Filed under: Software, Reviews, Beta Beat
Beta Beat: Gruml brings GReader to the Mac desktop
I discovered Gruml a while back, but didn't write about it right away because there were too many glitches in the first beta to make it really interesting. Thankfully, recent releases have smoothed out the vast majority of the kinks, and I can now present -- with gusto -- a great RSS reader that interfaces with Google Reader.
NetNewsWire switched to syncing with Google Reader back in July, and I was pretty excited. Google Reader has been an amazing tool for me in the RSS world, and the more apps I have that all sync with it, the happier I am. However, despite seemingly endless trials and searches, I haven't really found the app that can top a Fluid SSB with a good userstyle. Gruml comes the closest so far, and it's free (at least right now, I'm not sure what the future holds after beta).
One of the things I like about desktop clients (when it comes to RSS readers) is scriptability. Gruml currently lacks the AppleScript dictionary that, say, NetNewsReader has, and I'd love to see it implemented. The keyboard navigation is decent, but not yet up-to-par with Google Reader's web interface, which can be navigated entirely with the keyboard. It might not make a difference to a lot of folks, but when I'm cruising through headlines I like to be all-keyboard when possible. The "Send Article to ... " menu is fantastic, covering 12 services ranging from Delicious to Twitter, and including Facebook, Ping.fm and Posterous. Note-taking, starring and sharing are all very well done, and sync perfectly with Google.
There are definitely still some glitches ... marking all articles as "read" doesn't always provide any visual clues that it's been done. You have to switch to another feed and switch back to update the interface. Overall, though, this is a promising desktop companion to Google Reader, and one of the slickest free interfaces I've seen for handling Reader's feed data. It's definitely worth a download if you're in the market.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DavidONLINE said 3:32PM on 10-27-2009
Absolutely Brilliant! Thanks for mentioning, I love this app! Been looking for something like this for a while now...
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Thomas said 3:31PM on 10-27-2009
Personally I still love Newsfire, but being able to sync it with something like Google would be great
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JiveMasterT said 11:58AM on 11-15-2009
The new NetNewsWire only syncs with Google Reader and nothing else.
Thomas said 1:57PM on 11-15-2009
Yes, and I would love if NewsFire did as well since I prefer it as a newsreader
jay said 3:46PM on 10-27-2009
I use Eventbox. It's just like this app but adds Digg, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and many other social apps to the mix.
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Dan said 3:49PM on 10-27-2009
I never understood the purpose of these programs. I tried out NetNewswire for the Mac, for like a weekend, and went right back to Google Reader.... :\
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net said 3:52PM on 10-27-2009
I had downloaded a previous beta version of Gruml but was disappointed at the time. Thanks for the review of this new beta. It has improved quite a bit. I'll put NetNewsWire aside and test Gruml.
Regarding the issue you mentioned about marking articles read, I do not see the problem in my feeds. It could be because I have my feeds sorted in folders and read the articles in those folders. When I mark the folder as read, the count disappears without any need to refresh Gruml. However, if I read the articles in the "All items" or "All unread" section, then I do need to refresh Gruml in order to see the changes.
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Daniel said 4:15PM on 10-27-2009
If you use Firefox, 'feedly' (http://tinyurl.com/6998j3) is a great plugin RSS reader that ties into Google Reader. I like Gruml too, but having RSS in the same browser (instead of an additional application) works great for me. I hate having ads shoved in my face, but their Amazon recommendations (based off your RSS feeds) have been great, showing me books that I would have never seen before. It's a very elegant plugin.
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Joshua Ochs said 5:10PM on 10-27-2009
The screenshot looks like a clone of NetNewsWire - why should this be any better than that, since NNW now syncs to Google?
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alahmnat said 11:36AM on 10-28-2009
Speaking as someone who used to use NNW, I've moved to Gruml because I personally dislike Google Reader's web interface and frankly don't have much trust in NewsGator to not screw something up in the future, considering how incredibly shoddy their handling of this migration to Google Reader sync has been (as well as their poor handling of their web-based feed reader interface "updates" a year or so ago).
I've switched to Gruml and Byline from NNW and NNW for iPhone because I dislike the direction that NewsGator has chosen to go, and because I dislike the manner in which they handle their customers (and their developers, for that matter).
Steven said 11:13PM on 10-27-2009
Thanks for the heads-up on Gruml. I started using NetNewsWire as soon as it supported syncing with Google Reader, but it got less and less reliable to the point that it only synced about 10% of the time. I deleted it in frustration last week. DLing Gruml right now...
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Andrey said 2:56PM on 10-28-2009
Gave it a try once (with my test google account), liked it, but considering that I use Google mail, Google docs, Google Reader, Google Checkout, how comfortable should I be giving my google password to a 3rd party application? I cannot use Little Snitch to block the app's access to the Internet. That would defeat the purpose of the app.
Am I too paranoid?
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Brett Terpstra said 3:01PM on 10-28-2009
Not necessarily too paranoid, I suppose, but you need to consider that Little Snitch can limit communications to a single host (like Google), or even a port. You shouldn't be worried about an encrypted password going to Google's authentication mechanism, but you could block any "phoning home" by the application if you were worried about the password going anywhere else. Given that there would be hell to pay if *anyone* saw a suspicious packet headed back to the author, though, most devs won't mess around… at all.
Andrey said 3:57PM on 10-28-2009
Brett Terpstra said: "Little Snitch can limit communications to a single host (like Google), or even a port."
The problem is that in addition to get to google, the reader needs to download images from many many sites. RSS in text-only view is not pretty. I guess it is possible to block the home site of the application, but a developer (and I am absolutely not saying that this is an intention of good people at grumlapp.com) could set up another domain to send "interesting" packets to.
Brett Terpstra said 4:09PM on 10-28-2009
This is true, I kind of ignored the nature of a feed reader there for a minute. I guess it comes down to a matter of trust, and a personal decision whether to place that trust in any developer.