May 5, 2008
Times RSS reader makes headlines
Posted May. 5, ’08, 11:29 AM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Software
Dustin MacDonald, the developer behind Wallet, recently released Times, an RSS feed reader that behaves like no other application in its category. Instead of showing you your feeds in the form of emails, like we’re accustomed to, Times displays them in a time-honored format for news-reading: the newspaper.
Powered by Core Animation, the application is rife with beautiful animations and effects. The scrollbar, for example, seems to have been inspired by the one on the iPhone, appearing only when you scroll and then getting out of your way.
But it’s not the graphical goodness that would make you want to pay $30 CAD for it. What we’re looking for is functionality and, in that department, I think the application sorely disappoints.
Sure, I like the fact that I can read all the headlines at a glance and customize the layout according to my needs. But when I’m looking to plough through hundreds of unread stories each day, this is just not the ideal method. Scrolling down to the end of a newly read entry and hitting the spacebar again doesn’t even take you to the next unread item. That, in and of itself, makes the application pretty much useless for me.
However, if you’re more the newspaper type, i.e. you like to see all the new stories spread out before you and be able to pick and choose which ones to read, then it just might be the right fit for you. Grab a free time-limited trial copy from the Acrylic Software website and give it a run.
1 Comments
Leave a comment
Recent Entries
About MacUser
MacUser is your source for news, info, and opinion about Apple, the Mac, and the iPod. Our dedicated team of bloggers covers everything that is relevant to Mac users — and, okay, some stuff that’s not quite relevant, but is still a lot of fun. (Plus, we've got columns by Andy Ihnatko!)
Subscribe/RSS
- Blog Posts
- Blog Comments
- Podcast (RSS) (iTunes)
Tip us off!
- Email: macuser [at] macuser [dot] com
Recent Comments 
- Wondercow on Wait...Spotlight can do that?!
- Aayush Arya on Wait...Spotlight can do that?!
- Be on Wait...Spotlight can do that?!
- D Jones on Wait...Spotlight can do that?!
- David M on Wait...Spotlight can do that?!
- Bob on U-Charge: like U-Haul, but for batteries. Except not.
Categories
- Apple (173)
- Advertising (135)
- Events (198)
- Huh? (139)
- Humor (229)
- News (128)
- People (223)
- Rivals (334)
- Speculation (134)
- Steve Jobs (142)
- Stores (170)
- Apple TV (50)
- Business (374)
- Games (128)
- Geekery (409)
- Hardware (836)
- Accessories (53)
- Intel Macs (157)
- Ihnatko (18)
- Internet (379)
- Legal (194)
- MacUser (87)
- Money (153)
- Music (312)
- Podcasting (97)
- Photography (66)
- Security (205)
- Software (1368)
- Updates (457)
- Tips (324)
- Troubleshooting (172)
- Video (356)
- Windows (190)
- iPhone (174)
- iPod (560)
- iPod Accessories (87)
- iPod Software (56)
- iTunes (97)
- iTunes Store (376)
Archives
- May 2008 (109)
- April 2008 (234)
- March 2008 (217)
- February 2008 (215)
- January 2008 (239)
- December 2007 (169)
- November 2007 (164)
- October 2007 (187)
- September 2007 (167)
- August 2007 (195)
- July 2007 (152)
- June 2007 (223)
- May 2007 (243)
- April 2007 (286)
- March 2007 (288)
- February 2007 (250)
- January 2007 (266)
- December 2006 (244)
- November 2006 (293)
- October 2006 (307)
- September 2006 (250)
- August 2006 (268)
- July 2006 (288)
- June 2006 (293)
- May 2006 (297)
- April 2006 (351)
- March 2006 (366)
- February 2006 (110)
- January 2006 (107)
- December 2005 (23)
Mac Publishing Sites
Links
IDG NETWORK:
My quick trial indicates bugginess, specifically in trying to delete pages. The selection of feeds seems politically biased, e.g., nothing from Fox News. (You can add feeds from Safari Bookmarks.) I haven't figured out how to delete feeds from the main top storage area. They seem to be hard-wired into the program.
The effects are "cool," but stability is key if one is to click all over the place to make things happen. Not a keeper for me, but then RSS feeds are not a major part of my surfing experience.
I totally agree with your assessment. This might work if you aren't a heavy user of RSS but I have a lot of feeds and just playing around with a few feeds was frustrating.