We are now feature complete for the next release of RSS Bandit. Interested users can download it at RssBandit.1.3.0.18.Wolverine.Beta.zip. All bugs specific to the previous alpha release have been fixed. The next steps for us are finish working on documentation, translations and fixing any bugs that are reported during the beta with the intention of shipping a final release in the next two weeks.

Check out a screenshot of the Wolverine Beta which shows some of the new features such as newspaper styles and the additional columns in the listview. The major new features are listed below but there are couple of minor ones such as proxy exclusion lists and better handling of SSL certificate issues which aren't listed. There will be a comprehensive list of bug fixes and new features in the announcement for the final release.

NEW FEATURES (compared to v1.2.0.117)

• Newspaper styles: Ability to view all unread posts in feeds and categories or all posts in a search folder in a Newspaper view. This view uses templates that are in the same format as those used by FeedDemon so one can use RSS Bandit newspaper styles in FeedDemon and vice versa. One can choose to specify a particular stylesheet for a given feed or category. For example, one could use the slashdot.fdxsl stylesheet for viewing Slashdot, headlines.fdxsl for viewing news sites in the News category and outlook-express.fdxsl for viewing blog posts.  

• Column Chooser: Ability to specify which columns are shown in the list view from a choice of Headline, Topic, Date, Author, Comment Count, Enclosures, Feed Title and Flag. One can choose to specify a column layout for a particular feed or category. For example, one could use the layout {Headline, Author, Topic, Date, Comment Count} for a site like Slashdot but use one like {Headline, Topic, Date} for a traditional blog that doesn't have comments.

• Category Properties: It is now possible to specify certain properties for all feeds within a category such as how often they should be updated or how long posts should be kept before being removed. 

• Identities: One can create multiple personas with associated information (homepage, name, email address, signature, etc) for use when posting comments to weblogs that support the CommentAPI.

• del.icio.us Integration: Users who have accounts on the del.icio.us service can upload links to items of interest directly from RSS Bandit.  

• Skim Mode: Added option to 'Mark All Items As Read on Exiting a Feed' 

• Search Folder Improvements: Made the following additions to the context menu for search folders; 'New Search Folder', 'Refresh Search', 'Mark All Items As Read' and 'Rename Search Folder'. Also deletion of a search folder now prompts the user to prevent accidental deletion

• Item Deletion: News items can be deleted by either using the [Del] key or using the context menu. Deleted items go to the "Deleted Items" special folder and can be deleted permanently by emptying the folder or restored to the original feed at a later date.

• UI Improvements: Tabbed browsers now use a multicolored border reminiscent of Microsoft OneNote.

POSTPONED FEATURES (will be in the NightCrawler release)

• NNTP Support
• Synchronizing state should happen automatically on startup/shutdown
• Applying search filters to the list view 
• Provide a way to export feeds from a category