Three Free RSS Readers for Mac Users

Shevonne — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:28:15 +0000

More and more, people are relying on RSS feeds for their way to get their news, videos, audio, etc. An RSS Reader is a must-have for anyone who is reading RSS feeds on a daily basis. It provides a way to organize RSS feeds in a way that makes it easier to manage. Before, I reviewed the top three web-based RSS Readers to use. Now, here are three free desktop-based RSS Readers for Mac users:

1. Shrook

Shrook is a powerful RSS readers that provides you with the capability of accessing and synchronizing your RSS feeds among all your Macs, iPhone, or PCs. This is done by registering an account with shrook.com.

When you first open up the Shrook application, you will see six listing under Source – Subscriptions, Feed Guide, Attachments, Flagged Items, New Items, and Scrapbook.

Subscriptions shows all your RSS feeds that you are currently subscribed to.
Feed Guide provides popular feeds that you might find interesting. It’s a great way to get started if you don’t have any feeds.
Attachments are items, such as podcasts, that are able to downloaded.
Flagged Items are items that you want to save to review later.
New Items are items that you haven’t read yet.
Scrapbook is similar to Flagged Items, except you would use it for items that you have read but want to save.

One of the unique things about Shrook, is that you are able to link it to your iTunes, which is great if you download a podcast. Another great feature is that it gives you the ability to blog about any item in your feed. Overall, Shrook is a very rich RSS feeder that has everything that you would need.

2. NewsFire

NewsFire is a very user-friendly RSS reader that allows even the last tech savvy person the ease of using it. Similar to Shrook, you are able to download podcasts from your RSS feeds into your iTunes.

One of the neat things about NewsFire is that you are able to find out the RSS feed URL of the current site your viewing without having to search for it. Another functionality is that it has a “Smart Feed” feature that allows you to group feeds with a query. It is very similar to the Smart Playlist in iTunes. It’s a great way to group feeds, even new ones that you subscribe to after you create the Smart Feed.

NewsFire is a straightforward RSS Reader that gives you the basic needs in managing your RSS feeds. If you want something simple, then this is the RSS Reader for you.

3. Vienna

Vienna combines the best of both worlds: ease of use and tons of functionality.

When you open up Vienna, it’s has three default folders: Marked Articles, Unread Articles, and Today’s Article. Like Spook the Marked Articles folder is for items that you want to review later. The great thing is the Today’s Articles folder. There are many times where you might just want to view the RSS feeds of that day. This allows you to do that. Your RSS feeds and groups are listed. Vienna also has the ability for you to create Smart folders, similar to NewsFire, that lets you create queries that will automatically group RSS feeds. Like Shrook, it also has blog integration.

Vienna is a great desktop-based RSS Reader that has so many features built into it.

Which RSS readers do you use for your Mac? Share it with us in the comments.

Three Free RSS Readers for Mac Users originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

Two Alternative PDF Readers For Mac

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:21:45 +0000

Despite the many competitions, we can safely say that the default electronic document format accepted by the mass is “portable document format” or more known by the abbreviation: PDF.

One of the reasons I was glad to switch from Windows to Mac is the support for PDF. Creating and viewing PDF files are second to nature for Mac users. You just print the document and choose “PDF -> Save as PDF” to create one, and Preview automatically handle the viewing of PDF documents.

So, in the world where PDF is natively supported, why would anybody need another PDF viewer(s)? The answer is because Preview can’t do everything, and we can use these alternatives to fill in the holes.

1. PDFView

This one is a lightweight Mac OS X application to display PDF files. Even though it’s no longer in development, users can still rely on this small app to do one trick or two to rival Preview.

First, it will open the document in the maximum size the screen allows and with the optimized zoom level – very convenient for small screen users. But of course the settings could easily be adjusted from the Preferences menu.

Second, it gives users option to go into the full screen or presentation mode (where the PDF document is the only thing visible on your screen).

Some other features are:
- integration with LaTeX.
- magnification tool: just drag around the document to use it.
- page rotation, single or two-page view, and automatic zoom level.
- supports fifteen languages including English (of course!), German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese.

2. Skim

The PDFView on Sourceforge suggest users to use Skim as an upgrade or improvement. This one is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. Skim is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF.

To list down all the features here will make this article a very long one and it’s already described in their home page. However, let me point out several things that I find useful:
- Adding different kind of notes to the document.
- Highlighting, underlining, and striking through selected text.
- Drawing circles, boxes, straight arrow lines and even freehand shape in the document.
- Splitting PDF document.
- Opening PDF document with wrong extension.

So if users only need to read the PDF documents, they should stick with the light and quick PDFView. If they need more bells and whistles, they might try Skim.

What about you? Have you tried to use other PDF readers or you just stick to Preview? Share your opinion below.

Two Alternative PDF Readers For Mac originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

Make Tech Easier» readers