Category Archives: Mac

Interview with Greg Reinacker and Brent Simmons of NewsGator

I had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Reinacker and Brent Simmons to talk about the NewsGator and its recent acquisition of Ranchero Software. I spent about 30 minutes with Greg and Brent talking about how they decided to work together, how NetNewsWire contributes to NewsGator’s product strategy and revenue goals, and what changes we can expect from both sides in the near future. I asked a few questions Greg and Brent had never discussed and there are definitely a few details yet to be worked out. We also talked about Nick Bradbury and NewsGator’s acquisition of Bradbury…

NewsGator appIcon for OS X

I just created a new application icon for OS X using the NewsGator logo. Here’s how you swap logos for NetNewsWire: Find the NetNewsWire application on your hard drive. It is most likely in your Applications folder. Right-click, and select “Show Package Contents.” Open the “Contents” folder. Open the “Resources” folder. Replace the existing appIcon.icns with the new NewsGator icon (you may want to back up your existing copy). Launch NetNewsWire. Yes, it could be more pretty with transparencies, so feel free to modify if you like the idea. Tags: netnewswire, icon…

NewsGator purchases NetNewsWire

NewsGator Technologies has a new page on their site about the acquisition of NetNewsWire. Brent Simmons, the creator of NetNewsWire, will be joining the NewsGator team as a product architect according to a release on the NewsGator site. Om Malik scooped the news last night. The phrasing of the announcement is around NetNewsWire only. I presume NewsGator has acquired all of Ranchero software, including products such as editing software MarsEdit, and not just NetNewsWire. NewsGator Technologies now produces software in C#, ASP.net, Delphi, and Objective C. Lack of a unified codebase and the company’s reliance on one engineer per…

Macintosh Small Business lunch

I just got back from lunch with about twenty-five Macintosh small business owners and developers visiting San Francisco for this week’s WWDC. We talked for about ninety minutes about common business problems and people shared their experiences with running a small business selling applications for the Macintosh operating system. Some quick notes: If no one complains about your pricing, you priced too low. Higher pricing usually leads to lower support requests. Most software publishers allow users to use trial versions of their software before making a purchase. eSellerate dominates as a payment provider but most developers choose to use…

Apple iTunes Store offering preorders

Apple is offering pre-orders for upcoming albums such as Coldplay’s X&Y (planned release is June 7). You cannot preview any of the tracks on the album through the store even though the first single, Speed of Sound, is currently available for purchase. Apple is trying to get people to order digital music files for future delivery. The iTunes album includes a two exclusive pre-oder tracks, a digital booklet — liner notes? — and a video file. I presume iTunes will download the album the first time the application is launched on or after the full availability of the release. I…

Mac OS X Server 10.4 Tiger serves weblogs

Mac OS X Server version 10.4 (codename Tiger) will feature a weblog server. The Weblog server provides users with calendar-based navigation and customizable themes, is fully compatible with Safari RSS and enables posting entries using built-in web-based functionality or with weblog clients that support XML-RPC or the ATOM API. The Weblog Server, based on the popular open source project “Blojsom,” works with Open Directory for user accounts and authentication….

Mac OS X Tiger: Safari RSS

Mac OS X Tiger, Apple’s next operating system release, will include a RSS aggregator as part of Safari. Support for “RSS 0.9, RSS 1, RSS 2 and Atom.” Apple has a movie online demonstrating the new RSS functions. Interesting that Atom is a side note on a supported format list. What does the bundling of an RSS aggregator with a Mac OS mean for independent software developers? Safari RSS, in its current form, looks like Bloglines. Desktop applications will have a year to innovate and make their products more attractive to power users. There is still room for applications…