Lots of updates and changes in NewsGatorLand:

FeedDemon 2.0 is out of beta. Seems kind of anti-climatic, since what Nick Bradbury called an “alpha” was in better shape than most already-out-of-beta software.

The mothership, Newsgator, has gone through a redesign. It’s very blue. Right now, it’s also very slow. I think they need to feed the hamsters a little more.

Instead of multiple levels of membership for consumer and business that made no sense (you can get more out of the middle-level “consumer” membership than the lower-level “business” membership and pay less), it’s all in one Premium membership for $19.95 per year that includes more smart feeds and other do-dads. If I’m understanding it correctly, you get one year with all the benefits of the Premium version when
you buy one of the desktop products…FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, Inbox (formerly Outlook Edition), or SmartRead (the new not-quite-ready-for-primetime PocketPC client). After the first year, you can continue syncing to Newsgator for free, use the software standalone, or pay the $19.95 per year fee.

What are the chances that Newsgator will make more changes to their offerings/plans before my subscription is up for renewal next year? But for now, all my feeds are syncing nicely regardless of what application on what machine I choose to read them, and that’s all I care about.