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Apple News was already flakey and unreliable in the sources (websites) it would allow to be added. With its highly limited geographical availability (years afte

Apple News was already flakey and unreliable in the sources (websites) it would allow to be added. With its highly limited geographical availability (years after launching) and its problematic focus on News+, I switched back to a plain RSS Reader to follow specific sites. Apple News seems like a niche product with hardly any technical effort put into it. In comparison, Google News, with its ads, generally looks like a more comprehensive choice for news. Not to mention it’s also “free” (of course, it never allowed, AFAIK, adding RSS feeds from any site).

Shivetya 7y ago
doesn't matter if it is half done or not as feature complete as other sites, it just is the default on an iPad so people like my parents end up using it because Apple makes sure to highlight it being added. so for those who did not consider looking for a source of news and one just appears it pretty much is a lock. the local newspaper (AJC) has their own app but its not great and worse when sending links they don't format to the device opening it; comics are the worst as half the frames are missing
iscrewyou 7y ago
Which RSS reader do you use?
- newscracker 7y ago
  I use Reeder 3 on iOS and NetNewsWire on Mac. NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. An iOS version (also free) is coming in the first quarter of 2020.
- mhb 7y ago
  Not the OP, but https://bazqux.com/ https://bazqux.com/ is very nice.
  - asymmetric 7y ago
    Is there a self-hosted RSS reader that does feed de-summarization, like BazQux seems to do?
    - MekaiGS 7y ago
      The only one I know is: https://fivefilters.org/content-only/ https://fivefilters.org/content-only/ It works for all the major sites but it is paid but with self-hosting option.
    - Semaphor 7y ago
      I think Newsblur [0] can do it but self hosting it is pretty involved. [0]: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur
- pmoriarty 7y ago
  I use a terminal RSS reader called newsboat[1][2], which is an actively developed fork of newsbeuter. It's pretty feature rich, fast, keyboard-oriented (supporting vi movement keys), and works great in the terminal. Another great thing about it is that it runs completely on my own machine, so I don't have to give away information about my reading preferences to any third party, as would be the case for any hosted RSS service. I love RSS because it gives me lean, fast, ad-free, bloat-free information. I hope it never dies. [1] - https://newsboat.org/ https://newsboat.org/ [2] - https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat
  - kgwxd 7y ago
    I love newsbeuter, it's how I get all latest news about the death of RSS :)
    - fredthomsen 7y ago
      Feels like there has been a bit of a resurgence lately, not that I have any hard data to back that up. The major players ie google and now apple have dumped it, but most blogs and news sites still have rss feeds.
      - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
        RSS has always been the best way to follow multiple webcomics. I'm not sure why it seems so little-known in that world.
        MereInterest 7y ago
        Definitely. If a comic doesn't have an RSS feed, I won't keep up with it. It isn't worth keeping track of the different update schedules and platforms.
      - _jal 7y ago
        It has always been a "people's choice" sort of thing, a least for a certain slice of "people". Large media outfits tend to hate RSS because it puts curation in the hands of users, and that curation function is what a lot of people will pay a lot of money to influence. Smaller media outfits like it, because they can find readers without paying money to influence the large gatekeepers. As blogging has "matured", the big shops are feeling more confident that they can lock folks back in to their curation.
- mey 7y ago
  Newsblur
- pooroldlistr 7y ago
  I have a script run rsstail via cron to catch updates and email it to Gmail for reading/review Email is HTML formatted how I want, and Gmail will probably not be deprecated any time soon. https://github.com/flok99/rsstail https://github.com/flok99/rsstail
- jjordan 7y ago
  Not the OP, but I've never found anything faster than the Livemarks plugin for quickly scanning headlines from all of your favorite sites with a quick mouseover in your browser's bookmark toolbar. Livemarks (or the Chrome/Vivaldi equivalent 'Foxish live RSS') was released after Firefox killed off their Live Bookmarks feature a year or so ago. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/livemarks/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/livemarks/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/foxish-live-rss/jpgagcapnkccceppgljfpoadahaopjdb https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/foxish-live-rss/jp...
- TuringNYC 7y ago
  I use Feedly. I subscribe (paid) to Apple News +. I wish I could read thru Feedly.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  I recommend News Explorer. It has seamless sync between the Mac and iOS version via iCloud.
- eisa01 7y ago
  Inoreader is my choice. If you pay for it, you can also feed email newsletters/press releases into it, and follow Twitter/Facebook pages
  - sys_64738 7y ago
    Been using inoreader since Google Reader died. Great service which I found this page from :)
- IceWreck 7y ago
  Fresh RSS is my favorite. It is self hosted and has apps for mobile.
- amaccuish 7y ago
  https://github.com/wking/rss2email https://github.com/wking/rss2email Just sends the latest articles to an IMAP folder. I can use any device that syncs to my email (currently using the built in ActiveSync client on Android), and can access it from webmail, and via Thunderbird on Linux.
- CountHackulus 7y ago
  Just going to pimp https://theoldreader.com/ https://theoldreader.com/ which mimics the old Google Reader UI down to the shortcuts. I don't think I could live without it and gladly pay my yearly membership for the premium version even if I don't actually need it.
- manigandham 7y ago
  https://feedly.com/ https://feedly.com/ is the best web-based reader today. Mobile app also works great.
- netghost 7y ago
  Since this seems to be the thread where everyone mentions the RSS feed reader they use/write, I'll share Brook. It's a very minimal feed reader that gives you what you need and gets out of the way. You can use it in Firefox right now, and if anyone is interested, I'll port it to Chrome. Honestly I wrote it because my old favorite feed reader Sage wasn't supported after Firefox switched to the web extensions standards. Give it a peek if you either want to see how it works, or you just want a simple way to browse your favorite sites in your browser. Source: https://github.com/adamsanderson/brook https://github.com/adamsanderson/brook Plugin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/brook-feed-reader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/brook-feed-re... (Okay, now let's get back to the regularly scheduled outrage around the decline of RSS and maybe mention how Google doesn't support its products anymore ;) )
gundmc 7y ago
I was under the impression that Google News didn't have ads. At least I can't recall ever seeing ads on the news.google.com site (the Google Feed on Android is another story, that thing is riddled with ads now).
- rosybox 7y ago
  There are no ads on Google News and I think it would be hard for Google to monetize other news organizations' content in their own news app without being sued for it.
codyb 7y ago
It hasn’t been around too long. In a few years it’ll probably be pretty competent at what it does. I don’t use it but that was certainly the trend with Apple Maps which was pretty crummy when it first came out.
- sbarre 7y ago
  Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. I don't have high hopes for News, given how much it keeps pushing features that are either user-unfriendly (giant ads in the middle of articles) or designed solely to push you to News+ I used to be a regular (many times a day) user and their changes have led me to stop using it entirely.
  - Spooky23 7y ago
    Try it again. Apple Maps is pretty good. The love/hate thing is that it picks a more normal route vs optimized. I personally like it because I don’t find that a Google Maps optimizations help in urban settings.
  - briandear 7y ago
    > Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. Depends where you are, the Apple version of street view is far superior to Google’s.
    - Eric_WVGG 7y ago
      No bicycle navigation; a “walking route” will send you the wrong way up one-way streets, “auto route” onto unsafe highways. I wouldn’t care except their API for directions to AirPods or Apple Watch isn’t public. This is grounds for an antitrust suit imho...
    - sbarre 7y ago
      Anywhere other than a few major cities?
  - catalogia 7y ago
    > Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. Both fall well short of OSM for topics other than finding local businesses. OSM gives me incredible detail, even telling me where water fountains and benches are in the local park. Meanwhile Google Maps doesn't even recognize the restricted access road running through the park, let alone any of the walking trails, let alone any water fountains, benches, etc. If you can't drive a car on it or through it or to it, Google thinks it may as well not exist.

Shivetya 7y ago

doesn't matter if it is half done or not as feature complete as other sites, it just is the default on an iPad so people like my parents end up using it because Apple makes sure to highlight it being added. so for those who did not consider looking for a source of news and one just appears it pretty much is a lock. the local newspaper (AJC) has their own app but its not great and worse when sending links they don't format to the device opening it; comics are the worst as half the frames are missing

iscrewyou 7y ago

Which RSS reader do you use?

newscracker 7y ago
I use Reeder 3 on iOS and NetNewsWire on Mac. NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. An iOS version (also free) is coming in the first quarter of 2020.
mhb 7y ago
Not the OP, but https://bazqux.com/ https://bazqux.com/ is very nice.
- asymmetric 7y ago
  Is there a self-hosted RSS reader that does feed de-summarization, like BazQux seems to do?
  - MekaiGS 7y ago
    The only one I know is: https://fivefilters.org/content-only/ https://fivefilters.org/content-only/ It works for all the major sites but it is paid but with self-hosting option.
  - Semaphor 7y ago
    I think Newsblur [0] can do it but self hosting it is pretty involved. [0]: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur
pmoriarty 7y ago
I use a terminal RSS reader called newsboat[1][2], which is an actively developed fork of newsbeuter. It's pretty feature rich, fast, keyboard-oriented (supporting vi movement keys), and works great in the terminal. Another great thing about it is that it runs completely on my own machine, so I don't have to give away information about my reading preferences to any third party, as would be the case for any hosted RSS service. I love RSS because it gives me lean, fast, ad-free, bloat-free information. I hope it never dies. [1] - https://newsboat.org/ https://newsboat.org/ [2] - https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat
- kgwxd 7y ago
  I love newsbeuter, it's how I get all latest news about the death of RSS :)
  - fredthomsen 7y ago
    Feels like there has been a bit of a resurgence lately, not that I have any hard data to back that up. The major players ie google and now apple have dumped it, but most blogs and news sites still have rss feeds.
    - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
      RSS has always been the best way to follow multiple webcomics. I'm not sure why it seems so little-known in that world.
      - MereInterest 7y ago
        Definitely. If a comic doesn't have an RSS feed, I won't keep up with it. It isn't worth keeping track of the different update schedules and platforms.
    - _jal 7y ago
      It has always been a "people's choice" sort of thing, a least for a certain slice of "people". Large media outfits tend to hate RSS because it puts curation in the hands of users, and that curation function is what a lot of people will pay a lot of money to influence. Smaller media outfits like it, because they can find readers without paying money to influence the large gatekeepers. As blogging has "matured", the big shops are feeling more confident that they can lock folks back in to their curation.
mey 7y ago
Newsblur
pooroldlistr 7y ago
I have a script run rsstail via cron to catch updates and email it to Gmail for reading/review Email is HTML formatted how I want, and Gmail will probably not be deprecated any time soon. https://github.com/flok99/rsstail https://github.com/flok99/rsstail
jjordan 7y ago
Not the OP, but I've never found anything faster than the Livemarks plugin for quickly scanning headlines from all of your favorite sites with a quick mouseover in your browser's bookmark toolbar. Livemarks (or the Chrome/Vivaldi equivalent 'Foxish live RSS') was released after Firefox killed off their Live Bookmarks feature a year or so ago. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/livemarks/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/livemarks/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/foxish-live-rss/jpgagcapnkccceppgljfpoadahaopjdb https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/foxish-live-rss/jp...
TuringNYC 7y ago
I use Feedly. I subscribe (paid) to Apple News +. I wish I could read thru Feedly.
Nextgrid 7y ago
I recommend News Explorer. It has seamless sync between the Mac and iOS version via iCloud.
eisa01 7y ago
Inoreader is my choice. If you pay for it, you can also feed email newsletters/press releases into it, and follow Twitter/Facebook pages
- sys_64738 7y ago
  Been using inoreader since Google Reader died. Great service which I found this page from :)
IceWreck 7y ago
Fresh RSS is my favorite. It is self hosted and has apps for mobile.
amaccuish 7y ago
https://github.com/wking/rss2email https://github.com/wking/rss2email Just sends the latest articles to an IMAP folder. I can use any device that syncs to my email (currently using the built in ActiveSync client on Android), and can access it from webmail, and via Thunderbird on Linux.
CountHackulus 7y ago
Just going to pimp https://theoldreader.com/ https://theoldreader.com/ which mimics the old Google Reader UI down to the shortcuts. I don't think I could live without it and gladly pay my yearly membership for the premium version even if I don't actually need it.
manigandham 7y ago
https://feedly.com/ https://feedly.com/ is the best web-based reader today. Mobile app also works great.
netghost 7y ago
Since this seems to be the thread where everyone mentions the RSS feed reader they use/write, I'll share Brook. It's a very minimal feed reader that gives you what you need and gets out of the way. You can use it in Firefox right now, and if anyone is interested, I'll port it to Chrome. Honestly I wrote it because my old favorite feed reader Sage wasn't supported after Firefox switched to the web extensions standards. Give it a peek if you either want to see how it works, or you just want a simple way to browse your favorite sites in your browser. Source: https://github.com/adamsanderson/brook https://github.com/adamsanderson/brook Plugin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/brook-feed-reader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/brook-feed-re... (Okay, now let's get back to the regularly scheduled outrage around the decline of RSS and maybe mention how Google doesn't support its products anymore ;) )

gundmc 7y ago

I was under the impression that Google News didn't have ads. At least I can't recall ever seeing ads on the news.google.com site (the Google Feed on Android is another story, that thing is riddled with ads now).

rosybox 7y ago
There are no ads on Google News and I think it would be hard for Google to monetize other news organizations' content in their own news app without being sued for it.

codyb 7y ago

It hasn’t been around too long. In a few years it’ll probably be pretty competent at what it does. I don’t use it but that was certainly the trend with Apple Maps which was pretty crummy when it first came out.

sbarre 7y ago
Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. I don't have high hopes for News, given how much it keeps pushing features that are either user-unfriendly (giant ads in the middle of articles) or designed solely to push you to News+ I used to be a regular (many times a day) user and their changes have led me to stop using it entirely.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Try it again. Apple Maps is pretty good. The love/hate thing is that it picks a more normal route vs optimized. I personally like it because I don’t find that a Google Maps optimizations help in urban settings.
- briandear 7y ago
  > Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. Depends where you are, the Apple version of street view is far superior to Google’s.
  - Eric_WVGG 7y ago
    No bicycle navigation; a “walking route” will send you the wrong way up one-way streets, “auto route” onto unsafe highways. I wouldn’t care except their API for directions to AirPods or Apple Watch isn’t public. This is grounds for an antitrust suit imho...
  - sbarre 7y ago
    Anywhere other than a few major cities?
- catalogia 7y ago
  > Apple Maps is still pretty far behind Google Maps. Both fall well short of OSM for topics other than finding local businesses. OSM gives me incredible detail, even telling me where water fountains and benches are in the local park. Meanwhile Google Maps doesn't even recognize the restricted access road running through the park, let alone any of the walking trails, let alone any water fountains, benches, etc. If you can't drive a car on it or through it or to it, Google thinks it may as well not exist.