Bye-Bye NetNewsWire and Hello Byline

By
On October 14, 2008

Since iPhone 2.0 was first released I have been using NetNewsWire as my RSS reader of choice. It worked well and, after a round or two of updates, did the job of allowing access to my RSS feeds on the go for me. It synched well with NewsGator and the desktop version of NetNewsWire, allowed offline access to feed updates and let me add new posts to my clippings.

It had one MAJOR flaw however that still isn’t fixed– once a post was added to my clippings I could not access it from the app. Not being able to come back and actually read the text after I clipped it was a huge limitation for me. Even so, however, I stuck with NetNewsWire.

I tried Byline, an RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader, but found that it was not only expensive ($9.99 at the time) but also not as useful to me as NetNewsWire. After today’s update, however… it is

bye bye NetNewsWire and hello Byline.

Not only has Byline seen a price drop to just $3.99, but it is now one incredibly powerful RSS reader.

First and foremost, Byline gives me access to those articles that I have previously clipped while NetNewswire still hasn’t implemented this functionality. Moreover, Byline’s feature set is now huge. It allows…

two-way syncing with Google Reader, the ability to browse new items, starred items, notes and folders in separate lists, the ability to view up to 200 items from each list when offline, offline browsing of complete web pages linked to by notes, starred items, and (optionally) new items, landscape mode and the ability to share items and notes on them via email.

Today’s update makes Byline even more powerful. It…

— Offers a new interface and icon.

— Adds the ability to Sync with folders.

— Brings a built-in web browser to the app

— Allows note creation and deleting and emailing of link.

— Now archives starred items without refresh required.

And much more

When NetNewswire adds this functionality, I will probably go back to it since I  love the desktop version of the application. For now, however, I am going to be using Byline.

Get it HERE in the App Store.