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Instapaper: Read it Later on Your iPhone

October 31, 2009 – 4:10 pm by Gabe Anderson | No Comments

One of the simplest yet most useful iPhone apps I’ve come across is Instapaper, which offers a simple way to bookmark something so that you can read it later.

It solves that problem where someone sends you a link or you stumble across an article online that interests you, but you either don’t have the time or don’t feel like reading it right now.

It’s simple to use. All you do is this:

1. One-time setup:
   • Drag the Instapaper bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar.
   • Install either the free or pro version of Instapaper on your iPhone or iTouch.
2. When you find something that interests you:
• Click the “Read Later” bookmark on your toolbar.
• Let Instapaper save the content to your account.
• Read it later.

Why not just use bookmarks?

Sure, you could use bookmarks, but at least for me, bookmarks are more about sites that I visit regularly, and I don’t want to bother with managing a temporary “to read” folder of bookmarks. Not only that, but if you’re reading articles on your iPhone later (you can also read at your comptuer via the Instapaper site), Instapaper gives you a great interface that’s optimized for the iPhone and is easier on the eyes (no zooming in or worry about horizontal scrolling if the website isn’t optimized for your iPhone).

What else does Instapaper do for me?

Along with optimizing text for reading on your iPhone, Instapaper gives you cool stuff like the following (from the Instapaper site):

• Saves web pages
• Offline reading
• Saves paper
• Makes you read more (I like that this is listed as a feature!)
• Remembers your position (very cool)
• Tilt scrolling
• Adjustable fonts and text size
• Lots more

Instapaper is one of those apps (like Evernote) that always makes me say to myself, “Why don’t I use this more?”

Here’s a demo video:

Happy reading!

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Posted in iphone, productivity