TheNitai

I like to keep myself informed on different topics, as such RSS feeds are a great way to keep informed. They allow you to follow a site, without having to visit a specific website and scan for the latest articles. Moreover, it can keep you updated of software updates or news that would not enter your radar.

Over time, I have accumulated around 600 RSS feeds and the challenge to manage them all was a challenge in itself. Thought, today I have a very satisfying setup which I like to share.

The old workhorse

In the past I would go nowhere without NetNewswire. I’ve been a huge follower of NetNewswire for a long time. I can’t remember the companies name of the past, but it was one guy doing the whole work and the application was great. Then he sold it do Newsgator and they had this very great setup with their online RSS client which would sync the read statuses with the desktop client. Furthermore, they also had a iPhone client. All in all a winning team.

After some time, they gave up this setup and recommended all their customers to use Google Reader and use NetNewswire, both on the desktop and on the iPhone, to sync with Google Reader. Thought, I did not like Google Reader at first I have to say that i use Google Reader as my main “RSS server” nowadays.

Unfortunately, or let’s say fortunately, the move from the Newsgator platform to Google Reader has also brought new opportunities and ways in my RSS reading workflow, I would have never experienced with NetNewswire alone.

This brings me to my current setup.

The new workhorse

Today, I have replaced NetNewswire on my iPhone with Newsrack (it used to be called Newsstand). Newsrack is a full featured RSS reader, displays your news in a news stand like display (I don’t use it and simply like the “standard” view) and it is blazing fast in loading the feeds.

The big plus, apart from syncing with Google Reader is the ability to share the feeds by eMail, with my Google Reader followers, post it to Twitter, Delicious or Instapaper.

Sure, Newsrack itself is not a free app, unlike NetNewswire, but for my taste NetNewswire just did not scope it anymore for me. It did not sync properly anymore, the displaying of ads bothered me after some time, but apart from that, it was just painfully slow in syncing with Google Reader.

All in all, I’ve been buying Newsrack after around 2 hours playing with it and never regret it in any way.

I’ve looked into other RSS readers that have the option to sync with Google Reader, but could not find one that would work well for me. Especially the sharing feature and the way it works, just does it for me.

On to the Mac Desktop.

One might wonder why I would want to use a desktop RSS reader if Google has made Google Reader so easy to use in the browser and especially with Google Chrome the reader is just plain fast. Still, for me, desktop apps have benefits over their web counterparts. Some of the benefits are the possibility to read the feeds offline, be able to easily drag and drop them to an email client and post to a blog with MarsEdit.

So far, I have used NetNewswire also for Google Reader replacement, but here also, I experienced slow syncing and the ads really were annoying. Thus I set out on my quest for a replacement. Foremost, I did *not* want an AIR application (don’t get me started on AIR’s RAM usage). Luckily, it did not last long until I found the perfect Mac desktop Google Reader. Enter Gruml…

Gruml is a pretty young project (Version 0.9.17) and (surprise?) comes from a person in Germany. But what really got me hooked on Gruml is the usability that just makes it so much fun to use. Also, for just about every action you have shortcuts. Want to post a article to Twitter? Hit shift+T, Want to spread the news with ping.fm? Hit shift+G. Best of it, it opens a new tab with the build in browser.

But one of the really neat feature is the icon in the menu bar of MacOS X itself. First it lets you now how many unread items you got and when you click on the icon it gives you a preview of the feeds in its own window. Me thinks, that is really slick!

Moreover, I have found that Gruml is really in sync with Google Reader all the time. In my testing I saw that it syncs almost instantly with Google Reader and as such you have Google Reader, Newsrack on the iPhone and Gruml in sync almost by the beat.

Of course, one of the best selling points for Gruml is the price -  free by the means of Gratis, pay nothing, enjoy and follow the feeds

I, like a lot of other people, have accounts on a couple of social networks. Most prominent might be Twitter, where we might have more then one account, FaceBook or/and FriendFeed. The last time I looked I counted around 30+ social network sites. That is a lot of updating and keeping up with the news. After all, who wants to miss the latest and greatest

Thought there are a lot of social network sites around and the publicity around it have risen in the last couple of months, most prominently because Barack Obama has used Twitter and other sites to get the people vote for him (and he has done so very successfully). The one thing that is really (still) missing is the one client to fit it all!

The Quest for the client application starts

In the past I have used TweetDeck as my main Twitter client, because it simply features a couple of really useful functions, but again, it is only for one social network (Twitter) and can handle only one account (for now). So, my quest for a client which can connect to the social universe was still going on.

Then I found EventBox. EventBox has the mantra I was actually looking for, that is “Pack Your Social Networks in One Box”. Great, I thought and started trying it out. After all, it promises to bring together Twitter, FaceBook, a RSS-Reader (with synching to Google Reader) and Flickr support into one box.

Frankly said, after trying out EventBox for a week, I was disappointed, because it does not actually bring your social networks together, but is a client which tries to be everything. It might suite some people, but it did not work in my work flow. See, I am trying to find a client to connect to my social network to keep up with all the news that go on. For me it did not make sense to have a RSS-Reader build in (for that NetNewsWire does a much better job) or putting photos on Flickr. Second, the application costs you $20 (during beta $15). Personally, I would love to pay for a client, but then I would have to have a web, desktop and mobile interface that would sync with each other. That would make sense, and would be a perfect Business model.

Then the other day I have found Twhirl. Twhirl just like TweetDeck is based on Adobe AIR and has been around for quite some time. The main difference between TweetDeck and Twhirl is probably the possibility to connect to multiple Twitter, laconi.ca, Friendfeed and seesmic accounts. Which alone is a big plus, in that it covers 4 social networks that a lot of people use. Especially, Seesmic looks like a promising network and from what I see and hear, will be a big player in this field.

After using Twhirl for some time now, I have to say that I replaced TweetDeck with it. I am now able to keep up with 4 social networks in one client (thought from the architeture, I am sure that adding other networks will be easy to do). Also, the notification window does not only notify me of new Messages (like TweetDeck) but also shows me the messages itself. If you are using Entourage you know those notification windows in the lower right corner, Twhirl also has those. Thus you won’t have to switch to the client just to read what just came in. This is a huge time saver for me!

So, for now, Twhirl wins my sympathy as it helps me save time and lets me read and write messages to more then one network in one application. If the developers add some more networks to it, I believe it can become the social network client for people who want and need to read/write to more then one account.

What about Chat?

Instant Messaging is also another big part of my communication with friends, customers and team members. Be it on MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, AIM or FaceBook Chat I found that IM is one of the best communication channels to quickly discuss a topic with a fellow developer or get/give help.

As written before, AdiumX is a big lifesaver in this regard as it allows you to bring together all your IM accounts in one client. With the addition of linking in to the FaceBook Chat, AdiumX has a foot in the social network and I wonder if they will expand on it. I could imagine that the developers would add Twitter to the bundle or some other networks.

As it stands now, Twhirl and AdiumX are my constant companions to be connected to the social universe.