[warcraftWidow]

I just saw this in the Mac and iOS App Store and was wondering if anyone had used them. It's supposed to keep all your feeds in sync using your iCloud account and not Google Reader.

If it works well, it sounds like a great solution to me because it doesn't rely on a third party like some of the other Reader replacements do (Feedly, Newsbin, etc all have their own server infrastructure). In the case of NewsBar, even if the developer were to stop support the apps should keep functioning as long as Apple supports iCloud syncing.

So anyone?

[Just_Me_D]

I've never used it, Karen, but the reviews are positive.

[warcraftWidow]

I'm still thinking it overI really like Reeder but the replacement services being put in seem to be paid annual fee services. Which I don't have a problem paying if I knew those companies would be around long term. That's why I thought NewsBar's approach with iCloud syncing sounded interesting. It does give up the ability to check your news feeds in a browser though.

[Just_Me_D]

I'm still thinking it over…I really like Reeder but the replacement services being put in seem to be paid annual fee services. Which I don't have a problem paying if I knew those companies would be around long term. That's why I thought NewsBar's approach with iCloud syncing sounded interesting. It does give up the ability to check your news feeds in a browser though.

​I'm in full agreement with you, my friend.

[warcraftWidow]

So I went ahead and downloaded this. Not entirely sure yet, but it seems to be working well. It's missing a few things that I'm used to with Reeder. Not necessarily bad, just different. And it doesn't need to rely on any backend other than iCloud.

I did connect it up with my Google Reader account briefly to let it import all my feeds. Unlike all the other Reader-replacements, it imported all my STARRED items. Yeah!!! I really hated to lose all of those. It seems to update very quickly. After the import, I actually logged out of my Reader account. I also downloaded the iPhone app and when I read an item on my Mac it showed up as read on the phone very quickly.

I haven't played around with all the options yet, but it seems very customizable (you can change the background/text color for each feed). It lives as a variable-width strip that you can have floating or pinned to the left or right (including multi-monitor).

Possible Cons
1. Didn't import my folders from Google Reader. Not too big of a deal.
2. Only shows feeds within a folder in date order. No choice to show by feed (unless each feed was in its own folder). Not sure how I feel about this one.
3. No option to send to Instapaper, but you can send it to the Safari Reading List.
4. No Readability integration. This was nice with Reeder because you could often get the whole article (for those feeds that only publish snippets) without having to view in a browser. I think I'll miss this one.

I'm going to go cold-turkey with this rather than Reeder for a few days and see how it goes. But I think it will be a good replacement.

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Attachment 30921

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks for the update, Karen. I'm thinking about downloading it myself.

[warcraftWidow]

I sent an email to the developer about the Instapaper and Readability feature requests and got a reply within a few hours overnight that they were planning on including that in a future release.

[warcraftWidow]

Attachment 30979

Here's a screen shot with more articles showing.