The independent RSS reader NewsBlur, popular with power users, is getting a major facelift two months after the announcement of the Google Reader shutdown. While NewsBlur is one of the most powerful RSS readers available, it’s not known for being the prettiest — and its hefty feature set made for some tradeoff in usability.
The redesign has been available for beta testers to try out, but today it will roll out to all users. The new NewsBlur is faster and includes a number of user interface tweaks such as a unified notifications popover and a new list view for brisk scanning. The iOS and Android apps also got a refresh.
While the redesign looks slightly better, the reasons for using NewsBlur are the same. It fetches feeds quickly,...