RSS Menu

About

RSS Menu is a systemwide menu that allows you to read and organize your favourite RSS or Atom feeds.
The articles are automatically updated and you will get a notification when new articles are available or when some other event occurs. In addition to visual notification, you can also enable speech notification and choose one of the many built in voices.
It is also possible to integrate iTunes (for podcasts) and Safari (for RSS bookmarks) with RSS Menu.

Key features include:

background application (doesn't get in your way and is accessible from anywhere)
very fast parsing engine
importing and exporting of OPML files
Growl and speech notification
many options to customize the menu
support for grouping feeds in submenus and adding seperators
support for using RSS Menu as an external reader in Safari (or any other application)
support for integration with iTunes and Safari
support for favourite icons (aka page icons)

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Screenshots

(click image to view full size)

Requirements

Mac OS X (10.4 or higher)
Broadband connection recommended

Download

Size: 3.4MB
Price: Donation
Version: 1.11.6
Released: september 30, 2008
Download RSS Menu
Download old version (for Mac OS X 10.3)

Version History

version 1.11.6

fixed a long standing bug that would prevent updating the feeds

version 1.11.5

fixed a crash caused by a memory leak
fixed a bug that would not update the menu when a feed was removed
RSS Menu will no longer make unnecessary network connections

version 1.11.4

fixed a possible crash when retrieving the favicon of a feed
fixed a bug that would prevent RSS Menu from updating feeds
fixed a bug that would not remove cache files when a feed is removed
fixed a bug when editing the URL of a feed that would show the articles of the previous feed
when parsing form cached data, the articles won't show up as unread
modified the way menuitems get enabled/disabled

version 1.11.3

fixed a memory leak when dragging a feed in the feedslist
fixed a memory leak when retrieving favicons
fixed a bug that would not retrieve some favicons correctly
fixed a bug that would stop a feed from updating after dragging it in the feedslist
fixed a bug that marked a URL as invalid after pasting it
optimized parsing of feeds, prevents many crashes and hangs
menu icons are now properly aligned
when an error occurs while retrieving data from a feed, the process gets cancelled
updated to Growl 1.1.4 and Sparkle 1.5b4

version 1.11.2

fixed a bug that would prevent a feed from parsing correctly
fixed a bug that would cause problems when a favicon was being downloaded
fixed a bug that generated a huge amount of cached files
fixed a memory leak when downloading favicons
fixed a bug that would show notifications after quitting, even if no new articles were available

version 1.11.1

fixed a bug that could cause a crash after adding a feed
fixed a bug that would not set an article as read
fixed a bug with the grayed out menu
fixed a serious bug when removing more than 1 feed (also caused when importing an OPML file)
fixed a bug that prevented the "Open All Unread" menu to work
fixed a bug that would make RSS Menu unstable when Notifications were enabled
improved the way favicons are downloaded
added a "Remove Caches" button to the Preferences
a feed, a group or a separator is now added below the selected row in the feeds list
external applications will now see RSS Menu as a feed reader
when adding a feed and an error occurs, its name will default to the URL of the feed
updated to Growl 1.1.2

version 1.11

fixed a lot of bugs
improved Keychain support
improved perfomance and stability
improved drag & drop
final version to support Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

version 1.10.5.1

fixed a memory leak that would cause RSS Menu to crash

version 1.10.5

fixed a bug that would not mark an article as read after selecting it
iTunes integration now allows you to put an alias in your Music folder
improved the retrieval of favicons

version 1.10.4

global mark all read/unread will now skip feeds that have no unread/read articles
rewritten process to retrieve "favicons", now works in Leopard
added a button to reload the favicons
you can now see if RSS Menu is paused or not
fixed a bug that would prevent you from adding a new feed after editing another
after editing a feed, the feed will update itself
the state of feed updates is saved between sleep/wake sessions
fixed a crash that would occur when a URL made too many redirections
Growl notifications are now clickable (if the theme allows it)
updated to Growl 1.1.1
improved iTunes/Safari integration
passwords added to the keychain are now identified by the full URL, this fixes a bug that would occur when using https:// URLs
RSS Menu now also detects video podcasts
small code improvements

version 1.10.3

fixed a bug that would not update feeds after a while
improved speed and performance
optimized speed of HTML entity replacement

version 1.10.2

fixed an issue that would cause RSS Menu to forget read articles
improved HTML entity decoding
improved memory usage (especially when dealing with lots of feeds)

version 1.10.1

improved refreshrate preference for feeds, it no longer uses a date picker which fixes some problems many people were having
improved refreshrate preference for Integration
reordered panes in Preferences window
added a preference to disable version updates
added a preference to enable/disable update checks at startup
small modifications in the Notifications preferences pane
small interface changes
fixed a bug that would not update the feeds
fixed a bug that wouldn't enable the Pause Updates menuitem after adding new feeds
fixed a bug in the global menu items
fixed a bug that prevented adding groups
fixed a bug when adding RSS Menu to the login items
fixed a bug that would not download favicons
fixed a bug that would not mark an article as read
fixed a bug that would cause a crash, especially when computer woke up
fixed a nasty bug that would cause lots of processor usage
fixed typos and spelling errors in the interface
HTML encodings are now rendered correctly, you shouldn't see stuff like &#xxx; or >
old files from previous version of RSS Menu are removed and replaced by the new RSS Menu Library file
favicons are now cached

version 1.10

completly new parser engine
parsing speed improved (it is about 3 to 4 times faster)
much improved application stability, memory usage and overall performance
improved OPML file import and export
version update system has been replaced by Sparkle
improved notifications and included Growl installer (no download required)
improved speech notification
redesigned Preferences window
renamed Feeds List file to RSS Menu Library
all the cache and data files are now included in the RSS Menu Library file
lots of bug fixes
added global "Open all unread" menuitem
removed all localizations due to interface changes, read the Read Me file for more info

version 1.9.5

fixed an issue that wouldn't allow certain feeds to be parsed
the last selected pane in the Preferences window will now be remembered
changed the text "Unpause Updates" to "Resume Updates"
updated to Growl 0.7.5
added Danish localization

version 1.9.4b

Mac OS X 10.4 (or higher) is now required, support for 10.3 has been dropped
much enhanced parsing engine: it's now faster and is more compatible
less memory consumption
added Catalan localization
added Spanish localization

version 1.9.3

fixed a bug that would remove feeds from the menu after changing the preferences
fixed a bug that would not remember the selected article reader application
fixed a bug that could cause a crash while parsing
fixed a typo in German localization
added Russian localization

version 1.9.2

Pause Updates menu item is now on top of the menu
fixed a possible crash during parsing of a feed
fixed a bug that would forget the marking of an article
fixed a typo in the German localization
other bug fixes

version 1.9.1

fixed a bug that would not write the cache files
fixed a bug that would cause RSS Menu to forget the article status
fixed a bug that would cause a crash when parsing a feed
fixed a bug that would not update the feeds when choosing Update All
fixed a bug when checking for a new version
favicons are now cached
added preference to shorten the titles of the articles
added new icons for the cached files

version 1.9

reduced memory and CPU usage
parsing now happens on a background thread
internal changes to the feed parser
much better version checking
added Swedish localization
feed titles that are too long are now shortened
improved handling of read/unread articles
improved launch time
fixed bug that didn't remove all cache files
other bug fixes

version 1.8.3

fixed a bug that would prevent finding the iTunes Music folder
OPML files are now exported with UTF-8 encoding
updated Japanese localization
updated Turkish localization
updated German localization

version 1.8.2

fixed a crash when using the iTunes integration that could happen if a podcast didn't have an Album name
fixed a bug when enabling iTunes or Safari integration would result in an error
added a tooltip when hovering over an episode that shows the comments of the podcast
modified the preferences that are set when RSS Menu is launched for the very first time

version 1.8.1

fixed a bug that would show a notification even when no new articles were found
Safari RSS feeds now have an icon in the integration menu
added Japanese localization
more code changes

version 1.8

optimized parsing
fixed a possible crash
added Slovak localization
replaced the badge: instead a colored border you'll see a different icon
updated menu icons, custom menu icons from previous versions of RSS Menu are not compatible with this version
iTunes Podcast menu now has a submenu for each podcast which contains the episodes

version 1.8b

improved speed and performance, resulting in more stability and less CPU intensive
fixed some bugs that could cause a crash
fixed a bug when importing OPML files
fixed an issue with drag & drop from the feedslist
the feeds now get the correct "favicons", when available
many code improvements and fixes

version 1.7.2

fixed a bug that would crash RSS Menu when loading certain feeds (aka the WebKit crash)
fixed a potential crash that could occur in Mac OS X 10.3
improved text encodings
added the official Feed icon to the list of menu icons as provided by www.feedicons.com

version 1.7.1

fixed a bug that would modify the URL of a feed to an incorrent one
favourite icons are now retrieved immediatly instead of being read from the Safari Icons cache
RSS Menu will now wait a little longer until it starts updating the feeds after waking up
added Turkish localization

version 1.7

RSS Menu now uses WebKit for parsing feeds which is faster and adds compatibility with other feeds including del.icio.us and others
fixed the bundle identifier for Camino so that it can open feed articles
added support for file:// URLs
added Brazilian Portuguese localization
when waking from sleep, RSS Menu will wait a few seconds before it starts parsing

version 1.6.3

fixed a bug that would result in certain feeds not showing the latest articles

version 1.6.2

added Traditional Chinese localization
added Growl 0.7.4
when setting RSS Menu as your default reader in Safari, the current feed will get added to RSS Menu (if it's not in the list already)
improved adding to login items

version 1.6.1

added Icelandic localization
updated Italian localization

version 1.6

built as a universal binary
added ability to pause feed parsing

version 1.5.2

fixed crash on launch and loss of feeds

NOTE: Users of version 1.5.1 need to do the following Before installing this version, go to ~/Library/Application Support/ (where ~ is your home folder). Make a copy of the RSS Menu folder. Quit RSS Menu. Install the new version, put back the RSS Menu folder you just copied inside the Application Support folder. Launch the new version of RSS Menu. These steps are necessary because version 1.5.1 had a bug data resulted in loss of feeds.

version 1.5.1

added Italian localization
fixed a bug for a possible URL corruption

version 1.5

added additional menu text options
added support for spoken notifications
added option to choose for which events you want to be notified
added integration with Safari RSS
improved iTunes integration
improved text encodings

version 1.4.3

fixed a problem with custom icons not being loaded
fixed an encoding issue with foreign characters (some characters may still show wrong though)
feeds that couldn't be updated because of an error have a red title in the menu
if a feed is invalid, RSS Menu will try to make it valid and parse it
added support for logging in and out of the system
added German localization

version 1.4.2

fixed a problem when opening a feed submenu if the feed was of type Atom
fixed a problem when importing some OPML files
fixed a bug that wouldn't save the identifier of the article reader in the preferences
fixed a bug that didn't add a feed when another feed or a separator was selected in the feedslist
added Keychain support, passwords are automatically stored in the Keychain when you authenticate for a feed
added badge to the menu icon when there are new articles

version 1.4.1

fixed a bug that would prevent feeds from being updated
fixed a bug that would crash the application when updating feeds
fixed a bug that would crash the application when reading the iTunes Library XML file
fixed a bug that would not import OPML files from previous version of RSS Menu
improved feed loading time
added French localization

version 1.4

rewritten parser engine
added integration with iTunes Podcasts
added option to choose a webbrowser to open the articles
added support for more encodings, including Traditional Chinese (aka Big5)
fixed an issue with CData being wrongfully encoded
fixed an issue with OPML exporting/importing
fixed a crash when a feed didn't contain any data
fixed an issue when clicking on the feed submenu, it now points to the correct URL of the feed
HTML code is now removed
updated to use Growl 0.7.2
temporarily removed localizations (only English is available)

version 1.3.3

fixed an issue with drag & drop
fixed an issue with articles from Atom feeds
added Norwegian localization

version 1.3.2

fixed a bug that would prevent Atom feeds from being parsed
fixed a possible crash when checking for updates, usually after waking up
fixed a possible crash when changing the update rate of a feed
fixed a bug that didn't add a URL to some articles
fixed a bug that didn't update all the feeds when choosing "Update all"
fixed a bug that would see some articles as podcasts
fixed a bug when reading feeds without an active connection
fixed a bug that would cause a crash when removing a feed
RSS Menu is now localizable
when a feed has no articles, a menu item will be show with the title "No articles!"
when the computer wakes up, the feeds will get updated immediately
added automatic version checker (replacing the update checker)
added support for drag & drop of multiple items
improved article cache
improved compatibility with some feeds
improved offline reading
some changes in the Read Me file

version 1.3.1

fixed a bug that didn't add RSS Menu to the login items
fixed a bug when choosing "Open all unread"
fixed a bug that would cause a crash when a server could not be contacted
fixed a bug when putting the computer to sleep or waking up
added per feed "Mark all read" menu item
added per feed "Mark all unread" menu item
added support for Safari 2.0 feed:// url's
improved text encodings, making more feeds compatible
improved opml importing

version 1.3

added support for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
added support for feedgroups
added support for exporting of opml files as a hierarchy or flat
added support for importing of opml files with a hierarchy
added button to remove the cache files
added option to disable menu marking
added basic support for podcasts, you can choose which player you want to use (iTunes, QuickTime Player or the system default)
podcasts will show up in a different icon
feeds are now stored in the file Feeds List.plist, the old Feeds.plist is converted to the new structure at startup
some interface changes
redesigned (faster) parser engine
redesigned internal structure of feeds
redesigned separator icon
improved performance
improved drag & drop
improved opml importing
updated icons
updated to use Growl 7.0
double feeds are accepted
fixed the deletion of a feed when an error occurred, delete the feed manually if the error persists
fixed a problem when switching panes in the preferences window
due to a bug in Tiger, HTML code is not decoded, this will be improved in future versions

version 1.3a: This is a temporary fix for Tiger users. If you are using Panther (ie Mac OS 10.3.x) use RSS Menu 1.2.1
Some things to note about this version are: some features have been disabled, some features may not work as expected, drag & drop may give weird results. Other than that , the application should be stable enough to be used. Again, this is a temporary version while we continue working on RSS Menu 1.3.

version 1.2.1

fixed a problem with cutting and pasting
added trailing zero to the Update column in the feedlist
small enhancement with drag & drop

version 1.2

crossed RSS notification will only be shown when adding of a feed failed and if the notification is enabled
RSS list also shows the favourite icon of the feed
drag & drop by clicking on the icon and dragging
if you are not online, RSS Menu will no longer remove your feeds when you launch the application
fixed a typo in the Update dialog
delete/backspace key removes a feed
replaced the "edit" and "remove" buttons by "add separator" and "add group" (currently disabled)
some interface changes
you can now add a separator menuitem
added support for offline reading
added preliminary Growl support

version 1.1.1

finally fixed a bug where articles marked as read would be marked as unread after a feed was updated
RSS Menu should no longer crash when importing a bad OPML file
if an error occurs while updating a feed, the feed will no longer be removed from the list
preferences panes now have the same width
some small interface changes
added support for third party menu icons, they are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/RSS Menu/Menu Icons (where ~ is your home folder). Read the "Read Me" file for how to create custom icons

version 1.1

fixed a bug where marked articles would not be remembered when the application was not quit manually
fixed a bug that would mark feeds as unread after updating a feed
fixed a bug in the preferences window
partially fixed a problem with certain foreign characters, certain characters may still show up wrong
added importing of multiple OPML files
you can now delete more than 1 feed at the same time
redesigned interface
added preliminary version checking

version 1.0.2

fixed a problem when showing the description of a feed in a tooltip
removed the animation when the menu was updating which was causing too much flickering
if a feed doesn't have a favourite icon, a generic icon will be used instead
improved stability when loading a feed fails
added customizable global menu items (which affect all feeds): update now, mark all read and mark all unread
added feed authentication
added menu icon, you can choose from 3 icons
some interface changes

version 1.0.1

fixed a bug that allowed you to add a feed without a URL
fixed a bug which would mark a feed as unread after being marked as read
fixed a problem with text encodings in certain feeds
fixed a bug when giving a feed a name
some interface changes
added support for URL redirection
added exporting and importing of OPML files
you can open the feed url by clicking on the feed menu (the one holding the articles)
feeds that resulted in an error while parsing are automatically rejected
feeds will only update if an active internet connection is found (experimental)
you can no longer add a feed more than 1 time

version 1.0

feeds are saved in a new structure, feeds from the beta versions are not compatible with this version of RSS Menu
feeds table can now be ordered by drag & drop
feeds table now shows the name of a feed instead of the url (might take a second or so before the name shows up)
you can now drag an rss/atom url to the table in the preferences window from any other application
added option to only show number of unread articles per feed
added "update now" menuitem
feed menuitems will automatically enable/disable
replaced the "open all" menuitem with "open all unread"
support for HTML text and foreign characters
when the mouse is over an article, the contents of the feed will be shown as a tooltip, if available
when you quit and relaunch RSS Menu the read/unread articles will be restored
updates will stop/start when computer goes to sleep/wakes up
fixed bug that would cause a feed to become a "ghost" when it was removed

version 1.0b2

parsing engine rewritten from scratch
improved compatibility with RSS (any version) and Atom sites
added option to show number of unread articles
added menu item to mark all articles as read/unread
added menu item to open all articles of a feed in webbrowser windows (or tabs)
added option to give a feed a custom name
added about menu item
added more refreshrates
added option to add a custom refreshrate
lots of internal changes and bug fixes
changed name from RSSMenu to RSS Menu
temporarily disabled drag & drop

version 1.0b

first release