Congratulations to Nick Bradbury on the release of FeedDemon 2.0. Nick calls FeedDemon 2.0 “the best work I’ve ever done” and as someone who has been following the product since its first beta I have to agree.
The new version of FeedDemon tracks the feeds you pay the most and least attention to over time, helping you realize who might be most worthy of your 5 minutes of reading time. Stylesheets have received a total overhaul. You can select a default feed reading stylesheet for the entire app as well as custom stylesheets on a per-feed including a photo-specific view using Media RSS and a row of icons above each post to help you add a bookmark on del.icio.us or search for blogs referencing the post on Technorati. You can synchronize your feed list and read/unread items using the NewsGator API and even reach into your Windows Common Feed list to keep all applications on your local desktop in sync as well.
Nick is an immersive developer who dives right into his product and its user experience. When I first met Nick he was playing with a new Tablet PC to make sure FeedDemon delivered a good experience on that platform. When podcasting started gaining traction Nick took his time adding enhanced enclosure support while he tested out existing software with a variety of MP3 devices and the latest features in Windows Media Player before releasing FeedStation. FeedDemon 2.0 is yet another step in the right direction where Nick took a step back, listened to his users, and created a new application that solved their common frustrations with the feed reading experience and took care of a few problems they did not even know they had.
Congrats to Nick and the NewsGator team on a stellar release.