Plugin to Return RSS to OS X Mail?

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Level 1

69 points

Plugin to Return RSS to OS X Mail?

I was very disappointed to learn that Mountain Lion had silently dropped support for RSS from Mail. Getting rid of it from Safari I could understand, as it was never an especially good application for consuming data in that way, but RSS and Mail are very simple as both are an ordered sequence of updates, the only real difference is that Mail lets you send messages back.

So Mail has always been a favourite of mine for RSS, as opposed to having to use a separate program, as any interface designed for e-mail is pretty much designed for RSS as well.

What I'm wondering is if there are any plugins that add RSS support back into Mail or, failing that, are there are any good, free, Mail clients that function like OS X Mail (the same two column view, smart mailboxes and filtering rules are the features I need) but also has support for RSS?

MacPro (2 x Quad-core 3.2ghz Xeon), Mac OS X (10.6.4), 10gb RAM, 4 x 750gb hard-drives (RAID-0)

Posted on Jul 17, 2013 5:24 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 8

45,994 points

Jul 17, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Iain Simms

Neither RSS nor Mail are simple. Both are extremely complicated. Removing RSS allows Apple to focus on making both Safari and Mail perform their primary functions more easily.

I recently released an RSS feed reader that is integrated with Mountain Lion's new notifications. Instead of checking some RSS reader all day, just sit back and wait for notifications. You can download it from: http://www.etresoft.com/etrefeed

However, it is, like any RSS feed reader, just another stand-alone program. I have considered way to get the data back into Safari or Mail but there is no simple way to do that. Plus, when there are something like 120 other RSS feed readers on the market, most of them free, there isn't too much incentive to try.

Unfortunately, this is simply a real-world consequence of consumer-oriented free software. The consumer ultimately loses because no one, from huge corporations like Apple to small enterprises like my own, wants to bother competing with free. I still plan to continue updating my software and enhancing its abiltity to act as a spam filter for the web, but it isn't ever going to be integrated with e-mail and it isn't ever going to be free.

Disclaimer: I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my link.

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Answer 2

Iain Simms Author

Level 1

69 points

Jul 17, 2013 6:16 AM in response to etresoft

I'm not sure I'd agree that RSS isn't simple, it is known as Really Simple Syndication for a reason after all 😉

The most complicated bit is the UI IMO, and Apple already has that since displaying RSS messages in Mail isn't much different from displaying e-mails. ****, they had all the code for it, which is why it's so annoying that they just ditched it silently!

Ahem, bit off topic, but I really am more interested in getting RSS back into Mail as I have a huge list of feeds, so I preferred just popping Mail open (since I always had it open but hidden anyway) to see at a glance if I had new mail and/or feed entries.

I may try just running the Lion version of Mail though, as I don't see anything changed in Mail that affects me (other than a new archive mailbox that only seems to mess up my existing archive setup).

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 8

45,994 points

Jul 17, 2013 2:53 PM in response to Iain Simms

Iain Simms wrote:

I'm not sure I'd agree that RSS isn't simple, it is known as Really Simple Syndication for a reason after all 😉

The most complicated bit is the UI IMO

I can assure you it is not simple. It is, in fact, one of the most poorly documented and non-standard formats I have ever seen. If you don't believe me, you are free to try to track down the specifications and prove me wrong. I'll wait...

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Answer 4

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Jul 17, 2013 3:03 PM in response to Iain Simms

What I'm wondering is if there are any plugins that add RSS support back into Mail

None I've seen, and I rather doubt a plugin could do that, though I can't say someone couldn't figure it out.

failing that, are there are any good, free, Mail clients that function like OS X Mail (the same two column view, smart mailboxes and filtering rules are the features I need) but also has support for RSS?

I know of no email application for Mac, paid or free, that also supports RSS. Outlook doesn't, AirMail doesn't, Sparrow doesn't (and isn't available any longer anyway), PowerMail doesn't. Most developers appear to, like Apple, feel that RSS is better split out to a separate application.

Regards.

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