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Times Reader coming to the Mac

by Scott McNulty May 13th 2008 at 7:00AM



I live in Philadelphia, but I'm a native New Yorker, and for my money there is no better newspaper on the planet than the New York Times. The Times has really embraced the new realities that the digital age has foisted upon the newspaper business by trying a number of new things (running a great website included).

Sadly, it seemed that the Gray Lady was ignoring Mac users when it first released the Times Reader. The Times Reader, for those who don't know, is a dedicated application which displays the last seven days of the New York Times. It has many of the benefits that one gets from reading nytimes.com (changeable fonts, searchable content, ease of printing) with the added benefit of not requiring an internet connection. The Times Reader syncs content on your computer, and lets you take it anywhere.

Luckily for me (and I am betting there are some other New York Times fans out there) the Times will be launching the Times Reader Beta for Mac at some point this month. The Times Reader for the Mac is a native Cocoa application powered by Webkit and Silverlight (yes, you'll have to install Microsoft's Silverlight to use this app). This is not the same as the RSS reader called Times which Mat posted about last week.

This is a beta, and so there are some features that the PC version has that aren't in the Mac version:
  • Resizeable windows: yep, the Times Reader on the Mac only has 4 preset window sizes at the moment.
  • Copy and paste of text: this is a pretty big feature that I hope they sort out sooner rather than later.
It isn't all bad though, the Mac version supports search across all seven days of content while the PC version only searches the current day's edition.

During the beta the Times Reader for Mac will be free to use, but once the beta is over it'll revert back to being free only for New York Times subscribers (though you can subscribe just to the Reader service for $14.95 a month). Check out the blog post for more images of the app.

As soon as I get a chance to look at the Times Reader for Mac beta I'll post an in depth review.

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I live in Philadelphia, but I'm a native New Yorker, and for my money there is no better newspaper on the planet than the New York Times....
 

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gil

Add me to the no Silverlight crowd out of spite. Or is it not digging the entire 'I crash your browser' daily flash plugin that Silverlight might remind me of.

As far as the 'Times' comment, I find it a bit New York Snobbish to. A fine newspaper but when I read that I think of my local fish wrap the LA Times, or even the London Times. BTW, the Guardian is fine rag.

May 13 2008 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Christopher Vigliotti

silverlight = no thank you.

May 13 2008 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

The video on their mobile site is also iPhone compatible, unlike that flash stuff on the main page. I don't remember seeing this mentioned, but I haven't looked very hard.

May 13 2008 at 10:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

It's hard not to comment on that "best newspaper on the planet" remark. The NY Times was pretty darn good - once upon a time. I cancelled my subscription about ten years ago (having been a subscriber about the same amount of time). Renewed after a year, then quit again a year later. Periodically I check in with newsstand copies and am still disgusted by the paper's lack of objectivity and lazy ass reporting.

The paper has gone from being all the news that fit to print to being editorialization from cover to cover. If you want to read nothing but the far left world view and opinion, then by all means subscribe. But if you want a balanced world view then read from, watch and listen to a multitude of sources - then do your own independent research where necessary.

That said, the NY Times is good for wrapping fish and cleaning windows.

May 13 2008 at 10:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
akatsuki

Let's evaluate the threefold path of FAIL:

1. short-sighted business model that assumes that internet access will not be ubiquitous within a couple of years and is for a lot of people already - FAIL

2. crappy single-purpose mac app that can't even do basic things - FAIL

3. requires Silverlight for whatever reason instead of actually using built-in native libraries for a native feel - FAIL

May 13 2008 at 10:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay Contonio

Add my vote to the "No silverlight" column.

May 13 2008 at 8:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles R Hamilton

NYT+Silverlight=double fail.

May 13 2008 at 8:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles R Hamilton

NYT+Silverlight=double fail.

May 13 2008 at 8:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
smarty

What's wrong with these people?
What's wrong with Silverlight..

Hmm....

May 13 2008 at 8:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tom Waterhouse

"native Cocoa application powered by Webkit and Silverlight"

Putting Cocoa in there doesn't take away the fact it's Silverlight!

That aside, it is nice to see applications like these being ported to the Mac.

Again, that is pretending that Silverlight wasn't used and this was a full Cocoa app.

May 13 2008 at 8:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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