"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 1.0 (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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