Software Reviews and Objectivity
Shawn Blanc has recently been making a name for himself in the Apple community with extensive reviews of his favorite mac applications. Among the applications reviewed was NetNewsWire; the most popular desktop newsreader on the mac platform. NetNewsWire was developed by Brent Simmons and is now owned by NewsGator.
Recently, NewsFire, the second most popular desktop newsreader for the mac, joined NetNewsWire in switching from a paid model to a free one. Shawn Blanc’s reaction:
NewsFire joined in with the other Mac RSS readers today in that it now costs nothing.
I was a NewsFire user before I happily landed with NetNewsWire. I never really liked NewsFire, and to tell the truth, I don’t know anyone who does. Not that it’s a bad app. I think it has a slick interface and offers some great features. But for me, using it always felt restricting — like I couldn’t quite do what I wanted or work my way around the feeds like I wanted. But if you have not landed on a desktop reader yet, maybe NewsFire will fit your bill.
But here are my top three reasons to stick with NNW: (1) Great feel and fantastic UI; (2) the multi-computer (and multi-platform) sync ability, plus the iPhone web-app make an unbeatable feature set; and (3) Brent Simmons is one of the coolest developers ever.
Shawn Blanc doesn’t know anyone that likes NewsFire? Are you sure about that Shawn?
After his NetNewsWire review I emailed Blanc and wrote:
For just basic news reading, without a lot of the extras, I disagree that NetNewsWire is the best option. Most popular, yes. Newsfire, though far less known and with fewer features, holds that title in my opinion. After using both, I actually don’t think it’s really that close.
Blanc responded to my email and included in his response was the following:
…I have some good friends who’s opinions I value a lot, and they swear by NewsFire
Here’s Jason Kottke’s reaction to NewsFire going the free route:
As of today, David Watanabe’s excellent NewsFire RSS reader for OS X is completely free. I love NewsFire.
In Blanc’s three reasons for sticking with NetNewsWire number one is certainly not a consensus. Users that prefer NewsFire constantly refer to its superior look and feel. NetNewsWire, though improved, pales in comparison to NewsFire.
Three isn’t worth discussing.
Two is the only point with merit. One reason I no longer use NewsFire is its lack of an online presence. But if the ability to read your news online is important to you Google Reader is a more pleasant experience than NewsGator (which syncs with NetNewsWire).
Strangely, in a previous post Shawn Blanc made the following observation:
Maybe an app does have a few less features than another but if my extra time spent to make up for those missing features is enjoyable then maybe its time well spent and mayebe the other app with with all those features is robbing me instead if helping me.
In one sentence Blanc nails the reason why I, and others prefer NewsFire over NetNewsWire yet fails to see its relevance where it clearly applies.
Shawn Blanc’s reviews are thorough and well written, but his inability to objectively view competing products when compared to his favorite applications (at least in this case), clouds their value.
I was unable to link to Shawn Blanc’s negative comments regarding NewsFire because he later changed the content of the post followed by an apology. While it’s refreshing to see Blanc rethink his views on NewsFire (no doubt resulting from reader email) his complete deletion of the post results in a hollow apology.
