One week after Google revealed plans to shut down Google Reader, the developers behind popular RSS reader NetNewsWire announced that work on revamped iOS and OS X versions of the software is well underway, with the forthcoming rollouts said to add support for feed syncing.
In a post to its official blog, Black Pixel, the company that purchased NetNewsWire in 2011, said it has been working on new iterations of the app for at least a year, adding enhancements and new features to keep the venerable RSS reader "up with the times."
As noted by Cult of Mac, the look of NetNewsWire has not been updated in some time, possibly because Black Pixel was busy working on the powerful text, image and file comparison and merging tool Kaleidoscope 2 for Mac.
One of the primary concerns in retooling NetNewsWire was RSS feed syncing functionality, one of the standout features of the soon-to-be-deprecated Google Reader.
"It's too soon to go into details about this, but you should know that we recognize how extremely important it is and that it is a top priority for us," Black Pixel's Daniel Pasco said. "As far as sync is concerned, we knew we would likely need an alternative to Google Reader as early as last year. "
It remains unclear how the company plans to implement the functionality, but apparently integrating with Apple's iCloud and Core Data was too tall an order. The team spent "a considerable amount of time" on the effort, but could not resolve a number of unspecified issues pertaining to Apple's cloud computing service.
Black Pixel is keeping mum on when the new and improved NetNewsWire will ship, though interested users can download the current iPhone, iPad and OS X versions from the iOS and Mac App Stores.