the application. I would suggest this be added to NewsFire, but it is way too slow already. Besides the generally better looking interface, the only thing I miss from NewsFire is the weblog capability.

In my opinion, this app is the slickest, cleverest, prettiest and best designed RSS aggregator out there. The feature set of NewsFire is impressive, and once learned, allows for very quick and intuitive management of large amounts of feeds. The ability to create folders and smart feeds is nothing the others can't do, but seems more elegently implemented somehow. Feeds can be hidden too, which, combined with an intuitive smart feed system makes for a great way of getting just the info you want and not all the clutter. Just about every aspect of the app is customisable via preferences. The author really has thought of everything. All this is displayed in the most beautifull crafted interface possible on Mac OSX. Davis Watanabe is something of a genius in this field. The man bleeds cocoa. The interface is simple and slick, and makes nice use of quartz effects. Being a GUI junkie, and exclusively using ShapeShifter themes, I have to say that no other app has ever so seemlessly just "worked" without any need for specific theme elements. This is the mark of a truly modern and elegant GUI. However, I agree it is a little too expensive. I used it for many months when it was in Beta, (and free). Once it became shareware, I spent a long time trying out all the alternatives, and while almost all are cheaper, they all came up short in one way or another. I would think a price of $9.99 - $12.99 is more realistic given that apps such as Vienna are very very similar, and are FREE. $18.99 is a little too high (although I paid it). As for the author not replying emails, well, I have never had reason to email him. My registration was completed in seconds, and I have had no issues with the app. I have only seen it crash twice and I use it continuously.

Developer is a jerk. Software is pretty, but expensive. Also, the "cool new look" of this app is butt-ugly, lowering the "prettiness" overall. Feature-wise, it's not really all that impressive. Not $19 of impressive, at least. Also, it does tend to occasionally crash, though sporadically. I'll stick with Vienna, thanks.

The program is nice, but the developer never answered my emails! Too bad...

i really liked this program before the big price tag was added. Vienna is as good, has an almost identical GUI, and is free

Nice program, too expensive in my personal opinion though... $20 when NetNewsWire light is free... Just not worth it for me.

Any chance of getting newsfire to accept links from browsers other than safari? Add this feature, and my $19 is yours.

I appreciate the new internals of Newsfire (faster, Spotlight, etc) but the new "look" is ugly like hell.

I agree with the other posters, the original feedlist was much easier to read and looked better. The new one looks incomplete. It woud be nice to at least have an option to show the feedlist in alternating colors like it was originally.

Don't know why the developer changed the cool looking feedlist to the new look? Was way better before. Actually that's what made it look nicer then RSS-Readers like MiNews (which is for free by the way...) At least it should be possible to change the design back to the one of ver 1.1 for ppl like me... Also the price is too high in my opinion... 10$ would be more reasonable...

Still my favourite RSS reader, and this version is the fastest and smoothest yet, but the new look to the feeds sidebar is definately a step backwards. Even so, the simple, clean GUI makes it the most usable and Mac-like reader out there.

What's with the extremely goofy fade out effect when quitting the app?

The application quits from time to time whenever it is refreshing the feeds. Sometimes it doesn't. I guess some of the feeds are causing NewsFire to crash. I belive this is similar to one of the complaints below. Hopefully this problem will be solved quickly. My version is 1.1v36, and I have purchased the software.

I certainly hope no more people make the mistake of actually paying for this piece of crap. Sure it looks pretty, but it's also annoying nagware from a hell-spawned, miserable developer who steals money from people on a daily basis. Dave doesn't respond when (like me) his users who paid contact him because the software suddenly, and completely *STOPS WORKING* only a few days after I bought it. Three emails, and no response? You can keep the $20, Dave. I don't want it anymore after your gresy tendrils of hate have tainted it.

Streamlined, minimalist GUI that in my opinion works better than NetNewsWire... as mentioned below however, the current iteration is slow and needs improvement- a lot of cursor "beachballing" on app startup. Additionally, the developer is talented but not friendly- he has a tendency to condescend in support emails and weblog comments. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right?"

I am a customer. It is a CPU intensive program and something seroiusly needs to be changed to be competitive with the other RSS readers out there.

Everyone please steal this software.

. Overpriced and underfeatured, this app is a ripoff. I can't believe this app is fromt he same developer of my beloved Acquisition which I happily paid for and use all the time. Do yourself a favor and get the free versions of NetNewsWire Lite or PulpFiction lite. Both offer far more features, are well designed and are FREE. I don't mind paying for software, but only if it's worth it...keep looking peeps.

I was considering purchasing this product after using it for the past few months. However the recent builds are now 'nagware'. Every 5 or so minutes the dock icon will bounce endlessly and when you do click on it to stop it, you'll get a nagware popup asking you to register. Thumbs down, time to migrate to a new RSS reader.

i'm a heavy rss/atom user and have used newsfire since the beginning. as soon as i had 100+ (300+now) feeds it started bogging down. now that safari rss is out i gave it a spin and i'm switching to safari... much faster and just works. takes some customization but flies like a tiger!

This application is VERY slow with large feeds and now that I get that annoying thing to register it every 5 min. I will be deleting it from my computer. It's really sad because as soon as the speed issue was taken care of I would have purchased it...but now I've moved onto another program.

The app is nice but there are a few downs too: - in smart folders the list of items for a single feed is shortened and it shows a link "X more..." to reveal all items => this should be configurable. - the scrolling/automatic update of the item lists confuses sometimes.

It's actually a pretty decent newsreader, and beautiful to boot. Shame that Mr. Watanabe, the obviously talented developer, is such a rude and arrogant jackass. If you shell out for this program, don't expect support in any way, shape or form.

Pretty ugly. Not even close to NNW 2.0

Holy programming hallelujahs! I started using Newsfire and my face cleared up, my hemorrhoids quit bothering me and Publishers Clearinghouse rang my doorbell. Wow. How do you do it, Dave? Now if you could just keep the user from having to keep track of where they were on a scroll before they click on a topic and lose the place, you would have a perfect piece of software.

Fantastic update, the new podcasting features are just awesome. I know have a readon to listen to them.

I have been using this application for several months now daily and have tried several RSS readers.....by far this is the best RSS reader for Mac OS X. Definitely recommended!! Good job on this app.

Great to see the invalid fead bug fixed in Tiger, by far the best RSS reader avaliable.

awesome app. so far. i just paid my 18.99 for it. ummm question though is i get these little warning signs and saying the feed was parsed wrong. Now these are even feeds that come with the app. Now this isn't all of them or anything.. just wondering what they were, and also where do we contact the developer at? I don't see an email anywhere.

$20 for a news reader? I bought the other big program this bunch developed, Acqusition, and couldn't get support to save my life. The one answer I did get to an email, from the developer Mr. Watanabe, was rude as hell. I can't believe I gave that guy money! NewsFire must be the Paris Hilton of news readers. It's sexy, flashy and overly expensive and at the same time it is shallow, lacks features and goes down about every day or so. Do yourself a favor and use one of the multitude of free, superior news readers thaht are out there (NetNewsWire Lite, PulpFiction Lite, NewsMac, SlashDock, etc., etc.)

Newsfire is a pretty capable RSS reader, supporting multiple protocols in a user interface that should make Mac OS X users feel right at home. Although power users might like additional control over some interface elements (like the typeface used in the preview pane) and support for nested feed folders, the application is stable, delivers what's promised, and has a developer who is responsive to bug reports. Twenty bucks to support good, solid programs isn't that much, when you think about it.

Nice and sleek Reader. However, how do you display an entire news article in it, rather than having to go to the original site (which makes using a reader almost a mute case) ?

Newsfire is great software. However, the registration keeps changing. It just feels a bit sneaky. Anyway, I won't pay $20 for a friggin newsreader. If the price was lower I would love to help out the developer for something I use everyday.

Very nice prog... I would actually buy it if it was about 10 dollars instead of 20.

Love this program! With Growl support, it's just about perfect! I only wish the rest of my core programs used as little resources and performed as well. from Clytie

I like NewsFire but I won't pay for it as long as there is a free NetNewsWire Lite.

pretty good.

Great application, but definately not worth 20$.

Would someone enlighten me as to why should anyone pay for this 20$ when there are so many freeware RSS apps.

It seems that since this app has come out of beta and is no longer free, that I have had more problems with instability, crashing, feeds not being updated, feeds being updated sporadically, old data being redisplayed as new and other various problems than I ever did with the beta versions. What happened?

nice product - absolutely, but by no means special; and worth paying for when there are so many other equally good freeware products around - no way!

Why Update? Let's see v0.62 was free and didn't limit the number of feeds. v1.0 has "some minor tweeks" and limits the number of feeds and I have to pay. hmmm...

finally it reachese version 1.0 with several localizations. thanks for the improvements and thanks for considering users who prefer using their familiar languages.

Newsfire has a terrific interface, but there's some annoying bugs to be worked out. If you subscribe to an authenticated feed (such as a private RSS feed from LiveJournal), be prepared to enter your username and password every half hour. In addition, at least one of the preferences settings (spacebar behavior) is broken. That aside, NewsFire would be a wonderful newsreader for anyone who doesn't read any authenticated feeds or doesn't mind repetitive stress injuries.

Great app. It really is the best way to fly through the news, and is just so.. smooth! If this were created sold by a large company, price wouldn't factor into the reviews. How come we complain more about the INDIVIDUAL doing hard work?

$20 is way to expensive, in my opinion. $10 would have been appropriate. No doubt the devloper does awesome work, but the fact he sells Acquisition for less, which essentially will download copies of Newsfire for free seems a little illogical in my opinion.