A relatively large number of feeds? ☀
Daring Fireball: NetNewsWire and iPhone-Sized Data
As you might imagine, I subscribe to a relatively large number of feeds — 155 as of today — some of which I read religiously, but many of which I only scan, looking for anything that stands out. The integration between the Mac and iPhone versions of NetNewsWire goes through NewsGator: with syncing turned on, you get the same list of subscriptions, and the read/unread state of each item is synced. So by default, the iPhone version of NetNewsWire does the obvious thing and shows you the same list of subscriptions you use on the Mac (or with any other NewsGator client software, like their web app or the Windows client, FeedDemon).
155?
Pfft. That RSS puny.
Before Google Reader, I used NetNewsWire (and before that, del.icio.us/naum/blog), but after 1000+ feeds, it made my Mac sputter and smoke, with all the disk thrashing. And it really never matched the way I wish to peruse news feeds.
First off, the biggest misnomer is the news-reader idiom. That falsely gives off the vibe of the daily news, like Walter Kronkite of the 1970s embalmed into postmodern net form. When the idea really should be centered on providing a more efficient manner to scan new stuff that’s been added to web sites you believe offer content of value (or potentially of value)
And a grossly error would be to consider it a stream that I am compelled for each sitting to hunker down and consume, dutifully poring over every post, and obediently toggling the unread flag for each article read. Instead, I view it as a pool to wade in, to sup the pleasant fare, note the utilitarian, browse the mildly interesting bits, scan a significant lot, and ignore all the rest. If I miss a day or a week, no problem, “Mark all as read” comes to the rescue.
For the biggest benefit (and one which Google enjoys a monopolistic advantage) is the search capability. If I forget where I read something or I wish to get a snap gauge check on a particular topic, an immediate search is info-nirvana.
On the iPhone, however, I’ve yet to see a decent RSS reader client implementation. NetNewsWire works like a ported application with no thought to the mobile platform it runs on. Google Reader is somewhat nicer, but I find the font size to be a tad small (for forty-something eyeballs, at least, may be suitable for you) and the feeds list is just way too awkward to scroll through. The Stanza ereader applications offers the best visual RSS experience but it requires that you “download” a specific feed every time you wish to read a particular site feed.
