NetNewsWire versus iPodder

For Mac users who are serious about RSS and need full-featured newsreader software that handles everything from tag subscriptions to podcast downloads, Ranchero's latest version of NetNewsWire (still in beta but nearing completion) is looking hard to beat.

Now it even syncs across two or more Macs via .Mac or FTP! Wicked.

After kicking the tires on NNW 2.0, however, I'm abandoning it. It's bit pricey for my blood, and the free Light version lacks podcast downloading features. Besides, I happen to like NewsGator's free Web-based RSS aggregator just fine.

Podcast-wise, I have grown fond of the free, recently upgraded iPodder. It's feature-poor but much-improved compared to NNW, and it works well on Windows as well as on a Mac (a Linux beta is available, too).

One of iPodder's marquee features makes it a gotta-have for me: It semiautomates purging of old podcasts from its download folder as well as the iTunes library, which is otherwise a tedious chore.

Did I mention it's free? Yep, it's iPodder for me.