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NewsFire 1.6 Beta 1

NewsFire 1.6 Beta 1 Hot on the heels of the release of Safari140, I’m pleased to release the first beta of NewsFire 1.6. Similar to Safari140, NewsFire now supports direct posting to Twitter, using the same hotkey shortcut and interface.

In addition, NewsFire 1.6 has an updated visual design and now has built in auto-updater support (via Sparkle) for pain-free upgrades.

Download NewsFire 1.6 Beta 1
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard required.

Teaser

Teaser

NewsFire 1.5 (v73)

NewsFire 1.5 (v73) is now available for download. This release fixes some incorrect graphics and no longer renders large image enclosures from sites such as Flickr. As an aside, I witnessed a curious issue while working on this release, and I’d like to get the fix into the public record. The issue was that NewsFire was repeatedly requesting authentication credentials for an HTTPS feed I had subscribed to. This was curious since the feed had worked fine in the past, and the username and password appeared to be properly stored in the Keychain. Since credential storage and use are a part of the Cocoa URL loading system, it’s likely there’s a deep bug here that’s in Apple’s jurisdiction. Regardless, the fix is trivial… simply delete the credential from the Keychain. After I did this, NewsFire recreated the credential and has worked fine ever since. So, if you ever experience such an issue, just delete the relevant credential in the Keychain and things should work once it’s recreated.

NewsFire… the news starts here!

Today’s a big day for NewsFire. After much internal debate, I’ve made the decision that as of today, NewsFire is totally free. No feature restrictions, no ads, no cut-down ‘lite’ version… this is the real deal.

For those new to this, NewsFire is a news reader for blogs, news sites, and anything else that publishes an ‘RSS’ syndication feed. It watches for news so you don’t have to. When a new story is published, NewsFire brings it to your attention with some super-slick animation. Unlike other readers, NewsFire is designed with a deliberately minimal interface. The news is what matters and it takes center stage.

There’s no excuse not to try it. Download NewsFire and give it a whirl. I’m confident you’ll like it.

So why am I doing this? Call it an experiment to draw people into the fold. Call it temporary insanity. Call it good will. Call it stupidity. I’m never really sure what my motivations are, but this one feels right in my gut. I hope you like it. I sure hope I don’t regret this.

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  • March 1st, 2008 12:43 am

NewsFire 1.5

NewsFire 1.5 (v71) is now available for download. In addition to minor compatibility improvements, version 1.5 brings a new modern and clean look to NewsFire. This includes a more prominent “Next Item” button for easy perusal of the news and a slimmed down status bar. NewsFire 1.5 is a free upgrade.

NewsFire for Leopard

So far, Leopard is proving to be a quite reasonable upgrade in terms of not breaking existing software. However, as the days pass, a few issues are making themselves apparent. One problem I’ve encountered is that text shadows do not render consistently between 10.4 and 10.5, meaning that additional work is required to make things look the same between the two systems. I might post more on this later, because I’m reasonably convinced that it’s either a bug or a very strange design decision.

Another problem is that the new “set access for specific services and applications” firewall settings is creating issues by unexpectedly modifying the binary code of apps (by forcing a code signature on the unsuspecting binary). This has created issues for NewsFire as well as other third-party apps. Thus, during these early days I would advise using this setting with caution.

That said, these issues are certainly not insurmountable, and so today I’m releasing NewsFire 1.4 (v70) as a first pass attempt to refine the user experience on Leopard for the rare user experiencing issues.

Save $29Mac OS X Leopard, just $100 – amazon.com

À la carte options for NewsFire

I’ve recently added some new à la carte purchase options for NewsFire that I’d like to point out. In addition to the basic single user license for $18.99, I am making available a ‘Household Option‘ that will extend your license to cover up to 3 family members or housemates living in the same household for just $9 (a $57 value). I’ve also added a ‘Lifetime Upgrades Option‘. This option means that all future major upgrades of NewsFire will be given to you for free (2.0, 3.0, etc…). For only $9 you are set for life!

Both the ‘Household Option’ and the ‘Lifetime Upgrades Option’ are available for à la carte purchase for both new licenses AND existing licenses.

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  • November 22nd, 2006 5:25 pm

Buy NewsFire, get Inquisitor Free

This weekend only, if you buy NewsFire, the most beautiful RSS newsreader on the Mac, you will get a free license for Inquisitor, the instant search extension for Safari that makes searching the web just like using Spotlight.

Together, these two programs will transform your internet experience. This is a rare opportunity to get two top-notch applications for the price of one (saving 25%). Don’t procrastinate – you only have two days!

UPDATE: It’s over. Thanks!

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  • August 19th, 2006 1:07 am

Leopard Compatibility Updates

The recent developer preview of Leopard created some issues for both Inquisitor and NewsFire. Now that I’m back from WWDC, I can release this pair of updates to address the issues.

Inquisitor has been updated to version 2.6.2. The changes are limited to Leopard compatibility and need not be installed unless you are running Mac OS X 10.5.

NewsFire 1.4 has been updated to build 68. In addition to Leopard compatibility, 1.4 (v68) tweaks smart rules somewhat, by adding “Starts With” (prefix) and “Ends With” (suffix) string rules. Unless you are using Mac OS X 10.5 or want these string rules there is no particular need to upgrade.

NewsFire 1.4

NewsFire 1.4 Screenshot

I’m very happy to announce the immediate release of the latest version of NewsFire.

Version 1.4 further refines the already elegant RSS newsreading experience of NewsFire. Important new features include an integrated video player for video podcasts, a new ‘status’ sort option that prioritizes items needing attention, and type-ahead selection.

Equally important, NewsFire 1.4 has substantial performance improvements over previous versions and now runs smoothly even with several hundred feeds.

NewsFire 1.4 is a complimentary upgrade for registered users. New users can try NewsFire for free, albeit with restrictions. Registration of NewsFire costs only $18.99.