[Gee4orce]

According the Appleinsider Panic are developing two new applications, one of which is a Usenet reader. Cool !

Unison provides a Mac OS X style column-view newsgroup browser that spawns a threaded message viewer in the style of Apple's Mail application. The tabbed viewer automatically extracts newsgroup postings into Message, File, Image and Music assortments that are then easily browsed by the user.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Ya it sounds and looks interesting.

[-Q-]

It very much is interesting. I just wish they'd release the damn thing already.

[mishap]

This is very good news.
I wonder how many headers it can handle. Since a lot of groups on giganews are reaching up to almost 5 million.

[mishap]

Just picked it up.... it is much different than using thoth.

It looks like a great way to organize the headers the groups and everything else...especially for newbies.

I'll try it for a week and if it works well.. i'll be picking it up for sure!

[Silky Voice of The Gorn]

I like it. One annoying bug: font prefs don't work in the group files tab

[Cadaver]

Its a bizillion times better than Thoth or the YA-Newsreader crap.

Seems a bit slow, but not sure if its the machine I'm using (G3/900 @ work; I'll try it on my 2x2 G5 when I get home) or my news server.

Anyway, seems like it'll be another winner for Panic. Just bought Transmit last week. I'll have to do the same for Unison.

[theJoy]

my only big complaint so far (and it's very possibly that i am mistaken) is that there doesn't appear to be a way to d/l a group's headers, decide that there's nothing there you're interested in, delete the headers and then be able to d/l the new headers next time you decide to view the group . . . it appears to me that i will have to leave all the headers i have no interest in within the group to be able to d/l new headers (and not have to suffer through 15 minutes of d/l, indexing 500,000 headers) . . . there needs to be a way to clear a group and upon next visit, only d/l those headers that you didn't d/l previously

[mishap]

Originally posted by theJoy:
my only big complaint so far (and it's very possibly that i am mistaken) is that there doesn't appear to be a way to d/l a group's headers, decide that there's nothing there you're interested in, delete the headers and then be able to d/l the new headers next time you decide to view the group . . . it appears to me that i will have to leave all the headers i have no interest in within the group to be able to d/l new headers (and not have to suffer through 15 minutes of d/l, indexing 500,000 headers) . . . there needs to be a way to clear a group and upon next visit, only d/l those headers that you didn't d/l previously

that would be great..


Overall, this product is amazing great work! Just registered! great!

*very happy*

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Just got it, it is wicked fast. I did run into a couple bugs though. I will write the company with suggestions on how to make it easier to use.

[MacGorilla]

Its a really awesome, well designed and thought out app.

[typoon]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
Its a really awesome, well designed and thought out app.

I agree. Panic Makes some good stuff. Transmit being one of them

[workerbee]

Simply brilliant. Took me all of 5 minutes to decide to buy it.

[ckohler]

I've been beta testing this app for the past few months. It's really great. The ability to view at a glance all the images or files in a newsgroup (and even preview them) is the killer feature to me.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by ckohler:
I've been beta testing this app for the past few months. It's really great. The ability to view at a glance all the images or files in a newsgroup (and even preview them) is the killer feature to me.

Ya god bless easy to read porn. My only questions/problems with it are..

1) when in picture mode can you mark all as read or do you need to switch back to messages and then mark them?

2) when you preview the images is it actually downloading the whole damn image or just generating previews?

[jaiqua]

Nice app. but I still prefer Halime, it's much faster, more features, and seems more OS X like.

[mishap]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:

2) when you preview the images is it actually downloading the whole damn image or just generating previews?

That's what I think... I'm not sure how else this could be done.

I cant tell because i can get the full images just as fast as the preview on Cable using Giganews servers.

[Biggysteve]

Originally posted by jaiqua:
Nice app. but I still prefer Halime, it's much faster, more features, and seems more OS X like.

Haven't they stopped development on Halime?

[typoon]

Are there any free usenet servers out there that we can use with this?

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by jaiqua:
Nice app. but I still prefer Halime, it's much faster, more features, and seems more OS X like.

You must be kidding! That app is the SLOWEST, buggest App I have ever used. Even more so then iPhoto!

[workerbee]

Originally posted by jaiqua:
Nice app. but I still prefer Halime, it's much faster, more features, and seems more OS X like.

I really liked Halime's idea, but found it to be rather buggy. It's crashed many times on me while saving a subscription with for example mm.flash, mm.dreamweaver and mm.fireworks, at 3000 messages each. Also text display was sometimes a bit off -- guess it just didn't like managing thousands of posts�

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Well I have been using Unison and like all panic apps when they first come out it is rather crash prone and buggy.

[mishap]

Anyone know how to backup all your settings...

like your Group organization and Favorites?

btw, this would be a nice Import/Export menu option.

[Graymalkin]

I've been looking for a decent News reader for months now. I've been using Newsflash until now which is a painful and slow experience. Unison is looking pretty sweet so far. It doesn't seem as slow as has been reported but then I don't have a zippy dual G5 to compare the speed to. If it keeps acting nice Panic might be getting another $25 out of me.

[jaske]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
Well I have been using Unison and like all panic apps when they first come out it is rather crash prone and buggy.

So, I've used the app for a few hours with nary a crash. Could you post some evidence of the crashes you've experienced with this app? And maybe the evidence of Panic having a "history" of crashes?

If it's crashed there's got to be a log or something . . .

I mean, the app's been great for me, and I recommend the app whole-heartedly. I just purchased a license.

So, rather than post a typical one-line "Severed Hand of Skywalker" response that has no empirical eveidence (outside of the statistically meaningless experience of one) show us your pudding.

[theJoy]

been using quite a bit today. a second thing that's irritating (the 1st i posted earlier) is that there's no way to mark files to d/l . . . there should be a way to mark a file, saying "yes i would love to download you, just not right this second". if this feature was there, one would be able to mark a bunch of files to d/l, then, maybe at night time or at a time when you won't be on your computer you tap "download marked files" and they download while bandwidth is not at a premium. this feature would be implemented to allow for marking files over multiple groups as well (this is actually a feature in Hogwasher, the most over-priced piece of software i've ever paid for, also probably one of my favorite pieces of SW)


PS - anyone find it intriguing that Panic decided to list many-many warez focused groups in Unison's default groups? (although at this point it seems USENET is all about pr0n & warez)

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

ya the app has killed itself like I was expecting it would. When I load images in any of my bookmarked lists it hangs. Tried clearing the cashe, no help. Ah well, like I said Transmit took almost 2 years before it was really usable, guess I am going to have to wait on this one as well.

[mishap]

Originally posted by theJoy:


PS - anyone find it intriguing that Panic decided to list many-many warez focused groups in Unison's default groups? (although at this point it seems USENET is all about pr0n & warez)

a.b.m.a
a.b.m.o.a


usenet is very diverse... there are actually a few gems in there as well.

[Moonray]

I surely don't need a newsreader where I have to switch between views before I can see attachments that belong to a post what makes me lose track because they don't even care about giving the posting info to the files/pictures whatever, attempts to group posts lead to funny results. Besides it won't download or see half of the attachments in 'normal' groups at all.
Has obviously only been tested in adult, warez, and mp3 groups.

No thanks.

-

[Dale Sorel]

Get it here: http://www.panic.com/unison/index.html

[boardsurfer]

how the heck do you use this thing? It says there are over 12,000 groups but none of them contain mp3. what am I missing? There arent even any warez or pron (I dont want those, but thought I would at least find something.) I realize that is a broad request, but could someone enlighten me a little?

/clueless.

[Moonray]

Your provider might not provide all groups. The usenet is the largest discussion board and one of the oldest institutions of the internet.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:USENET

-

[WJMoore]

Did anyone see/save the screen shots of Statoo that were originally posted, just interested to know what it looks like.

[Gee4orce]

How do I get it to download/preview all images ? Or do I have to click on each one individually ?

[Silky Voice of The Gorn]

Shift-select and hit the preview button in the toolbar.

I'm still liking Unison, but it is indeed buggy..when it encounters an image it doesn't like (say a partial binary), it locks up, overloading the cpu, and have to force quit.

I said this already, but the fact that font only work in the message list is ridiculous (not to mention that most fonts don't vertically space properly). Geneva 9 should not anti-alias, by the way.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn:

I'm still liking Unison, but it is indeed buggy..when it encounters an image it doesn't like (say a partial binary), it locks up, overloading the cpu, and have to force quit.

This is what happened to me. Nothing works now and the app is totally useless. Ahhh panic... you need yourself some better beta testers.

[Bobby]

Is it just me, or does Stattoo sound remarably close to Konfabulator???

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Bobby:
Is it just me, or does Stattoo sound remarably close to Konfabulator???

Ya it is rather obvious they are trying to make their own Konfabulator.

[car1son]

I tried Unison out. I really liked the interface.

But it can't seem to manage multiple download connections properly. I set it to my Earthlink news server to use 4 concurrent connections. It started DLing fine, but after 30-50MB of files it reported an error mid-file, then marched through the remaining pending DLs and marked them as errors, too. Tried again with 3 concurrent connections. Tried again with Earthlink's other news server.

Regretably, I need to stick with Thoth for now.
Nice interface, though.

[quandarry]

thoth is better.


unison.

tried it.

didn't like it.

wrote a song about it.

wanna hear it.

[bborofka]

This is a great piece of software with a promising future. I like the simplicity and elegance. My only problem is the multi-window interface. It feels so OS 9. I like Halime's approach of putting newsgroups in a drawer. Unison doesn't even use drawers.

Hopefully over time Panic will fix bugs and the interface will evolve into more of a single-window GUI.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by eVo:

Hopefully over time Panic will fix bugs and the interface will evolve into more of a single-window GUI.

I hope not, or I might accidently slash my throat.

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
I hope not, or I might accidently slash my throat.

That would be a shame.

[Anderton]

Panic is like Apple. They take something that already exists, and make it easier and better. Now, where is Audion 4?

[WJMoore]

Originally posted by WJMoore:
Did anyone see/save the screen shots of Statoo that were originally posted, just interested to know what it looks like.

So I can assume by the lack of response that the answer is no?

[voodoo]

OK what the heck do you do with usenet other than d/l warez and porn??

Is it that good at d/l warez and porn?

[mishap]

Originally posted by voodoo:
OK what the heck do you do with usenet other than d/l warez and porn??

Is it that good at d/l warez and porn?

yes, and it is also good at getting all differnt types of music and movies you may never have heard or seen before.

i'm constantly checking out http://www.allmusic.com to see what some of the stuff is

[Spliff]

Originally posted by car1son:
I tried Unison out. I really liked the interface.

But it can't seem to manage multiple download connections properly. I set it to my Earthlink news server to use 4 concurrent connections. It started DLing fine, but after 30-50MB of files it reported an error mid-file, then marched through the remaining pending DLs and marked them as errors, too. Tried again with 3 concurrent connections. Tried again with Earthlink's other news server.

Regretably, I need to stick with Thoth for now.
Nice interface, though.

Yeah, I've got the same problem. It can't handle multiple downloads which makes it pretty much useless except for posting to discussion forums or downloading the odd song or two.

Panic makes neat looking apps, but they're buggy as hell. Pixadex is slow and crash prone. Audion is crash-prone and hasn't been updated for at least a year.

Unison has promise, but it's needs some serious tweaking.

[Hop Pocket]

For those of you that have fink installed, and are looking for a good newsreader, check out Pan.

It's an _excellent_ X11 newsreader. I've used Thoth, MT, and now Unison, and Pan beats them all hands down.

[pliny]

gee when unison came out two weeks ago it was 14.95, now it's 24.95.