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Instapaper or read it later?
- Thread starter Booju16
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I have both.
Instapaper has more apps that use it for integration, also its been around for a long time. Has a very simple UI, and very easy to navigate, plus you can put articles in folders that you can create.
Read It Later is much more attractive ui, it took me a bit to get used to it, i also picked up the digest feature(only way to have folders, otherwise you will have tags), one thing im not crazy about is that when i put an article into a folder, it still shows up on main page. Thats just me being anal.
One cool feature of instapaper is that you can also email things to your instapaper account, to read later.
Give them both a try, they both have free versions
Instapaper has more apps that use it for integration, also its been around for a long time. Has a very simple UI, and very easy to navigate, plus you can put articles in folders that you can create.
Read It Later is much more attractive ui, it took me a bit to get used to it, i also picked up the digest feature(only way to have folders, otherwise you will have tags), one thing im not crazy about is that when i put an article into a folder, it still shows up on main page. Thats just me being anal.
One cool feature of instapaper is that you can also email things to your instapaper account, to read later.
Give them both a try, they both have free versions
I use Instapaper and love it. It changed the way I read stuff on the web. All the links I see on my twitter feed that intrest me I send to instapaper to read later on same with websites i come across while browsing the web.
I've been thinking of checking out Read It Later Pro since it's on sale for only $2.99. I'm not sure if it's worth me checking out since I've been using Instapaper for so long.
I've been thinking of checking out Read It Later Pro since it's on sale for only $2.99. I'm not sure if it's worth me checking out since I've been using Instapaper for so long.
I actually have a question about both of these apps. If I send articles to them, do I need to open the app in order for it to download the articles or will they just be available when I open it. The reason I ask this is b/c I take the subway every morning and having articles to read would be great but if I have to remember to open the app every day before I go in, it won't be as beneficial. Can someone who has these apps let me know? Thanks.
No you don't have to open the app each time. You just choose to save the page to either your instapaper or readitlater account then when you open either app it will update itself with all the new websites you saved. You can set it to automatically download ready for offline viewing for when you travel on the train. So say if your on your computer, you just save lots of articles to your account and they will be ready to read when you go on the app.
I know they will download when I open the app but do I have to open the app with a data connection available for it to get the info or can I click "Read Later" and then go right into the subway without connection?
I've never needed an app like this but I constantly read good things about Instapaper all over the web. People really seem to like it.
The app needs to download the data from the servers.
1. Click read it later link in browser
2. Open Instapaper app, it downloads new content
3. It's saved to the app for offline viewing.
This is the current problem with Apple's implementation of multitasking. When an app has something that needs to be updated, it should automatically happen in the background WITHOUT the user having to open the app. This is the same issue with the iPad. All newspapers, RSS readers, magazine apps etc should be able to download content from their servers as long as the user permits them to work in the background. Right now, I have to open EVERY app in the morning before I go into the subway and make sure it downloads the content I want. Pain in the ass!
Battery life would suffer greatly. Sorry, but the way it is is perfectly fine for 99% of the people out there.
No it would not at all. If an app is "pinged" and knows it has content to be downloaded, it should open in the background, download the info and close the app. The user should have full control over which apps can open in the background from the settings panel. An implementation like this would be EXTREMELY beneficial and would have close to no effect on battery life.
Try free versions to see which works better for you. Read It Later just didn't work for me, failing to parse full contents of many websites that I frequent. And I personally prefer Instapaper's minimal user interface.
My dream feature would be text-to-voice.
My dream feature would be text-to-voice.
+ 1
Also even if it eats into the battery a little, why not give the user a choice?
I mean, i think we are big enough to decide if we would want it or not.
It because 99% of the people out there have accepted and grown to like the whole idea of not having a choice with their iphones.
I'm not knocking the iphone, i would just like to have more choices within the iOS.
And to all those that might response with the usual "get a droid and have the choice", i just beat you to it.
For me, Instapaper all the way. A great app with a UI that gets out of your way nicely and a really good developer. IP is probably my most utilized app both on the iPhone and iPad.
The two apps are fairly close.. I prefer RiL for it's superior iPad app.. and the digest view is unbeatable.
The digest view sounds very cool to me. How does the digest work for offline reading? That's my main need for this app or instapaper. Thanks.
Digest works offline the same way it works online.. it organizes your content into newspaper-like view. You need to pre-download content when you have Internet connectivity in order to be able to view it offline.
I've been using Instapaper on the web but seeing as how Read It Later has a free app for iOS and Instapaper no longer does, I'll be giving RIL a try. $4.99 is a bit steep to test drive an app. I'm still recovering from the lackluster $2.99 purchase of Reeder for my 4S.
I've just completed a six month evaluation of both apps.
If I had to pick just one it would be Instapaper without hesitation. The latest version downloads the articles very swiftly (including photos) for later reading with far greater accuracy than RIL. Some links fail to download to RIL.
Another reason I prefer Instapaper is the greater number of sources it links to. Fast, effective & quite useful I find Instapaper the one I use most.
If I had to pick just one it would be Instapaper without hesitation. The latest version downloads the articles very swiftly (including photos) for later reading with far greater accuracy than RIL. Some links fail to download to RIL.
Another reason I prefer Instapaper is the greater number of sources it links to. Fast, effective & quite useful I find Instapaper the one I use most.