Cyndicate

Shareware; $29.95

Current Version: 1.1 (December 26, 2007)

From the Cyndicate web site: "Cyndicate is a easy-to-use, next-generation, RSS/Atom syndication feed reader that gives you command over your news. Cyndicate will fetch, organize, and display news and articles from millions of websites and weblogs, giving you complete control over your day's news."

Some of Cyndicate's unique features include:

• Mail-like interface - If you've ever used an email client, you'll feel right at home.
• Style Sheets - Customize the look of articles using standard HTML and CSS or use any of the included styles.
• Folders - Sort and save articles any way you like.
• Smart Folders - Create lists of articles automatically based on criteria you set.
• Filters - Automatically sort, label, and mark articles as they are downloaded.
• Persistence - You have full control over the life of each article. Save it for as long as you like.
• Automatic Ratings - Find out what articles you'll like before reading them. Cyndicate will automatically rate each article based on your history.
• Podcasts and Enclosure - Manually or automatically download podcasts and enclosures. Podcasts can even be added to iTunes automatically.

Version 1.1 adds/changes the following:

• Added an option to set the dock to show the count of either all unread, the inbox, or none.
• Added a fix for feeds that have bad text encodings
• Added support for youtube videos listed in the mrss format
• The article list will now auto scroll
• Changed the way favicons are loaded to try to prevent a lock
• Fixed deleting inactive feeds and their articles
• Fixed selection change when moving articles in the feed view
• Fixed automatic downloading
• Fixed delete filters on Intel machines

MulleNewz

Open source; $0

Current Version: 1.9 (May 29, 2003)

MulleNewz is an OS X "dockling" which allows you to stay in touch with the world via the OS X dock. The program is actually an easy-to-configure RSS news reader that can access a lot of popular sites that offer RSS news content by displaying news headlines in a compact manner. When you click on the headline you're interested, MulleNewz will open your preferred browser and direct it to the URL containing the whole story.

Version 1.9 addresses the following:

• Due to a bugfix in the EDMLParser a new version had to be created. O'Reilly RSS feeds are rendered properly now.

NetNewsWire

Freeware

Current Version: 3.1.7 (September 4, 2008)

NetNewsWire (acquired by NewsGator in October, 2005) is an easy-to-use RSS Web news reader for Mac OS X. Its familiar three-paned interface - similar to Apple Mail and Outlook Express - can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news. Features include:

• News comes to you - Spend less time surfing. Let NetNewsWire do the work for you, as it gathers your news and tells you which items are new. Subscribe to feeds from all over the web - and from the built-in list of thousands of feeds in the Sites Drawer.
• Tabbed browser - Open web pages in NetNewsWire's browser, and see them the same as in Safari, but with the convenience of staying in the same window. NetNewsWire remembers tabs between launches, so you come right back to where you left off last time.
• Searching - Search your news items with a standard Apple search widget - as in Mail and other applications.
• Podcasts and enclosures - Automatically download podcasts and enclosures. Send podcasts to iTunes with with your choice of genre and playlist.
• Smart lists - Gather news from all your feeds based on your criteria. It's like smart playlists in iTunes - only for news instead of music.
• Flagged items - Mark items that you want to keep - they stay forever or until you mark them as unflagged.
• Synchronization - Keep your subscriptions, news item status, and even browser tabs synchronized between two or more computers.
• Bloglines syncing - Read your Bloglines feeds with NetNewsWire for the best of both worlds, a rich desktop client and acessible-anywhere server.
• Search-result subscriptions - Make special subscriptions that display results from search engines like Yahoo, Feedster, and Daypop, or from keyword searches at Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Technorati. Easily keep up with topics that interest you.
• Widescreen view - The three-column view is perfect for laptops and today's monitors that have more horizontal space.
• Persistence - Tell NetNewsWire how long to keep news items, so you can still read them even after they disappear from the feed.
• Scripting and Automator - Control NetNewsWire with AppleScript - and with Automator too, if you're running OS X 10.4 or greater. Add commands to NetNewsWire via the scripts menu.
• Scripted feeds - Generate custom RSS and Atom feeds via AppleScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, and other scripting languages.
• HTML Differences - Track changes in news items as they're edited and updated.
• Activity window - Stay in control as NetNewsWire shows you exactly what it's downloading.
• Dinosaurs - Find feeds that haven't updated in a long time via the Dinosaurs window.
• Inline summaries and datelines - Show summaries and datelines in the headlines list to make skimming faster and easier - especially for the widescreen view.
• Versatile headlines list - Add date, subject, and creator columns to the headlines list - and sort on any of these columns.
• More - Change the fonts in the subscriptions and headlines lists, turn on and off the unread count in the Dock, download files, and more.

Version 3.1.7 adds/changes the following:

• Fixed a bug where opening the preferences window could cause NetNewsWire to ask for your FTP syncing password, even though you don't use FTP syncing.
• Removed microformats feature. I was going to wait till 3.2, but decided to do it now.
• Updated French localization.
• Startup crash - Fixed one particular cause of a startup crash.
• Proxies - Fixed one possible cause of a compatibility issue with some proxies.
• Clippings chiclet color - The clippings count color is now the same as the unread count color.
• AppleScript command to evaluate JavaScript for the current web page.
• Performance - For people who have Growl installed, NetNewsWire will use less resources during feed refreshes. This was accomplished by removing the per-news-item Growl notifications. (You still have per-feed and per-session notifications.)

As of version 3.1, NetNewsWire is now freeware, so the old "NewNewsWire Lite" is no longer relevant or available.

NewsFan

Shareware; $25

Current Version: 1.8.3 (December 21, 2005)

Like NetNewsWire, above, NewsFan is an easy-to-use RSS Web news reader for Mac OS X. News views an be customized through the use of stylesheets, and the software contains some interesting integration with iPods (news can be converted into audo that is uploaded to your iPod) and the iTunes Music Store (which can be browsed using the NewsFan interface). Version 1.8.3 adds/changes the following:

• Improve the handling of Web kit for Tiger for speed.
• Support Video podcast (m4v type).
• Support Atom 1.0.
• Support XML output the subscriptions as .webloc format.
• Improve the handling of search words.
• Support to change the temporary search results to normal subscription.
• Fix sound handling for Tiger.
• Improve the handling of windows for Tiger.

NewsFan is shareware, and arrives as a 14-day limited trial. Volume discounts are available.

NewsFire

Shareware; $18.99

Current Version: 1.5v74 (July 28, 2008)

NewsFire is an RSS newsreader with a Mac-friendly face and a number of handy features, such as smart feeds that match specified criteria, animated alerts, and more.

While no information is available regarding what's new in version 1.5v74, version 1.5v73 added/changed the following:

• Fix for Flickr enclosures
• Fix some graphics

NewsLife

Shareware; $20

Current Version: 1.2.1 (August 22, 2008)

NewsLife is a simplified replacement for the NewsMac Pro RSS reader for Mac OS X. (NewsMac Pro was discontinued at the end of 2006. All customers who purchased NewsMac Pro since April 2006 are eligible for a free upgrade to NewsLife.)

According to the authors, "NewsLife has been redesigned from the ground up to be much simpler and more geared towards everyday use rather than being a specialist tool." More information is available in the FAQ.

Version 1.2.1 adds/changes the following from 1.2:

• Growl support has been added.
• Fixes an issue which prevented certain Feedburner feeds from being added.
• Fixes a problem some users experienced when trying to export their feed library to OPML.
• Fixes a bug in the feed expiration mechanism that could lead to a gradual decrease in performance of NewsLife. Start NewsLife while holding down the option (alt) key to perform a clean of the feed library if you are experiencing slow-downs when checking feeds.

NewsLife requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Shrook

Freeware

Current Version: 2.64 (November 21, 2008)

Shrook is an RSS newsreader that supports all versions of RSS and Atom. Interesting features include the ability to synchronize your news lists between multiple Macs, "distributed checking," and more.

Version 2.64 adds/changes the following:

• Sparkle automatic updating
• More robust XML processing
• New icon
• Various bug fixes

Once shareware, Shrook is now freeware as of version 2.5.

Vienna

Open source; $0

Current Version: 2.3.1.2302 (November 18, 2008)

Vienna is a freeware, open source RSS/Atom reader for the Mac OS X operating system. It provides features comparable to commercial newsreaders but it is both it and the source code are freely available for download. As of the time of writing, Vienna is a beta release with the final version scheduled before the end of the year. The first beta is fully functional and stable, and is ready for download now. Features include:

• Simple, uncluttered UI - Vienna's user interface is intentionally kept sparse as so to only present you with the controls you absolutely need. All other functionality is moved to the menus.
• Support for RSS and Atom feeds - Vienna supports both RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds. It automatically takes care of deciphering and presenting the articles in a consistent format regardless of the original feed format.
• Smart Folders - Create folders whose contents are dynamically determined by criteria that you specify. When you view the folder, Vienna automatically displays all articles meeting that criteria.
• Folder groups - Organize your subscriptions into groups and you can even create groups within groups.
• Import and Export - Import your subscriptions from Bloglines or any other RSS reader that exports in OPML format. Similarly export your subscriptions to an OPML format file for importing elsewhere.
• Scheduled Refresh - Refresh your subscriptions automatically every 30 minutes or every 1, 2 or 6 hours.
• Flagged Articles - Flag articles of interest and view them together via the Marked Articles smart folder.
• Reading Panes - Choose your reading pane layout. Put it below the articles or to the right, whichever orientation works best for you.
• Styles - Change your style in which articles are presented from any of the built-in custom styles. Or create your own styles with a bit of knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Version 2.3.1.2302 adds/changes the following:

• There is only one change in Vienna 2.3.1. It fixes a crash on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger when you attempt to customize the toolbar.

See the blog for the detailed history of changes.