We were hoping that 5.1.2 was the last of the 5.x series, but we found a couple crashing bugs to fix — and we can’t resist a good crashing bug. Or two.
Changes since 5.1.2:
Fixed a crashing bug that could happen with empty titles in the timeline
Fixed a crashing bug that could happen when adding a feed
Fixed a background color bug in dark mode in the timeline
Fixed a crashing bug updating the browser popup in Preferences
Feedbin: fixed bug where credentials couldn’t be updated
Feedly: fixed bug syncing feed name changes
Feedly: fixed a bug adding a feed to a Feedly collection that has a + in its name
On My Mac: increased performance downloading feeds in the On My Mac account
Note: we expect this to be the final 5.x build. Next up will be test builds for NetNewsWire 6. (Yes, we will do another 5.x build if needed, if some critical bug comes up, but we aren’t planning for it.)
Important note! If you were using a previous 5.1 test build, you may have to set up your accounts again.
Or you can migrate — see the end of this post.
Either way, we apologize — this is totally inconvenient, and we didn’t want for this to happen.
This is because we turned off sandboxing in this build, and sandboxing (and turning it off) changes the location of your data.
(We turned off sandboxing due to crashes we couldn’t investigate and fix in time. We’ve postponed that feature to a later version.)
To get the latest: check for updates — if your preferences are set for test builds — or download the latest.
Changes since 5.1b1:
The Clean Up command now works in the All Unread smart feed
Sandboxing has been reverted to off
How to Migrate Your Old Data
If you were using a 5.1 test build, you can find your old data at ~/Library/Containers/com.ranchero.NetNewsWire-Evergreen/Data/Library/Application Support/NetNewsWire/Accounts/
If you take that Accounts folder, and copy it into ~/Library/Application Support/NetNewsWire (replacing the Accounts folder in that location), then you’ll have your data from 5.1 test builds.
It’s in beta now. But it’s still pre-release software, and if you’re wise you’ll never run anybody’s betas. Not ours, not Apple’s, not anybody’s. Running beta software is free labor for other people — and it’s not always that fun, since bugs can be pretty darn frustrating.
If you still want it…
Check for updates — if your preferences are set for test builds — or download the latest.
Changes since 5.1a2:
Articles with non-ASCII URLs can now open in browser
Adding feeds with non-ASCII URLs now works
Feeds view, timeline: fixed bug where multiple selection could result in showing only unread articles
Help menu: NetNewsWire Help now links to the 5.1 help book
Inspector: window title now matches name of thing being inspected
VoiceOver: fix bug navigating into the Add Account table
Fixed crash that could happen when adding an account
Preferences: Removed non-working (due to sandboxing) feature for setting the default RSS reader
It’s not beta yet! If you’re concerned about running pre-release software — and you really, really should be (we are!) — then you might not want to run this. 🐣
If you still want it…
Check for updates — if your preferences are set for test builds — or download the latest.
Changes since 5.1d3:
Feeds view: fixed bug where unread counts might be misplaced at startup
Timeline: fixed extra row of pixels in swipe actions
Article view: tweaked some colors
Toolbar: reader view button is now not blurry on non-retina machines
Toolbar: review view animation looping fixed
Inspector: fixed some layout/spacing issues
Preferences: tweaked text relating to holding down the shift key
Dock unread count: now asks for permission so it can show it
NetNewsWire 5.1d3 has all kinds of good stuff in it — but it’s not a beta. It’s not even an alpha. It’s a “d” build — which means development but could just as easily mean don’t or dangerous or demons live in this here code.
If you still want it…
Check for updates — if your preferences are set for test builds — or download the latest.
Changes since 5.0.4:
Feedly syncing
Reader view
Notifications (configure per feed in the Info window)
Sandboxing
Multiple windows - File > New Window
View > Hide Read Feeds
View > Hide Read Articles (also a filter button above timeline for this)
Clean Up command (to immediately hide read articles when hide-read-articles is on)
Feeds view: remember expansion state between runs
Timeline: more compact rows (source and date on same line)
Timeline: sort menu on top
Timeline: swipe actions
Article view: shift-space scrolls backwards
AppleScript: article now has a feed property
Hold down shift to temporarily toggle open-in-browser in background preference
We just released NetNewsWire 5.0.4 for Mac — it’s a bug-fix release with a nice performance enhancement when fetching articles.
But the question on your mind probably isn’t “When are you going to make NetNewsWire even faster?” — it’s probably “When is Feedly sync coming?” or “When is iCloud sync coming?”
Here are our current plans:
NetNewsWire 5.1 for Mac
This release will include Feedly syncing. It will have feature parity with NetNewsWire for iOS, including a reader view and a few other features that haven’t made it to the Mac version yet.
We can’t give you an ETA, but we can say that it’s next. We’re working on this release. Once test versions are available, we’ll post a note on this blog.
(This release will require Catalina. It will run on Big Sur, but won’t be updated for Big Sur.)
NetNewsWire 6.0
This Mac and iOS release will include iCloud syncing, user interface updates for Big Sur, and a bunch of other new features (including, hopefully, support for other additional syncing systems).
(Our current plans have us supporting Catalina and Big Sur in this release, but we’re not 100% sure about Catalina support yet.)
NetNewsWire 6.1
More… things?
Don’t know. Good stuff!
(There’s a good chance there will also be 6.2, 6.3, etc.)
NetNewsWire 7.0
This will be the SwiftUI release, where the user interface code will be shared across Mac and iOS versions of NetNewsWire. We’re hoping to be able to do this after the SwiftUI updates coming in WWDC 2021.
We could almost do this now, but there would be too many regressions. We’ve done a ton of work on this, but we’ll just hold on to it for a year.
This isn’t meant to criticize SwiftUI or to say that it’s not useful yet. It’s awesome, and many apps could be written using SwiftUI right now. But NetNewsWire has some special considerations. We’ll write more about what we’re missing in a future blog post. Our view — that SwiftUI and Combine are the future of Mac and iOS development — is unchanged.
(This release will require the Mac and iOS OSes presumably coming in 2021.)
Feeds view: Fixed a bug where marking a feed as read then quickly tapping on another feed could navigate to the wrong feed.
Feeds view: fixed bug where feeds that should be hidden by filter weren’t getting hidden fast enough
Timeline: VoiceOver reads “unread” before each unread item
Timeline: Mark All as Read confirmation is now an action sheet rather than an alert
Timeline: fixed bug using trackpad two-finger swipe to toggle read status (in some contexts)
Timeline: canceling a search didn’t repopulate the timeline as it should have. Now it does.
Article view: deal with recent Twitter change where Twitter embeds could be cut off
Article view: mailto links now open the Mail compose sheet
Article view: fixed bug where saved scroll position in article could be applied when it shouldn’t be
Article view: space bar advancement in the article view works more like it does in Safari
Sharing: now sends title along with the URL when sharing to Buffer
Feedly: retrieve new token from Feedly after expiration
Feedly: fixed a bug where sometimes removing a feed with Feedly doesn’t work. (We think we’ve fixed it, but we couldn’t reproduce it, so we’re not positive.)
Keyboard: Cmd-, brings up settings
Keyboard: Shift-cmd-R now shows the Reader view
Keyboard: Shift-cmd-S now hides the sidebar
Keyboard: Cmd-I now brings up the Info pane
Keyboard: shortcut for Mark All as Read now works when feeds list has focus
Keyboard: return key opens current article in in-app browser (SFSafariViewController)
Notifications: now grouped by feed
Notifications: now waits to ask for Notifications permission until user toggles a feed to notify about new articles
Feeds view: Fixed a bug where marking a feed as read then quickly tapping on another feed could navigate to the wrong feed.
Feeds view: fixed bug where feeds that should be hidden by filter weren’t getting hidden fast enough
Timeline: VoiceOver reads “unread” before each unread item
Timeline: Mark All as Read confirmation is now an action sheet rather than an alert
Timeline: fixed bug using trackpad two-finger swipe to toggle read status (in some contexts)
Timeline: canceling a search didn’t repopulate the timeline as it should have. Now it does.
Article view: mailto links now open the Mail compose sheet
Article view: fixed bug where saved scroll position in article could be applied when it shouldn’t be
Article view: Space bar advancement in the article view works more like it does in Safari
Sharing: now sends title along with the URL when sharing to Buffer
Feedly: retrieve new token from Feedly after expiration
Feedly: fixed a bug where sometimes removing a feed with Feedly doesn’t work. (We think we’ve fixed it, but we couldn’t reproduce it, so we’re not positive.)
Keyboard: Cmd-, brings up settings
Keyboard: Shift-cmd-R now shows the Reader view
Keyboard: Shift-cmd-S now hides the sidebar
Keyboard: Cmd-I now brings up the Info pane
Keyboard: shortcut for Mark All as Read now works when feeds list has focus
Keyboard: return key opens current article in in-app browser (SFSafariViewController)
Notifications: now grouped by feed
Notifications: now waits to ask for Notifications permission until user toggles a feed to notify about new articles
And, importantly, you don’t need a paid developer account. (You do still need a free developer account, yes.)
If you’re just curious about the app, or want to see if there’s something you can learn from it, that’s totally cool. If you think you might want to use some of the code in your own app, that’s totally cool too.
But if you think you might want to contribute, that’s awesome! We welcome everybody. If you’re a long-time app developer, that’s great — but we’d also love to have contributors who are brand-new to app development. (Even people who are new to coding!)
If you think you might be interested, read our page on contributing, which includes our code of conduct, then join the Slack group and get on the #work channel and say hello. Easy as that. 🐥
The launch of NetNewsWire for iOS has been going great! App Store Connect reports that it’s a 4.9-star app with 385 ratings worldwide, and it’s been downloaded 18,567 times. Our guess is it will have more downloads than NetNewsWire 5.0.3 for Mac within a few days.
There have been some reviews and articles in the press; we’ve been getting lots of feedback on Twitter, Slack, via email, and in our bug tracker. Almost all of that feedback is people asking for features — which is exactly what we hoped for. It means they like the app, but wish it did this thing for them.
That’s a great spot to be in. The alternatives are no feedback or lots of bug reports. We like feature requests. 🍕
Of all the reviews and press, one of our favorites is a review on AppleVis, which says that “The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use” and…
I was truly amazed how accessible this app was right out of the box on its opening day. You can really tell that accessibility was put into this.
We don’t talk about this often enough, but it’s important. Accessibility is one of those things that many people can overlook — except for the people for whom it’s the entire difference between a usable app and not.
In our App Store description, we write, above, the fold:
NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. It’s fast, stable, and accessible.
In other words: when we all talk about app quality, we should talk about stability and performance and accessibility. It’s just as important.
It’s free and open source, and it includes support for Feedbin and Feedly syncing.
Just as the Mac version looks like a Mac app, this is very much an iOS app. It supports Dark Mode, context menus, multiple windows, Siri Shortcuts, and other iOS features.
Other features include searching, starred items, Today and All Unread smart feeds, Reader view, multiple accounts, hiding read articles and feeds, background refreshing, and more.
The app is designed to be stable and fast. (But note that an initial sync might take a while because there’s a lot of data to download.)
A few tips:
The iPad version has extensive support for keyboard shortcuts: it’s very much like the Mac app
When reading an article, you can swipe left to go the next article
To go to the next unread article, tap the button in the middle of the bottom toolbar
Though this is a 5.0 release, it really is a brand-new app, and this is just the beginning. Our amazing team is already hard at work on 5.0.1 and on updates to the Mac app.
