NetNewsWire 2.1 Released -- The final version of RSS news aggregator and reader NetNewsWire 2.1 shipped last week from NewsGator, the company that acquired the product and hired developer Brent Simmons last year (see "NewsGator Acquires NetNewsWire"). NetNewsWire 2.1 dramatically improves synchronization across multiple computers, enabling you to maintain the same set of subscriptions and not view the same news items you've already marked as read on one computer. It also enables viewing news items and modifying subscriptions via the NewsGator Web site, as well as a "sort by attention" option, which pushes subscriptions to the top that the program believes you have more interest in. Performance is also much faster in practically every way.

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<http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx? ProdID=NetNewsWire>

NetNewsWire costs $30, which includes a one-year subscription to NewsGator Online Premium. The program also synchronizes, with less speed, efficiency, and cleverness, via .Mac or an FTP server, so the NewsGator subscription isn't absolutely necessary for synchronization benefits. The application requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and is a universal binary. NewsGator continues to develop NetNewsWire Lite (still in beta), which is available at no cost. It does not include a number of interface features, but does handle synchronization. [GF]

<http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx? ProdId=NetNewsWire&ProdView=lite>