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.

I have fervently wished for a desktop client to work with Google Reader for as long as Reader has been around. NewsGator finally answered my plea, announcing that NetNewsWire and the rest of the NewsGator RSS Reader Suite would be syncing solely with Google Reader after August 31, 2009. This signals an immediate move away from NewsGator Online, and the demise of the RSS feed syncing service.

NetNewsWire was a favorite of mine well before it became free software, and I'm excited to start using it again. While I've had a lot of fun tweaking my Fluid/Google Reader SSB, I miss the solid companionship of a desktop newsreader. I had originally given them up when I wanted to sync my feed-reading with my iPhone, as I wasn't thrilled with NetNewsWire on the iPhone at the time and Google Reader was the only choice left for syncing. Byline and Google's own mobile page were both top-notch, but up until today there were zero Google Reader clients (barring AIR apps ... I have my reasons) available on the Mac, so it was Fluid/Reader on the desktop. While I have the warmest of warm spots in my heart for Fluid, I'm ecstatic to have NetNewsWire back!

NetNewsWire is free, and a new beta with Google Reader sync is available for download. The updated NetNewsWire iPhone app is promised soon, but Byline will work for me right now. For current users of the NewsGator Online syncing service, detailed instructions for making the transition have been provided. You've got until August 31st to make the move and stay in sync. Lastly, if you haven't already picked a favorite stylesheet, don't miss Brockmann ... just another reason I've missed NNW!

Thanks Stephen, Barkin and everyone who sent this in!

On Tuesday, Phantom Fish released an update to Byline, its Google Reader-slash-offline browser app for iPhone and iPod touch.

Byline's developer, Milo Bird, has been hard at work since Byline 1.0 was released, making improvements to the app based on his users' feedback. Last week, Milo took some time out of his vacation to New York to sit down with us (virtually) and talk about Byline and the app development process.

Does Google make it easy to develop an app that interfaces with Google Reader?

Yes and no. The API for accessing Google Reader is straightforward and well-designed, so from a practical point of view it's quite pleasant to work with. However, it's not formally supported by Google, so there's no official documentation. The API has been around for years now and is in use by a large number of third-party apps, so there are several sources of unofficial documentation, but working out the nuances does involve fumbling around in the dark a bit.

Phantom Fish yesterday updated Byline to version 2.0, adding functionality to browse by tag, and a spiffy new wood-grain interface.

I briefly reviewed Byline 1.0 in July, but wanted to re-visit the application after the update. Byline 2.0 is a Google Reader client and offline browser for the iPhone and iPod touch. After having used beta versions for the last few weeks, I can say with certainty that this update takes Byline head and shoulders above the first version.

Byline 2.0 is faster than both version 1.0 and Google Reader's MobileSafari-optimized interface. Articles are now grouped in folders according to tags you've already set up in Google Reader. You can mark whole folders of items as read, and save items to your phone by starring them. The app doesn't show a splash screen at startup, but instead a "blank" version of the interface, which gives the illusion that the app is hanging for a short period of time. As soon as the list of folders appears, however, loading items was zippy on my iPod touch (connected via WiFi, of course).

Several readers have let us know that our feed isn't updating in Google Reader. Our team of crack web ninjas is looking into this and I have faith that a solution will be found shortly. Until that time I suggest Google Reader users visit TUAW.com and repeatedly hit Command-R.

Thanks to everyone who let us know.

John Gruber's Daring Fireball is probably my favorite Mac blog out there (save for the ol' TUAW, of course)-- it was one of the first I started reading, and he consistently provides not only great insight on Apple products and policies (and journalists' treatment of them), but a strong, often funny voice in the community. We're big fans here at TUAW, and that's why we were so happy to hear that even more people will have a chance to read Gruber's work. Because as of today, he's releasing his full RSS feed, free to anyone.

Previously, he had a plan where you paid a membership fee (included when you bought a T-shirt from him) and then got access to the full RSS feed. A feed was available for free, but it was partial content only. Now, he says, confusion about which feed is which, and RSS readers without HTML authentication (most notably Google Reader, and the .Mac reader for iPhone that David loves so much-- what's up with these popular readers not providing a feature that supports the content producers that supply them?) have convinced him to try out a free full feed for a month. Additionally, the free feed will be supported from week to week by sponsors.

If you haven't signed on to DF's feed yet, now's your chance. And if, like us, you find it interesting and informative, might as well put a couple bucks in the bucket and pay for it anyway-- Gruber's definitely earning it.

I'll admit it, I goofed. The screenshot for my post on using MisFox to set your Internet helper applications shows "Google Reader.app" in the pop-up of choices for the default RSS feed reader; this got several people quite excited. "Ooo! Can we set Google Reader as default? Can we can we huh?" they eagerly asked (I'm paraphrasing). Two teensy problems with my screenshot, though: first, the app listed as Google Reader is now known as Google Reader Notifier; second, MisFox won't actually allow you to set Reader Notifier as your RSS helper app. Argh!

Fortunately, the answer is simpler than I thought. Go ahead and download the excellent and free GRN; launch it and put in your Google credentials, and you'll immediately get the Growl notifications and pulldown menu goodness -- however, if you don't want them, go to the Reader Notifier preferences and check "minimal function mode."

Now, in your browser of choice (works for me in Safari 2, Safari 3 beta, and Firefox 2) go to Preferences, go to the RSS/Feeds section, pick the Reader Notifier application (in FF, you'll have to click "Choose Application" and select it)... and there's no step 4. From that point on, clicking the feed link in the browser's URL field will automatically open the feed in Google Reader rather than in your local feedreader.

For the record, of the helper-app preference panes I tested, MisFox and MoreInternet could not set Reader Notifier as the RSS default, but RCDefaultApp did it with no problem at all (not to mention it has plenty of other functionality). Enjoy, and my apologies to everyone who got hot under the collar from the original screenshot.

I'm a real fan of Google Reader. It's quick, easy and accessable from my browser, so I don't have to keep a second app open just to check my feeds. There is one thing it lacks, however, and that's a Mac-like appearance.

That's why I like this theme by Hicksdesign. It will work with Firefox, Camino, Safari, Opera and Omniweb and looks great. The "add a subscription" window even has a nice, smoky transparency.

Please note, as the author does, that Google could change the code of Reader at any time, causing you trouble if you're using this theme. With that in mind, try it out! It looks really good. While you're at it, why not give Bloglines a Mac Makeover, too?

Thanks, jopari!

I posted earlier this month of my love for the recently refreshed Google Reader, though for many users it's still missing one key feature: a notification utility for new headlines. Some newsreader apps and services have all sorts of widgets and menubar apps that can notify users of new content in their favorite feeds, and now the new Google Reader has one as well, the Google Reader Notifier (unofficial, not provided by Google). Based on GROSX (which worked on the previous version of Google Reader), this notifier can check your entire Google Reader account for new headlines, or you can give it a specific label to watch. While the Google Reader Notifier it doesn't provide popup notifications like Google's official notifiers, it can display an unread count. One downside to those who aren't quite as RSS obsessed as others is that it can only be set to check at intervals of 5, 10 or 30 minutes - there are no lengthier options like 1 hour, 3 hours, etc. Still, this is a nice utility that shakes hands well with a Google Labs service.

Google Reader Notifier is free and available from the developer's site.

It is the perennial debate amongst RSS newsreader users, do you use a desktop application or a web application? Our very own David Chartier has made the jump to Google Reader, but they aren't the only guys in town with a recent upgrade. Bloglines has overhauled their service, and it is much more usable now. Sadly, as Jon Hicks points out, the default look is very... Windows like. This will not do for us, fellow Mac users, so Jon created a pretty sweet new style and has made it publicly available.

[via Sample the Web]

I'm not typically one for the web 2.0 movement. I'm a huge fan of the power and flexibility of Mac OS X, and I usually find most web services no match for their desktop counterparts with maybe a few syncing services thrown in to even the odds (.Mac, Google Browser Sync, etc.). This all changed, however, when Google dropped a quintessential upgrade bomb on Google Reader, their web-based RSS reader a la BlogLines and NewsGator. If you're curious as to what the new gReader is all about, I wrote up a walkthrough for Download Squad, but in a nutshell: it's awesome. So awesome, in fact, that after spending a serious week with it for all my personal and blogging needs, I feel confident in cutting my ties (yes, again) to NetNewsWire. Just like Gina over at Lifehacker, the plethora of new and well-polished features in this updated to Google Reader are an absolute dream in the category of web-based readers, and a number of factors clicked to make this my go-to reader of choice.

Power
The most appealing, of course, is the sheer power of the new Google Reader; it truly feels like an application. It's fast, responsive, and behaves like a desktop app. It features a typical expanded view, where all articles are listed in their full form on the right, but I prefer the List View which I have pictured here, with its unique way of expanding only the article you select in-line with the rest of the headlines. Another wonderful new addition to gReader's tool belt are lots and lots of new keyboard shortcuts; it is now possible to navigate everything in Google Reader - the feed list on the left (even expanding folders), headlines, articles, everything - from the keyboard. I'm not saying NetNewsWire can't do this - I'm simply impressed at how well gReader, a web app, pulls it off.

Organization
I have over 300 feeds covering topics for personal, freelancing and blogging purposes (yes, you guys), and Google Reader offers some great ways of bookmarking, sharing and tagging both feeds and individual headlines. The first and easiest method of saving important headlines is, of course, the typical Google UI of the 'star' - marking a star next to a headline, just like starring messages in Gmail, is just like flagging headlines in any other reader. Google Reader goes farther, however. Much farther. Headlines can also be individually tagged, and those tags can have their own RSS feeds, allowing me to easily tag and organize articles for TUAW and for my personal blog. At the tail end of organization, gReader also features a 'Share' button (and keyboard shortcut) for headlines, which creates an actual public webpage with a list of shared (and styled) headlines, that can also be inserted easily into something like a blog sidebar. You can think of it as a quickie-linked list. While certainly not all RSS users need all these fine-toothed filing and sharing features, they're a blessing for my various lines of work, and it's great to have all this under the umbrella of a powerful web app.

Portability
I get around. I bus it to downtown Denver for classes, and I'm constantly running around town doing a lot of errands my wife can't because she works 20 hours a day as a high school English teacher. Being able to fill those few minutes of waiting at the grocery store or the dentist's office by accessing my Google Reader feeds online with my mobile phone is a very handy thing. This feature didn't seem to receive any major upgrades with the new gReader (c'mon, it's mobile web - how great can it be?), but not having to sync my feeds or OPML files between a few newsreaders is a very nice burden to have off my back.

No hard feelings
I'm not writing this post to bash NetNewsWire; while I have a few gripes with it, that app has served me well for years, and I'll still keep it around for emergency purposes, for sure. I also think Ranchero NewsGator still has one of the best darn readers on the market, even the free Lite version. On the flip side, Google Reader still isn't without its shortcomings; while it can handle tons of feeds and massive numbers of headlines with skill and grace, it still doesn't feature a search option (I know: a Google product lacking a search - what the?), and it can't handle authenticated feeds, which means I just have to give Mr. Gruber and The Deck a few more page hits a week (hey, it's a Labs product - not even beta. Give 'em some credit). Fortunately, those missing features weren't mortal for my needs, so I wanted to help get the word out on a great RSS reading product that might work as well for others as it does for me. If you haven't looked at Google Reader in a while, it's had a heckuva facelift and feature upgrade. Check out Google's announcement post of the update, or dive in and get your RSS on.