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 Posted 9/26/2009 2:32:49 AM |
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Poor Brent Simmons the developer of Netnewswire Mac and iPhone.
I think behind the scenes at Newsgator they have got him working on Netnewswire Mac 3.2, Netnewswire iPhone 2.0, Netnewswire Mac 4.0 and the taplynx framework which Netnewswire iPhone 2.0 is based on. Oh and you can probably throw in the all things digital and variety iPhone apps as well as any other 3rd party iPhone apps Newsgator have done.
Not only that he has had to rush these releases to coincide with the switch to Google Reader syncing. I think this is way to much for one developer and has just resulted in disappointment.
The Taplynx framework was supposed to be released in June and there has been no word on it since July 14th.
The iPhone app is a mess with many features missing or not working. And a very unhappy user base.
The Mac app still doesn't support all the features of Google Reader such as marking items with a star.
So before complaining about the apps think of what is happening behind the scenes with the developer. I bet this is not what he signed up for when he sold Netnewswire to Newsgator and joined them as an employee.
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| Posted 9/26/2009 3:19:17 AM |
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bryanwebster (9/26/2009)
Mac app doesn't support all the features of Google Reader such as marking items with a star.
Yes it does support Stars. Called Flags for some reason but work pretty instantly for me. Could use a change of terminology to avoid confusion but works well. Much better than the scrappy Clippings feature of old.
Overall I fear you are right. I am chained to a Mac all day long in a different creative role and am well aware of the unrealistic deadlines and unreasonable demands set by money men (not to mention the utter lack of respect we get)
I'm sure we'll see improvements in the future to NNW but in general it is working pretty well now I have got my head around it. Keep up the good work.
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| Posted 9/26/2009 3:44:58 AM |
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Starred / flagged items are a bit hit and miss for me and they will only be flagged in NNW Mac if they are still in a visible feed, this is not how it works on the web version of google reader, they stay there forever even after they disappear from the feed. This is also how clippings worked.
Also I think most people in the mac community especially the developer community know Brent is the developer of NNW Mac and iPhone so it is his reputation that is taking a battering when unfinished products get released. He surely can't be happy about that!?
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| Posted 9/26/2009 3:46:52 AM |
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Rolldothome (9/26/2009)
[quote]
Yes it does support Stars. Called Flags for some reason but work pretty instantly for me. Could use a change of terminology to avoid confusion but works well. Much better than the scrappy Clippings feature of old.
NO WAY ... Starred Items are weak. There is no way to organize them, just one long list that really becomes bloated and unsuable in my opinion.
Clippings, if you figured out how to use them, was light years better than "Starred Items." You can create an entire sub-set of folders within Clippings and organize the articles you want to saved based on some criteria that you set. It's much MORE useful that way, especially for those that are using RSS feeds to follow several fields or interests.
Losing Clippings functionality in my opinion has been the biggest set back in the transition to Google Reader.
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| Posted 9/26/2009 3:59:26 AM |
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Between my work Mac, my home Mac and my iPhone starred items are almost instantaneous 99% of the times.
Clippings worked well in the Mac version (and is still there) but was as good as useless on the iPhone. There was a work around to subscribe to your own clippings but really was flakey. It was a heavily requested feature on here that never materialised.
I find starred items are great as a substitute for Mark Unread and Instapaper is excellent for sorting into folders and keep for any length of time - you can sort into sub folders, archive and keep indefinitely.
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| Posted 9/26/2009 4:02:09 AM |
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Rolldothome (9/26/2009)
Clippings worked well in the Mac version (and is still there) but was as good as useless on the iPhone. There was a work around to subscribe to your own clippings but really was flakey. It was a heavily requested feature on here that never materialised.
Before the switch to Google Reader I believe Clippings worked perfectly, at least for me. I would open a story on the phone, realize I wanted to read it calmly later and "Send it to Clippings." When I got on my desktop there it was waiting for me.
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| Posted 9/26/2009 4:04:14 AM |
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| Maybe it would be good to bring back 'Add to clippings' on iPhone to read later on Mac as an option. Accessing and reading clippings on the phone was always a waste of time though.
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| Posted 9/27/2009 8:23:47 AM |
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way to completely miss the point of the original poster.
forget about stars and stuff. The issue here is that maybe newsgator as a company mismanaged the process and poor brent simmons is left holding the bag...
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| Posted 9/27/2009 9:13:25 AM |
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joedornan (9/27/2009)
way to completely miss the point of the original poster.
forget about stars and stuff. The issue here is that maybe newsgator as a company mismanaged the process and poor brent simmons is left holding the bag...
That is exactly what I meant but the thread seemed to go a bit off topic.
Brent is a great developer and I have used his products on a daily basis for at least the last 3 years and for the most part have never had an issue, which is why I think there is stuff going on behind the scenes at Newsgator and surely Brent himself can't be happy to be releasing a product that at best still needs a bit of work.
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| Posted 9/27/2009 1:47:36 PM |
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I want to add another shout of support for Brent. He's a great developer (obviously) and provided fast support for problems/questions with NNW.
I too am convinced he was forced by Newsgator to release Google Reader compatible versions of NNW for Mac OS X/iPhone as soon as it worked 95% reliably. Probably because they no longer want to pay for maintaining the Newsgator online reader infrastructure ASAP.
I'm sure Brent will be polishing both NNW for OS X and for the iPhone ASAP. And yes, I agree, the iPhone app needs *a lot* of work. This explains a lot:
Brent hasn't been working on this for the entire year. He's been working on other things that ended up contributing to the stability and raw speed of the new app.
The interface isn't perfect, but the focus was on getting this out. Most of the complaints so far were raised in beta, so Brent is certainly aware of them. Soon (my guess is after NNW desktop is released and NG sync is gone for good) 2.1 will be in the works.
source
Take a brief break Brent, and then start making NNW kick ass again. I trust your capabilities 
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