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Beta Beat: Gruml brings GReader to the Mac desktop

by Brett Terpstra Oct 27th 2009 at 3:00PM

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.


The overall aesthetic of Gruml has come a long way from the earliest incarnations, although I still find some of its icons to be less than intuitive. There are multiple styles available for the window chrome, though, and you can switch between a 2-column (preview below headlines) or 3-column (widescreen) view. Adding feed subscriptions is very well-handled; it's a good app to set as a default RSS reader to avoid too many clicks when adding a new feed. Gruml also provides a menu item on your top menubar which shows unread feeds, and clicking it reveals a small HUD showing the most recently updated articles.

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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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...
 

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CR

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?

October 28 2009 at 2:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to CR's comment
Steven

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...

October 27 2009 at 11:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joshua Ochs

The screenshot looks like a clone of NetNewsWire - why should this be any better than that, since NNW now syncs to Google?

October 27 2009 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Joshua Ochs's comment
Alahmnat

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).

October 28 2009 at 11:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel

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.

October 27 2009 at 4:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
net

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.

October 27 2009 at 3:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan

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.... :

October 27 2009 at 3:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

I use Eventbox. It's just like this app but adds Digg, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and many other social apps to the mix.

October 27 2009 at 3:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Thomas

Personally I still love Newsfire, but being able to sync it with something like Google would be great

October 27 2009 at 3:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Thomas's comment
JiveMasterT

The new NetNewsWire only syncs with Google Reader and nothing else.

October 27 2009 at 4:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Thomas

Yes, and I would love if NewsFire did as well since I prefer it as a newsreader

November 15 2009 at 1:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DavidONLINE

Absolutely Brilliant! Thanks for mentioning, I love this app! Been looking for something like this for a while now...

October 27 2009 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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