We released new versions of NetNewsWire a couple months ago to make sure they work with an upcoming change in Google Reader. Most people have upgraded already. But not everybody! So this is a reminder to make sure you’re running the latest version.

There are more details on this post on the NetNewsWire website.

Today is the last day of introductory pricing! The price for NetNewsWire for Macintosh is $9.95 today. At midnight Pacific tonight it will be $14.95.

The price for NetNewsWire for iPhone is $1.99. At midnight it will be $4.99.

A quick note about where things stand at the moment:

• NetNewsWire 2.0.2 for iPhone has been uploaded and is in review. We’re working on 2.0.3.

• The current Mac version is 3.2.3, and we’re working on 3.2.4.

• Longer-term: we’re also working on NetNewsWire 4.0 for Macintosh and a bigger upgrade (version number as yet undecided) for NetNewsWire for iPhone.

Note that the license for the Mac version is a personal license — you can use it on multiple computers, as long as it’s you using it. And the license is good for all 3.2.x and all 4.x versions.

Also note: the paid versions remove the ads. (In the lower-left corner in the Mac version, in the table header in the iPhone version.) If you want to continue with ads, that’s fine. It’s totally up to you, of course.

But if you were thinking of buying, please don’t miss out on saving money.

I just uploaded new versions (2.0.2) of NetNewsWire free (iTunes link) and NetNewsWire Premium (iTunes link) to the App Store.

They’re in review — it will take a few days before they appear. It could be a week or longer. (There’s no way to know.)

The changes: a few crashing bugs are fixed and the “confused navigation” bug is fixed. (It also zeros out the unread count icon badge, for people who upgraded from NetNewsWire 1.x.)

And now on to work on 2.0.3...

Reminder: the introductory pricing of $1.99 for NetNewsWire Premium will end at the end of this month. It will go up to $4.99 starting Sunday morning. If you were planning to buy it, please don’t miss saving $3.

I get questions about what you get when you buy a license for NetNewsWire for Macintosh — I hadn’t made it clear. I’ve updated the online store. Here’s the scoop:

• It’s a personal, per-user license. That means if you have a few computers — a desktop and a laptop, for instance, but not limited to that — you can use the same license on each of those computers. (As long as it’s you using it.)

• The license is good for all 3.2.x and all 4.x releases.

Reminder: the price is $9.95 for only a few more days. It will go up to $14.95 at the very beginning of November 1st. If you were thinking of buying it, I don’t want you to miss out on saving $5.

(Note also that NetNewsWire Premium for iPhone will also go up in price at the same time, from $1.99 to $4.99.)

Where I am right now

I’m working on an update to NetNewsWire for Macintosh — it will be 3.2.4. While I’d like to get it done before the price goes up, that’s not looking likely, since it should spend some time in beta testing first. Next week is more realistic.

A new version (2.0.2) of NetNewsWire for iPhone will go into beta testing today. It fixes some crashing bugs and that confused-navigation bug. Assuming testing goes well, it will get uploaded to the App Store in a couple days, then available once it gets through the review process. (Which takes about a week.)

Longer term plans

Work also continues on NetNewsWire 4.0 for Macintosh. This will be a bigger upgrade than 3.2 was, but it’s too early to talk about any other specifics. (Feature requests are always welcome, of course — use the Report Bug or Feature Request command in NetNewsWire’s Help menu.)

And work has started on a bigger upgrade for the iPhone version. I’m not yet sure what the version number will be — 2.1 maybe, or 2.5 or 3.0, depending. (If you buy NetNewsWire for iPhone now, this version, no matter what the version number, will be a free upgrade.) It’s too soon to talk specifics, but I’m pretty excited about it.

Brad Ellis: “Everyone knows it’s tradition for 0.2 releases to get a new icon...”

Brad’s a great designer, and I love — madly — the new icons. Another example of his work is the ADA-winning Postage iPhone app.

At one point in the process I asked Brad for a resized version of a graphic. I wrote him about how I resize graphics:

My process is to print it out in black and white on paper, wet the paper, stretch the paper very gently on a rack, wait a few days, measure it with a ruler to see if it’s bigger, color it in with magic markers, scan it in, then do additional color corrections in Microsoft Word. Something like that, anyway.

Brad, to his credit, took this as humor rather than the accurate portrayal of my workflow that it is. Which just proves that he’s not only incredibly talented but gracious and unflappable, which is important in anyone who works with those touchy-chef types who write code.

(Unflappable. Really. Try to flap him. Can’t do it. Can’t be flapped.)

Me, writing on the NewsGator Widgets Blog: “What I didn’t expect was that the reverse would happen, that I would end up bringing iPhone code back to the Mac version, but that’s what happened.”

NewsGator Widgets posts some numbers about NetNewsWire for iPhone usage — including the interesting (at least to me) number that the “average NetNewsWire iPhone user subscribes to 26 feeds.” (And, of course, there are outliers — one user has over 2,800 feeds.)

Kyle Baxter of TightWind interviews me about NetNewsWire and iPhone development. (It was a pleasure doing an interview with him — if he ever asks you to do an interview, say yes. ;)

On my weblog I posted an update: what I’ve been doing and what’s the plan.

Adam Behringer: “I just released another update to Bee Docs' Timeline last night. One of the new features is NetNewsWire integration!”

Greg Reinacker: “I’ve noticed a few posts around the web (here’s the latest) expressing a bit of confusion about how NewsGator (and NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, NewsGator Inbox, and NewsGator Go!) subscriber counts are reported. So here’s the skinny.”

Me on inessential.com: “Normally this is kind of a boring thing—not one of the exciting features, not necessarily worth discussing. But since this is an example of a hybrid app with an online component, I thought it might be interesting to other developers of hybrid apps.”

Just a reminder: NewsGator products (including NetNewsWire) are $10 off through the month of December. December is almost over, and I don’t want anyone thinking of buying to miss out on the sale—hence this reminder. ;)

NewsGator Daily: “To take advantage, all you have to do is enter the promo code NGHoliday in the shopping cart, and you’ll get $10 off any NewsGator product, including the new version of FeedDemon and NewsGator Go for Windows Mobile, throughout the month of December. Buy two and you get $20 off.”

The sale includes NetNewsWire too, of course: at $10 off it’s just $19.95.

We’re running a short survey for people who use one or more NewsGator products. It helps us know how to continue to improve our software. All feedback is appreciated—and kept confidential.

On inessential.com I write about how NetNewsWire 2.1 reads feeds. The short answer: if you use NewsGator syncing, it downloads feeds from NewsGator. If you don’t use syncing, it downloads feeds from the original sources, just like always. You choose.

But of course I go into more detail. (Plenty more! I may be in a long-winded mood.)

Greg Reinacker: “We now have both SOAP and REST versions of the NewsGator Online API available. The SOAP version has been around for a while, and is used by our own products. The REST version is brand new, is documented here, and enters a public beta today.”

NetNewsWire uses the NewsGator Online API (of course)—it uses some SOAP calls and some REST calls. (I’d convert entirely to using the REST version, stop using SOAP entirely, were it not for the fact that you don’t fix what ain’t broke.)

Special sale! You can buy NetNewsWire for $19.95 from right now until NetNewsWire 2.1 ships.

Or you can buy the NetNewsWire/MarsEdit bundle for just $29.95, which is an even better deal.

This sale means you save $5 on NetNewsWire, or save $10 on the NetNewsWire/MarsEdit bundle price—$20 less than if you bought them separately at regular price.

If you’re a NetNewsWire Lite user, this is a great time to upgrade.

If you’re curious about what’s in the full version that’s not in Lite, the list looks like this: searching, browsing, persistence, smart lists, flagged items, tag subscriptions, widescreen view, scriptability, HTML differences, podcast downloading, and, well, more.

Go to our online store to buy NetNewsWire or the NetNewsWire/MarsEdit bundle.

When NetNewsWire 2.1 ships, the price for NetNewsWire will be $29.95, and purchasers will get a one-year NewsGator Online subscription along with all NetNewsWire updates for one year. (NetNewsWire will continue to work if the subscription lapses, though in stand-alone mode.)

Existing users—people who already bought NetNewsWire or who buy NetNewsWire through this sale—will get a two-year NewsGator Online subscription for free, as well as all NetNewsWire updates for two years. (And, again, the software doesn’t stop working if the subscription lapses: you’ve bought the software.)

MarsEdit will remain $24.95. There will no longer be a special NetNewsWire/MarsEdit bundle price.

Which is all to say: this sale is a good deal, and it ends when NetNewsWire 2.1 ships (within the next few weeks). So please take advantage of it now!

If you don’t already have a copy of NetNewsWire, you can download it from the NetNewsWire home page—or check out the latest beta of NetNewsWire 2.1.

On inessential.com, more about NetNewsWire 2.1: sorting subscriptions by attention, performance, and a couple little things.

We have found some bugs in the NetNewsWire 2.1 beta just released today. Which is completely expected, and just proves that it’s a beta.

Here are the two main ones, just so you know we know about them...

The first is that it doesn’t run on 10.3.9. It was working on 10.3.9, but a recent change stopped it from working. We’ll get it fixed for the next release.

The second is that, for some people, they can’t refresh at all. (We have a lead on the cause, but we’re not positive yet of the fix.)

We’re working on both bugs, of course, and there will be new betas.

On inessential.com I’ve been writing more about NetNewsWire 2.1: on NewsGator syncing, the new Post to del.icio.us command, and printing. (More to come!)

On inessential.com, Brent talks about NetNewsWire 2.1. Currently in private beta testing, the next version will include NewsGator syncing, performance enhancements and bug fixes, some small new (and often-requested) features, and will of course be a Universal binary.

On inessential.com we posted our thoughts about the new iTunes podcasting support and what it means for NetNewsWire. In a nutshell: iTunes is cool, and we’ll keep adding new podcasting and RSS enclosures features to NetNewsWire.

Surfin’ Safari: “The feed URL dialog that tells you 10.4 must be installed to view RSS feeds is simply a bug and not part of a master plan for global domination.”

We assumed as much, but it’s nice to hear it confirmed. The question is: will there be an update for Panther users? (A few other Safari and WebKit bugs have been noted in the 10.3.9 update.)

Despite the bugs, the update has some cool new features. Our favorite may simply be the better performance.

Tim’s Bandwagon reports on how ‘feed’ URIs apparently don’t work in Safari 1.3, which came with the recent OS X update to 10.3.9. (We haven’t checked this out ourselves yet, but we’ve seen a number of reports.)

More details about the embedded browser changes in 2.0b37 was posted to inessential.com.

This is just to clear up some confusion about pricing that people have...

NetNewsWire 2.0 (in beta at the time of this writing) is $24.95. Once it ships, it will still be $24.95—this is its normal price.

MarsEdit is a separate product: it also costs $24.95.

You can buy NetNewsWire and MarsEdit together for $39.95, which saves about $10.

To be clear:

NetNewsWire 2.0..............$24.95
MarsEdit 1.0.................$24.95
NetNewsWire/MarsEdit bundle..$39.95

(NetNewsWire 1.0.8, which is still for sale for now, costs $39.95. I think that’s where the confusion comes from. The older version of NetNewsWire costs more because it includes a weblog editor as well as the aggregator.)

If you have any questions about pricing, please send email to info@ranchero.com.

Russell Beattie: “Many of us are too busy to read classic books out there, instead choosing ‘page turners’ or books that are more applicable to our every day lives (like a some new marketing book). But we do have time to zip through our aggregator daily, right? So by taking a 500 page novel and distributing it, a few pages at a time, via RSS, we could read a new book in a month or so without even trying.”

On inessential.com we posted answers to some frequently asked questions about the public betas of NetNewsWire and MarsEdit.