Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader Pick of the Week
PulpFiction icon The macosxhints Rating:
8 of 10
[Score: 8 out of 10]
While digging around on Freshly Squeezed Software's site for info on last week's PotW, I stumbled across this RSS (newsfeed) reader called PulpFiction. I have tried a large number of news readers, and there are some very good programs out there. However, I had yet to find one I really liked well enough to use regularly (though I have called a few out with Pick of the Week selections in the past). I found the interface on most programs confusing or too limited, and I couldn't find one that had an easy way to manage the hundreds of stories that accumulate in even a lightly-populated news reader. So in the end, I just went back to browsing sites directly to check for updates. But PulpFiction is different, and unlike any of the other readers I've tried.

PulpFiction basically treats news feeds like mail messages, and has an interface design that is very reminiscent of Apple's Mail app. If you like Mail (which I do), that's a good thing. If you don't like Mail, you probably won't like PulpFiction. And I know that this pick will probably be controversial -- news readers are like Mail clients and calendar applications -- personal preferences come heavily into play. Hence the new poll that went up slightly before this hint! Feel free to add your picks as a comment to this story, of course ... but also vote in the poll for your favorite news/RSS reader. Note that because there are so many news readers out there, I wasn't able to list them all, so you may have to use the "Other" category...

As seen at left (larger version), the main interface is a two-paned window with a drawer. The top half of the window shows the feed headlines, while the bottom shows the selected headline's contents (and is used to display the actual web page as well, if you wish). You can view the full article in many ways with PulpFiction: double-click the headline to open a new minimal browser window within PulpFiction; click the Read Full Article link in the preview area to open the actual web page within that same preview area (that's the view shown in the screenshot), or control-click on the headline and choose to view the article in your external browser.

The drawer section of the interface can either show a list of each feed you're subscribed to, or as seen in the screenshot, a Mail-like folder view. Folders are PulpFiction's method of organizing news feeds. Just like Mail, you've got an InBox, where any unsorted feeds will show, and you can add an unlimited number of additional folders (and sub-folders) to use for organizing your feeds. You can add both normal and smart folders. Normal folders behave just like Mail's folders -- you can add items by dragging, or you can create Filters (like Rules in Mail) that automatically route feeds to a folder.

The real power, though, is found in Smart Folders. Create a new smart folder, and you can gather data from multiple feeds into on convenient spot. For instance, I have a smart folder that looks for the words "Tiger" or "10.4" in any Mac-related feeds' articles, and another that finds any references to OS X in general. Smart folders are a great way to find articles of interest to you, regardless of which feed they're coming from.

The subscription manager in PulpFiction is quite nice, too. The subscriptions window is columnar, letting you easily see info such as feed name, number of articles, last checked, and next scheduled check. When adding new feeds, you can apply a filter to them at the time you create them, which is a great timesaver. So if you're adding a new Mac-related feed, and want it to go into your Mac Stuff folder, you can just tell the feed to use the filter you've already set up to move the other Mac-related feeds. Very slick.

There are a ton of other features in PulpFiction -- you can apply labels to feeds, to help highlight ones you may be particularly interested in, you can set individual update times by feed, an activity viewer shows update activity (just like Mail's activity viewer), and much, much more.

There have been some complaints on VersionTracker about the program crashing, but I've had no such troubles yet -- I've had it running quite often for about a week now on both my desktop and laptop machines. I wish the Smart Folders were a bit smarter -- I'd like to be able to include "and" and "or" in one query. For example, "show me all articles that contain Tiger *or* 10.4, *and* are not from the Golf feeds. As it stands now, it takes two smart folders to execute that search. Also, the program's interface takes a bit of learning, as there are many things that can be set and tweaked. However, I've found it well worth the time I've invested in it so far. I haven't registered yet, but will clearly do so this week -- this is the first time I've found a feed reader that just feels "right" to me, and the added features of the full version make it worth paying for over the lite version.
    •    
  • Currently 1.57 / 5
  You rated: 3 / 5 (7 votes cast)
 
[16,209 views]  

Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader | 14 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: jcbeckman on Mar 17, '05 02:46:25PM

I've been running it for several months now, and I still like it, in spite of the fact it crashes for me several times a day.

One thing I don't like, however, is the so-called support. I have sent in requests for support and some have never been responded to at all. This was via the web site, not mail. Very disappointing.

Still, I like Pulp Fiction and use it, warts and all.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: iacas on Mar 17, '05 02:57:08PM
We respond to all inquiries, and typically do so within minutes or hours (so long as the sender supplies his email address). My support queue right now is one question deep, and it's someone who's lost his license code.

---
--
Erik J. Barzeski
Web Everywhere

[ Reply to This | # ]

Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: blm on Mar 17, '05 05:40:03PM

You must have more patience than I do. I've tried I think every version they've released and they've all crashed within about 10 minutes. I like PulpFiction's interface and functionality and keep hoping for a stable version. Until then, it's back to trusty old Shrook 1.33. :-)



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: robg on Mar 17, '05 09:04:15PM

Very strange; it ran for eight hours today at work with no glitches at all (12" PowerBook G4).

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: iacas on Mar 17, '05 10:40:13PM

And I use it 24/7 without crashes. Those that have problems should contact support. We can't fix bugs we don't know about.

---
--
Erik J. Barzeski
Web Everywhere



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: jcbeckman on Mar 18, '05 09:34:28AM

I'd like to say that apparently there was some odd communications issue between us (spam filters or some such on my end no doubt), and the guys at Freshly Squeezed are now looking into my crash issue. They've been pretty quick on the followup, too, so you can disregard my previous comments about support - they *are* backing this product.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: ozonator on Mar 17, '05 05:48:05PM

If you prefer open source software, Feed is an RSS reader with a similar philosophy and implementation, treating news feeds like e-mail folders and messages. It's very reminiscent of Apple Mail, and works very well (including that it's stable). Its source code is released under the BSD license.

That being said, it doesn't (yet) have as many features as Pulp Fiction (at version 0.64, there are no labels or subscription manager separate from the folder drawer, and feeds can't yet have individual settings for updating and cache). As for smart folders, Feed doesn't have them now either, but this review is right -- they are very useful (I use them in Liferea).



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: jerryg on Mar 17, '05 06:38:20PM

I use NetNewsWire Lite and it works fine.

What I'd really like in an RSS reader is drag and drop subscriptions from a a rss link on a page in Safari to the RSS client. Or a bookmarklet, Applescript or something. (Or like this: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/features/quicksubscribing.php)

Also, the feature that I would pay for is the Blogline's API (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/features/bloglines.php), being able to read my RSS feeds anywhere on any computer would be great.

Can PulpFiction do the drag and drop or Blogline integration?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: iacas on Mar 17, '05 10:41:37PM
PulpFiction can do the drag and drop subscriptions. And it'll support the Bloglines API as soon as it's worth supporting.

---
--
Erik J. Barzeski
Web Everywhere

[ Reply to This | # ]

Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: aranor on Mar 18, '05 11:29:03AM

NetNewsWire 2.0 public beta has Bloglines integration (I don't know if it's in Lite). I don't know about the drag & drop of RSS links, though, since I've never tried.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: aranor on Mar 18, '05 11:32:08AM

NetNewsWire 2.0 (public beta) is far better than PulpFiction - even NetNewsWire 2.0 Lite (public beta) is far better.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: Azark on Mar 18, '05 08:53:27PM

True.

---
iMac G5 20" 1.8Ghz 1GB 10.3.8 /
PowerBook G4 12" 1.5Ghz 768MB 10.3.8 /
G4 400 AGP 768MB 10.3.8 /
G4 400 AGP 768MB OSX Server 10.3.8



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: robg on Mar 22, '05 10:06:10AM

I've used them both (quite a bit, actually), and I prefer the interface in Pulp Fiction.

As I said, I knew my choice would generate discussion and disagreement -- news readers are very personal by nature. That's probably why there are so many to pick from.

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Pulp Fiction - A Mail-like newsfeed reader
Authored by: joe_e on Mar 18, '05 02:02:23PM

Try Newsfire. Looks much nicer, has 'Smart Feeds' like 'Smart Playlists' in Itunes and its cheaper.



[ Reply to This | # ]