LuckNews For Mac

With the growing number of websites and news sources that users are trying to keep track of, RSS/Atom feeds and readers can come in handy. They help you receive updates in a standardized, simple format, without the need to check for new developments manually.

LuckNews has been around for quite some time, and it's a great option if you're looking for a straightforward, easy-to-understand feed reader. It has a minimalistic UI, features for organizing your feeds, and support for cloud sync between your desktop and the LuckNews mobile apps.

Getting started could hardly be simpler. A few sample feeds are included to give you an idea as to how they can be organized, and you can start adding your own from the various websites and services that maintain them.

Feeds can be organized into groups, and you can disable the sidebar to focus on a particular source. Initially, feeds are refreshed every hour, but you can change this interval to get more frequent updates. They can also be refreshed manually.

By default, articles are displayed in the standard RSS format, but you can choose to view the full HTML web content, and the app even supports JavaScript, which will be necessary for some websites to load correctly. Text size can be changed, and you can also use a different font if you prefer.

You can cycle between articles either by using the arrow keys or with two-finger swipe gestures on your trackpad or Magic Mouse. To get rid of clutter, you can have the app display only unread articles, and important ones can be favorited and pinned.

Accessing a feed's settings or the app's preferences brings up some rather outdated-looking windows, which also can only be closed by clicking somewhere else in the main UI. Not a big issue by any means, but they could do with an update.

Overall, LuckNews is just what you'd expect from an old, reliable feed reader. You can get it going in just a few minutes, and it has the advantage of being available on iPhone and iPad as well, should you wish to take your news with you on the go.