HN Explorer

Show HN: Barbell – A subtle news ticker in the menu bar (barbellformac.com)

2 points by jarrenae ↗ HN
Hey HN, Barbell is a tiny news ticker for the macOS menu bar. I get really distracted by notifications, and don’t always want to open newsfeeds, so this way I’m able to glance and only click on the news I find interesting. For me personally this has quickly become one of my essential macOS tools. Current features include: A max character length, refresh rate, mute for 1 hour, and sources from HN, Twitter, and Reddit.

In the future I’d like to add support for RSS, a more advanced history, and integration with focus modes. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know, I’d like to make it as useful as possible.

6 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 18.2 ms ] thread
HardwareLust
Neat idea! Gonna try it out as soon as I get home.
jarrenae
Great! Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions.
HardwareLust
I'm digging it so far!

Is there a way to adjust the text color?

jarrenae
Not yet, though ideally we'd be able to add text resizing as well as color changes. I'd really like to try 2 lines of text, especially because on the new MacBook Pros the notch increases the menu bar height.
HardwareLust
Sounds like a great idea. Lemme know if you need a beta tester!
HardwareLust
I have another suggestion I just thought of.

When you click the ticker, the drop down menu shows you the last 4 stories. It would be nice if you could show a few more than 4, maybe make that a preference. I'd like that to be a lot longer.

Other than that, been using it the last 3 days, and I really like it so far!