I have been using the NetNewsWire desktop application for subscribing to feeds for about a year now. Previously I had been using the web based service Google Reader. NetNewsWire is a free RSS¹ reader that syncs with the web based service Newsgator.com. Postings that you have read within the application on one computer can be synced to another computer running the same application. Also you can manage and read the content of your subscriptions online directly at newsgator.com. Newsgator also has a free RSS reader for Windows PC’s called FeedDemon.

One of the reasons I like NetNewsWire so much is because of their iPhone/iPod Touch application.

Prior to the iPhone application I had been using the mobile version of the newsgator.com website. As you can see in the image below the interface is quite similar between both the browser based m.newsgator.com service and the iPhone application.

One of my original complaints with the NetNewsWire applicaton was how slow it was at generating and syncing feeds. Version 1.0 was so slow that I relied on the m.newsgator.com version until they updated the application. NetNewsWire was updated (a few times actually) and now it is at the point where I have it on my front screen and use it daily.

One of the features that some users do not realize exists is the ability to select which feeds sync to the iPhone/iPod Touch. John Gruber, from Daring Fireball, described recently how he uses NetNewWire on his iPhone. He highlights how he selects only certain feeds to sync to the phone while leaving the remaining feeds accessible through the desktop application….

★ NetNewsWire and iPhone-Sized Data:

“I’ve been using NetNewsWire to read feeds on my Mac ever since it debuted in 2003, and I started using the iPhone version of NetNewsWire as soon as it appeared, too. But I found that over time, I was using the iPhone version less and less…

…Back in July, NetNewsWire developer Brent Simmons posted an extremely useful tip regarding how to set certain feeds only to appear, say, on the Mac, but not on the iPhone.¹ The idea is that NewsGator’s online account system supports ‘locations’, and each location can show a specific subset of your full list of subscribed-to feeds. I used this feature to turn off a few dozen particularly noisy feeds for my iPhone location, but for me, I think that was the wrong way to use the feature…

…So what I did last week was start over from scratch on the iPhone. Rather than going through my full list of feeds and turning some off, I turned them all off, then went through and re-enabled about 20 feeds — the ones I like best, with the highest signal-to-noise ratios, and which would be most enjoyable in those I’m bored, give me something to read moments. The result is that NetNewsWire on my iPhone launches faster, loads less data over the network, and pretty much only shows me stuff I really might want to read. And the read/unread status of the feeds I’m following on the iPhone still sync to my Mac.”

(Via Daring Fireball.)

I found this to be a great tip!

The question I have for readers is what RSS reader do you use and suggest?

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