NetNewsWire, one of the best Mac RSS readers has reached version 4.0 and before a full version is completed, a new ‘lite’ edition has been released on to the Mac App Store. Whilst it is limited in a number of respects, it has an improved and refined UI, is free and remains of the better RSS readers on the Mac.

The biggest limitation is that it doesn’t support syncing, that’ll be a big bummer for many of you, but it’s developer Brent Simmons says that will be coming soon in the full edition of NetNewsWire. The other limitations are the lack of starred items, AppleScript support and searching amongst other more minor ones. Simmons does provide users some comfort in saying “That it supports gestures. That you can edit feed names inline. That it launches and quits very fast.

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A new release to the Mac App Store today is the Opera web browser that can be downloaded for free. The app seems to be exactly the same as the non Mac App Store version and identifies itself as version 11.01 and build 1206.

The app also includes its Presto layout engine, which would have been thought to be an infringement on Apple’s Mac App Store guidelines that state, “Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected.” This raises the distinct possibility that browser engines may not fall under the private API category, in which case other browsers could soon be heading to the Mac App Store including Firefox that uses another layout engine called Gecko. Alternatively it is possible that an Apple reviewer has let Opera slip through without realizing, which has happened before with app reviews.

When bringing the Opera browser to the iPhone and iPad, they had run into similar guideline restrictions and were forced to only release Opera Mini that does not use their own browser engine but instead directs traffic through Opera’s servers to compress data. The more fully featured Opera Mobile which is available for Android and other mobile phones could not be released on the iPhone because of its reliance on their own APIs .

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After being in public beta form since October, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Connector application for Mac has lost its beta tag and is available in the Mac App Store – Microsoft’s first app to be in Apple’s new app store. The application gives Mac users the ability to sync music, photos, videos and podcasts to a Windows Phone 7 phone or a Zune.

Whilst Windows Phone 7 Connector is simplistic and not as full featured as the Zune software on Windows, it does feature iTunes compatibility and can also update the firmware on Windows Phone 7 phones. It is available for free in the Mac App Store.

[Via Engadget]

In its first month of downloads, Intego’s VirusBarrier Express, which is being distributed exclusively on the Mac App Store, has racked up an impressive 500,000 downloads. VirusBarrier Express is Intego’s free antivirus and anti-malware offering that claims to protect Mac users from viruses, Trojan horses and other malware, including Windows malware that could be accidently passed on.

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Lugaru, the game that is available for the Mac and other platforms about a violent rabbit is now available on Mac App Store. Except there are two apps for the same game, one at $10 and one at $2, the pricier one called Lugaru HD is made by the original developers whilst the other called Lugaru is made by a Michael Latour from iCoder. The original developers of the game have no idea who Latour is and are quite understandably angry that someone else has started selling the exact same game at a much cheaper price.

Lugaru’s developers claim Latour’s app is a complete fraud of their own app with their own source code being sold by a guy with no affiliation to them. Jeffrey Rosen, one of the Lugaru developers told Kotaku “We are not happy about this situation. It is not uncommon for people to sell pirated copies of our game, but we were completely caught off guard that Apple would approve this for sale on the App Store without any due diligence.”

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