Before Google Reader became the de facto center of everyone's RSS universe, there was NetNewsWire, a classic Mac client that eventually expanded to iOS as well and is now poised for a comeback.
Black Pixel has announced its intentions to step up development plans for NetNewsWire, the Mac and iOS RSS reader software it acquired from NewsGator back in 2011, the last time a new version of the software was available.
While the new owners have been quietly working in the background on NetNewsWire's triumphant return, Google's announcement last week that it plans to kill Google Reader on July 1 has stepped up the company's efforts.
Black Pixel now has all-new versions of NetNewsWire for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch and iPad nearing completion, promising "some great new features and a modern design that we can't wait to show you." While the iOS versions have been completely rewritten from scratch, the Mac client has been brought forward "to keep up with the times," which sounds promising enough.
The big stumbling block now is sync -- Black Pixel attempted to use iCloud and Core Data syncing, but the company abandoned those efforts, citing "issues that we simply could not resolve."
While no plans for release have been announced yet, the company claims that the Google Reader announcement "solidified and accelerated our plans," so you can expect something new on the NetNewsWire front prior to July 1, 2013 -- the date Google plans to pull Reader off life support.
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