Newsstand

A Google News RSS reader for Mac OS 9

 

  • More than 200 curated topics
  • Top news available for 24 countries
  • Designed with an Apple Platinum interface
  • Natively written in Mac OS 9
  • New in Newsstand 1.1: Add your own RSS feeds

 

 

Newsstand 1.0. Created in June 2021.


New in Newsstand 1.1: Add your favorite RSS feeds  

 

"[Newsstand] is absolutely delightful ... As a sidenote, this is the best new app icon I've seen in years. Newsstand's exquisite 3D icon is a jarring reminder of just how boring today's flat icon aesthetic is."

-Daring Fireball

"Someone created a great new app for reading Google News RSS feeds, called Newsstand. It even has a gorgeous 3D icon. Oh, and it only runs on Mac OS 9."

-iMore


Why?

I created Newsstand as a fun way to access the news on my vintage Macs. I have a two Apple PowerBook G3 computers, but older machines don't work very well on the modern web. Their browsers can't load https websites, and vintage hardware can't keep up with the dynamic pages that make up the web today. I created Newsstand in Mac OS 9 using tools only available at the time.

With Newsstand, I can use a Classic Mac application on my PowerBooks and stay up-to-date with what's happening. Newsstand has been a personal project over the last few weeks and a really fun challenge. I'm ready to release it to all of you, and I'm eager to hear your feedback.

Take a look at the Read Me file in the Newsstand download for more details.

 

System Requirements

  • 12MB of available RAM (14MB recommended if browsing a lot of RSS feeds
  • 2.5MB of available hard disk space
  • Mac OS 8.1 - 9.2.2. Newsstand does not appear to run on System 7.6.1 or earlier. (Thanks to galgot for testing)
 

Download Newsstand 1.1

Newsstand_1.1.sea

Self-extracting archive

 

Newsstand_1.1.sit

Stuffit Expander archive

 

Newsstand 1.0 (older version): Newsstand1.sit


 

Software used to develop Newsstand

  • REALbasic 5.5.5 as my software development IDE
  • Acrobat Reader 4.0 to access to the REALbasic User Guide and Language Reference
  • Adobe Photoshop 4.0.1 for graphic editing and icons
  • SimpleText to create the Read Me file and to test font faces and sizes
  • StuffitDeluxe 5.5 to create backups and the expandable archives for the application
  • Berkeley Systems' Expresso Calendar and Address Book for project management
  • GoLive CyberStudio 1.0 to create this website: http://www.getnewsstand.com
  • Fetch 4.0.3 for data transfer to my M1 MacBook Air and to upload the website
 

How can I try Newsstand on a modern Mac?

I don't have a version of Newsstand that will run on a current version of Mac OS X. Instead, I use SheepShaver to run Mac OS 9 on my M1 MacBook Air. Edward Mendelson created a fully functional SheepShaver system that runs Mac OS 9.0.4. It includes some basic software, and it makes it easy to transfer files between Mac OS X.

 

Submit new topics to Newsstand

I made a list of topics that I think represent a lot of interests, but I know I missed plenty of others. Submit additional topics through this form (Google Forms) for consideration in the next Newsstand update.

 

Special Thanks

  • Action Retro's 68k.news for the inspiration of using Google News RSS on an older Mac
  • Andres Rey's PHP port of Mozilla's Readability.js
  • The community on the Xojo Programming Forum for helping me think through ideas when REALbasic 5.5.5 didn't have the supported features or classes to accomplish something simple
  • Ivan Feoktistov for the Newsstand icon, licensed through VectorStock
 

Sign-up for the Mailing List

Get updates on Newsstand and any other upcoming new Classic Mac apps. Sign-up for the mailing list.

 

About Alex

I live in Chicago and have been building websites for over a decade, but Newsstand is my first application. Let me know what you think of it. And check out my other project: Launching Next


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