Honest review from a previously optimistic customer

I was very optimistic about this app when I first got it, but after having it for over a month I have a few comments I’d like to make for future would-be buyers.

1) Although there is the capability of “linking” an twitter account, its almost like linking is just to check a box and get your information before allowing the user to follow live updates. In fact, even though you can “link” your account, you have to go through and manually add everyone you want to follow in-app. Considering how it’s no real difficulty to use the twitter API and populate a list of the accounts being followed (especially after an application has been linked to your account in the sense that it knows your password), it doesn’t make sense that I should have to go through and manually add each user I follow if I’m paying for an app. I wasn’t aware of this when I purchased the app and it would have been a definite no-go if I had known beforehand.

2) As mentioned in a previous review, this app uses an unbelievable amount of CPU power. Whist this wouldn’t be a problem under most circumstances, Newsbar is an RSS feed reader; there is no excuse for having such an immense amount of processing power being devoted to what should be an unobtrusive application. Related: by commandeering CPU activity, this app not only insures that your computer will be unbearably hot, but also guarantees your mac’s fan will be running full speed and causing a ruckus. And I have the top of the line Mac Book Pro, purchased in late 2014. There is no reason this app should have such an effect on my computer.

3) I haven’t even gotten into how this app doesn’t work as advertised. Even if everything I’ve written above wasn’t the case, this app actually doesn’t work! It doesn’t update in the times you designate in the menu section, it doesn’t pull new information as it’s made public on your subscribed RSS feeds, and most importantly it crashes by giving the user the rainbow spinning pinwheel anytime he tries to click on a section of your screen it’s occupying. This isn’t an “every once-in-a-while” event, it happens on a consistent basis roughly 80% of the time by my count when the app starts up.

I wish I could give this app a better review because it seemed to be just the thing I needed when I began searching for RSS feed GUIs. However, I paid $4.00 and was left with a piece of junk software that oversold and underperformed.

lowkey honesty about NewsBar RSS reader