Instapaper, the popular read-it-later service, is doubling the price of its subscription for new and existing subscribers alike. The good news? In a blog post this week, the company promises “increased investment” in the service that will result in “faster feature development.”
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Instapaper has been on a tear this summer after a major update in May brought CarPlay support. Updates to the iOS and macOS apps this week continue the trend with better ways to manage articles and improved integration with Shortcuts.
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Popular read-it-later service Instapaper expanding from its iPhone and iPad app and starting today is available on Mac thanks to Catalyst. The macOS version comes with all the Instapaper favorite features from iOS like Dark Mode and specific Mac features like full screen view, keyboard shortcuts, and more
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Instapaper for iOS has been updated with new features and polish on the latest iPhones and iPads. Instapaper version 7.7 includes support for the new displays on the 2018 iPad Pros, keyboard shortcut support, and a true black theme for iPhone X and iPhone XS.
A few weeks ago Instapaper announced that it was taking the service solo and leaving Pinterest. As part of its new independence, the read-it-later service is reintroducing its Instapaper Premium subscription service to keep the lights turned on. Instapaper is also returning to the European Union after months of being offline for EU users due to GDPR compliance issues.
Read-it-later and bookmarking service Instapaper announced today that it will once again be an independent operation. Instapaper was mostly recently owned by social network Pinterest after an acquisition two years ago.
Instapaper, the popular read-it-later application, revealed today that it will temporarily suspend service in Europe. Instapaper says it will be unavailable beginning tomorrow, Thursday, May 24th, as it continues to make GDPR-required changes…
iOS 11 brings desktop-class drag and drop support to the iPad, and Pinterest is using the new feature to make saving pins easier. The bookmarking app now lets you drag content from Safari directly into Pinterest to instantly create pins. You can use this new method in split view or with the new Dock on iOS 11.
Pinterest has purchased the popular read-it-later service Instapaper and plans to maintain the app and service for users. The purchase comes three years after Betaworks, the firm behind Digg, bought Instapaper from creator Marco Arment who currently developes the popular podcast player Overcast.
We know the developer behind the popular RSS client Reeder has been working on a version 3.0 update for OS X 10.10 Yosemite as we last saw a teaser in April. Today users get the first chance to try out the redesigned RSS service reader as the first public beta for Reeder 3 has gone live. The updated version sports a user interface designed for Yosemite and beyond, more themes for making reading comfortable, and even a few OS X El Capitan features. Reeder says the new version will be available as a free update to current Reeder 2 customers when it’s completed.
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Apple is now so focused on marketing-driven goals that its software quality has “taken a nosedive” in the last few years, argues a blog post by Instapaper creator and former Tumblr lead developer Marco Arment.
[OS X is] riddled with embarrassing bugs and fundamental regressions [and] I fear that Apple’s leadership doesn’t realize quite how badly and deeply their software flaws have damaged their reputation
People are sticking with OS X not because they love it, he suggests, but because Windows is worse and desktop Linux is too much hassle.
The issue, believes Arment, is that Apple is so focused on releasing a major new version of OS X each year that it is making it impossible for engineering teams to maintain quality.
We don’t need major OS releases every year. We don’t need each OS release to have a huge list of new features. We need our computers, phones, and tablets to work well first so we can enjoy new features released at a healthy, gradual, sustainable pace.
Twitter commentators seem largely in agreement. What are your views? Would you like to see a slower pace of development in order to have greater reliability? Or do the new features make any glitches worthwhile? Take our poll, and let us know your views in the comments.
Instapaper, the handy app that lets you grab content from the web and other apps for offline reading later, has been updated with support for the Handoff feature introduced as part of iOS 8.
Device handoff support: Start reading on one device, and pick up exactly where you left off on another device!
Version 6.1 of the app also has an improved save function, allowing you to save content directly to a particular folder, and allows you to enable a counter which displays a badge with the number of saved articles when viewing the app’s icon on the homescreen.
Instapaper is a free app, but saving content from compatible third-party apps requires a premium subscription costing $29.99 a year or $2.99 a month.
If you haven’t yet gotten to grips with Handoff, our how-to guide tells you everything you need to know.
Outread is a new speed reader app for the iPhone that helps you read faster by highlighting short sections of text. Focusing on the highlighted section helps you efficiently and quickly move through the text. This differs from most speed reader apps in that they use a technique called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, which presents one word at a time.
Both of these speed reading techniques force the reader to stop reading out loud inside their head (subvocalization), which is what slows us down when we are reading. Generally a reader’s average reading speed is two hundred words per minute, but Outread supports reading speeds up to one thousand words per minute and a marker size of one hundred characters.
Under the app’s settings, you can adjust the Reading Speed (how many words go by per minute), Marker Size (how many characters are highlighted), and the size of the text. You can also enable a dark theme and see a preview of the different fonts that are available. The color of the highlighter is not customizable. Because of this, I found that it took me a while to find the highlighter when using the app’s dark theme.
Outread also has a feature that allows you to import text or URL’s from your clipboard. While it doesn’t automatically detect the clipboard’s contents when you launch the app, the function is only a tap away.
You are also able to install a “Read In Outread” bookmark which will save articles from Safari to the app’s reading list. When you save the articles to Outread, it downloads them for offline viewing so you can read them without an internet connection, which is perfect for use while traveling. If you use Pocket, Readability, or have an Instapaper subscription you are able to sign into these accounts in Outread and see your offline lists.
Outread does not support importing Microsoft Word documents, Pages files, or PDF files, which is inconvenient when it comes to reading papers and articles for school. Hopefully this functionality will be added in a future update. For now, copying the text from those documents and importing it via the clipboard is a helpful workaround.
I have been using Outread for reading the news and articles for school. Compared to other speed reader apps that use rapid serial visualization presentation, I find that it takes a bit of getting used to the animation when it scrolls down the page. If you want to try an app that can help you get through your reading list much faster, I recommend giving it a try. Outread is available in the App Store for $2.99.
Velocity is a new speed reader app for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad that helps you read faster by presenting one word at a time using a technique called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. Studies have shown that using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation helps increase reader’s reading speed because it forces the reader to stop reading out loud inside their head (subvocalization), and suppresses the tendency for eyes to backtrack the line while reading and searching for the end of the sentence. Generally a reader’s average reading speed is two hundred words per minute, but Velocity supports reading speeds up to one thousand words per minute.
ReadQuick, the speed-reading app for iPad, has been updated to version 1.5 today. The new version brings the app to the iPhone and iPod touch.
For those who aren’t familiar, ReadQuick is an app that presents a new way to read web articles. Rather than present you the entire article as one page, ReadQuick shows you the entire article one word at a time. That may sound inconvenient, but it turns out it’s actually much nicer than it sounds. Keep reading for our full review of the brand new iPhone version.
On top of the recent announcement that it will be bringing sponsored posts, aka advertisements, to its mobile apps, Tumblr today released an updated iOS app that includes new sharing features, the ability to save content for later reading, new templates for sharing posts through email, and much more.
Other enhancements include animated GIFs while scrolling, an alphabetized and searchable Following list, and support for sharing directly to Twitter and Facebook. A full list of what’s new in version 3.3.1 of the universal iOS app is below:
Now you can do more than just reblog when you find something you love.
– Share posts via Twitter, Facebook, and more
– Save stuff for later using Instapaper and Pocket
– Email an entire post with our beautiful new template
– Fling a photo up or down to close it!
– GIFs animate while you scroll*
– Following list is now alphabetized and searchable
*iPad 2, 3 and 4, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 5th Generation, iPhone 4S and 5 only
Our usual list of apps and updates is below kicking off with a couple notable updates from over the weekend to the Instapaper and vjay apps:
vjay version 1.0.1: One of the biggest updates today goes to algoriddim’s video-mixing vjay app that we introduced you to a couple of months ago. Included in version 1.0.1 is support for 1080p videos up to 30 FPS, new settings like Auto Repeat and Play Automatically, and improved MIDI support for both the ION iDJ 2 Go MIDI controller and Numark Mixdeck Quad.
Instapaper version 4.2.4: The iPhone and iPad Instapaper app received an update that includes improvements to dark-mode and link colors, pagination performance, and support for Chrome, Buffer, and iCab Reading List in the Share panel. A full list of what’s new is below:
– Improved pagination performance.
– Improved dark-mode colors and link colors. (More on that front soon.)
– Removed instapaper.com/z short URLs from all remaining Twitter sharing methods. Now that t.co URLs are supported by nearly all apps, custom short URLs are unnecessary and they only inconvenience Twitter readers, so they’re gone. Your links are yours and should have as few intermediaries as possible.
– Removed rarely-used “Print” feature.
– Added Buffer, Chrome, and the upcoming iCab Reading List to the Share panel.
– Added “Report a text problem” to article footers so customers can help improve Instapaper’s parsing of certain pages.
– Improved Pinboard login security to use their new token system instead of storing passwords.
– Made syncing even faster.
– Fixed bugs from the future.
Discovery Channel HD version 1.9: In anticipation of the 25th anniversary of Shark Week, the Discovery Channel app was just updated with an “interactive second screen experience, synchronized to select shows from Shark Week.”
Using ACR (automatic content recognition) technology, this deeper dive into Shark Week features exclusive photos, behind-the-scenes information, revealing production shots, interactive infographics, shark trivia and much more!
Discovery Channel is offering Shark Week Plus exclusivity to iPad users each night of Shark Week from 9 to 10PM e/p, and Shark Week Bingo from 10-11PM e/p. Shark Week’s 25th anniversary begins Sunday, August 12.
Apple just released the following statement on the App corruption issue we reported earlier today:
“We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded. It affected only a small number of users.
“The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again,” Apple said. Those who have an affected app can re-download it from the App Store.
The “small number of users” seems to run counter to what Instapaper developer Marco Arment found as he publicized his issues with Apple (along with Good Reader) today.
Apple: This is a serious problem. It’s not isolated. Please fix this.
Sources told Macworld that Apple will be removing one-star app reviews developers earned unfairly because of the company’s server issue.
Safari Reading List is definitely a nice, simple alternative to third party apps like Instapaper, Readability, and Pocket for those who use Safari. Reading List allows you to save and sync links for later reading between both your Mac and iOS devices. It has been known that offline reading is coming soon to Safari on Mountain Lion, and it looks like that feature finally landed. Found by Gear Live today and a commenter on Control Your Mac 10 days ago, offline reading was enabled in recent builds of Mountain Lion. However, offline reading is sadly still not available on iOS devices; although, we would guess iOS offline support is coming at some point.
Offline reading is pretty self-explanatory. While connected, you can mark items to read in your Reading List. Once the Internet is disconnected, you can still load the article thanks to a bit of caching work done on Apple’s end. Apps like Instapaper, Readability, and Pocket have offered a similar feature for quite some time, so it is nice to see Apple finally utilize offline reading.
Earlier this week, Instapaper owner Macro Arment said (video queued below) his app has been pretty much left unfazed after the introduction of Reading List over a year ago, which points to the lack of offline reading to a possibility why Reading List may have not caught steam. Sadly, you can only use Reading List in Safari too, so Chrome users are left to find another option. This looks to be like a nice solution for the mainstreamers, however.
Joshua Topolsky of The Verge recently sat down with Instapaper founder Marco Arment. For those unfamiliar, Instapaper is a popular app on the App Store that allows you to save an article or a piece of the Web for later reading. The app has a slick web interface that allows you to manage content, along with a browser extension that enables you to mark content easily.
In the interview above, we learn more about the economics of Instapaper, and how it has fared against the release of Apple’s Safari Reading List. Arment also shared why he has not released an Android app, calling the economics just not good. He also made a great point that not many Android users are actually buying apps. Instapaper is available on iTunes for $5, and Arment said that is a price most Android users just will not pay. He also said that Instapaper has been unfazed by the release of Reading List, along with the rest of the competition Instapaper is currently stacked against.
While Google+ got the most notable update earlier this afternoon, there are three other nice little updates to apps this evening. Most notably, Instapaper was updated to version 4.2, which adds an iBook style “pagination” feature. Other key features include:
Furthermore, community driven business reviews app Yelp was updated to version 5.8.0. It added the ability to comment on your friends’ checkins. Other features include:
Lastly, new up-and-coming game Dice With Buddies was updated to version 2.0 and has been marked down to a free app for a limited time. In version 2.0, the app now features a new redesign of the main menu. Some other nice additions:
