NetNewsWire is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

RSS reader for macOS and iOS, originally developed by Brent and Sheila Simmons through Ranchero Software. It was first introduced on in 2002 as ''NetNewsWire Lite'', a free version with fewer features compared to the commercial release. Ownership transitioned over time, with NewsGator acquiring it in 2005 and Black Pixel in 2011, before Brent Simmons regained the intellectual property in 2018 and released his open source Mac RSS reader, "Evergreen" as NetNewsWire 5.0d1. NetNewsWire has been well received by the community, receiving awards such as Macworld's Editor's Choice.

History

NetNewsWire was developed by Brent and Sheila Simmons for their company Ranchero Software. It was introduced on July 12, 2002, with ''NetNewsWire Lite'', a free version missing some advanced features of the (then commercial) version, introduced some weeks later. Version 1.0 was released on February 11, 2003, and version 2.0 was released in May 2005. At that time it included custom feed views, custom downloading and opening of

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, synchronization of feeds and feed status between computers,

Bloglines Bloglines was a web-based news aggregator for reading Web syndication, syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom (standard), Atom formats. Users could subscribe to the syndicated feeds for free using a web browser. Bloglines offered an application ...

support, and a built-in tabbed browser. In October 2005, NewsGator bought NetNewsWire, bringing their NewsGator Online RSS synchronization service to the Mac. Brent Simmons was hired by NewsGator to continue developing the software. NetNewsWire 3.0 was released on June 5, 2007. The version added Spotlight indexing of news items, integration with

iCal Calendar is a personal calendar app made by Apple Inc. for its macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and visionOS operating systems. It offers online cloud backup of calendars using Apple's iCloud service, or can synchronize with other calendar service ...

iPhoto iPhoto is a discontinued image editing software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It was included with every Mac computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application in ...

Address Book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries, called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address, telephone numb ...

, and VoodooPad,

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support, a new user interface, performance enhancements, and more. The application was originally

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

, but became free with the release of NetNewsWire 3.1 on January 10, 2008. NetNewsWire Lite was discontinued at the same time. NetNewsWire 3.2 moved to an advertisement-supported model with the option to purchase the application to remove ads. An iOS version of NetNewsWire with support for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

and later for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

was released on the first day of the

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. It included syncing of unread articles with the desktop version. NetNewsWire Lite 4.0 was introduced on March 3, 2011, on the

Mac App Store The Mac App Store (also known as the App Store) is a digital distribution platform for macOS apps, often referred to as Mac apps, created and maintained by Apple. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010, at Apple's "Back to the Mac" eve ...

. While it misses several of the advanced features included in NetNewsWire 3.2, it includes a completely rewritten codebase which was used in the iOS version of the app and for NetNewsWire 4.0 which was released as shareware. On June 3, 2011, the acquisition of NetNewsWire by Black Pixel was announced. For two years development had been apparently stalled, with a gap in updates from 2011 through the release of the version 4 Open Beta. On June 24, 2013, NetNewsWire 4.0 was announced and released as an open beta by Black Pixel. This announcement also brought news that the product would be a commercial product with no free component (though the beta would be free to use through the final release). The final release of NetNewsWire 4.0 occurred on September 3, 2015. In 2017 support of JSON Feed was added into the code base. On August 31, 2018, Black Pixel announced that they had returned the NetNewsWire

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

to Brent Simmons. On September 1, 2018, Brent Simmons released NetNewsWire 5.0d1. It was a renamed version of his open source Mac RSS reader, "Evergreen". Almost a year later, NetNewsWire 5.0 was released on August 26, 2019 as an open source application. On December 22, 2019, Brent Simmons started a public beta for the NetNewsWire iOS app which was distributed through TestFlight. The iOS version of NetNewsWire 5.0 was released March 9, 2020. On March 27, 2021, Brent Simmons released NetNewsWire 6.0 for macOS along with a public beta for iOS which, again, was distributed through TestFlight. On June 22, 2021, Brent Simmons released NetNewsWire 6.0 for iOS.

Reception

NetNewsWire has been well regarded by many users and reviewers. According to

FeedBurner Feedburner, Inc. is a web feed management service primarily for monetizing RSS feeds, primarily by inserting targeted advertisements into them. It was founded in 2004 and acquired by Google in 2007. Services Services provided to publishers inclu ...

, NetNewsWire was the most popular desktop newsreader on all platforms in 2005. The software received a ''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'' Editor's Choice Award in 2003 and 2005 and maintained a 4.8 out of five stars rating among reviewers at VersionTracker (now CNET). ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

'' called NetNewsWire's built-in browser "hands-down the best of any Mac newsreader," and Walter Mossberg, technology columnist for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', said that NetNewsWire is his favorite for the Mac. NetNewsWire 5.0 was also received well. MacStories praised the RSS reader's search engine and general stability, but lamented that some advanced features and customization options had not made it into the release, calling 5.0 "a solid foundation for the future".

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...

wrote that NetNewsWire 5.0 was off to a promising start, but agreed that it lacked some of the features that might be expected by a power user.

References

External links

* {{Aggregators Atom (web standard) MacOS Internet software Software based on WebKit News aggregator software 2002 software Formerly proprietary software

History

Reception

See also

References

External links