Doors close fast when a big behemoth like Pinterest gobbles up a smaller Instapaper. But sometimes a ray of light shines that promises more. The bookmark-and-read-later service was bought by Pinterest in August. Rather than shut it down, Pinterest has decided to open it up for everyone.
In short, Instapaper Premium Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone Instapaper is emptying out its paywall and offering its premium features to everyone at no additional cost. Result! Read More
If you sent them $29.99 for a year of Premium access, don't worry. Instapaper says that existing Premium subscribers will get their subscription cost back and will not be billed again.
The free version was always good for managing your read-later bookmarks on any device. But there were some hidden fine features in the paid plan. All this available to us now. They include:
As before, there is no limit to the number of items you can store. And your read items file is kept indefinitely (unless you delete it).
If you're a fan of Pocket 9 ways to get more out of your pocket 9 ways to get more out of your pocket Pocket is the digital bookmarking service par excellence. Let's find out how to improve your experience with the right apps and web extensions. Read More An ad-free experience is usually what makes you pay, for a neat read. But let's take a look at the list to see the other productivity benefits.
This might not be as helpful if you blow hot and cold with online reading. But any researcher would love to keep a bunch of articles on a topic and can search through them for the right information.
The Advanced Search It is limited. But you can use it to limit your search to articles collected from a website.
Remember, you can open any article in Reader View directly from search results. You can use the icons at the top or swipe through any item on your phone and manage it by selecting Move to folder , File , Delete , or Share .
It's easy to get articles on Instapaper. But the reading needs to be retained. Highlight and annotate the powerful benefits of web annotations for research and recall The powerful benefits of web annotations for research and recall Writing on book pages has been considered as one of the best ways to interact with text, and new applications are doing it Possible to do the same with the web. Read more important snippets is one of the best ways to increase recovery.
Free users were limited to just five notes per month. With Premium access for everyone, you now have the ability to create unlimited notes.
But highlight and annotate with a purpose..
Relate what you are reading to something you already know. Or, use the highlighted text to jot down your own insights. You can also use a note to jot down a bulleted summary of what you learned or how you plan to act. Make these interconnections, and you've taken a step toward active recovery.
One tip I learned:start a fictional conversation with the author. This will stimulate critical thinking and make you a better writer.
Here are two more ways to use Notes:
Using Notes and Reflexes helps you turn Instapaper into a personal diary with the help of online wisdom. Maybe, like Ryan Holiday, you can try starting a "common book" on instapaper.
Read with your ears. How useful is text-to-speech on iOS and Android when driving or just relaxing?
Pocket has Listening . Instapaper has Text to Speech Playlist . iOS and Android have their built-in TTS feature, but it helps to use it seamlessly from within Instapaper itself.
Although multitasking may be frowned upon, both are invaluable when you're doing mundane tasks or working out. Or, I just want to relax my eyes. You can send all your long office emails and newsletters to your Instapaper email address and use TTS to review them quickly.
Instapaper has an advantage over Pocket. You can create a playlist of articles .
Organize your articles around a specific topic or project (perhaps in an Instapaper folder). Click the Options icon at the top (three dots in a row) and click Playlist . Select the items you want to include. Click Create playlist .
Instapaper takes advantage of the TTS feature of Android and iOS to read the articles. Adjust the speed to your liking. On iOS, you can choose a voice for each supported language.
Tip:Use a folder-specific bookmarklet to create a collection in that folder. You can use this to focus on any project.
Example:Do you want to practice a new language? Curate foreign language articles in a folder and change the language of the TTS engine to have them read to you. The voices also reflect specific dialects.
Try the speed reading demo now. Comfortable?
I Feel Speed Reading Prevents Deep Learning Put A Brake On Speed Reading:5 Tips To Be A More Engaged Online Reader Put A Brake On Speed Reading:5 Tips To Be A More Engaged Online Reader The Idea of Reading Swift has been around for decades. But lately there has been an explosion of speed reading apps that promise to speed up your reading. But is it worth it? Read More
Instapaper and its speed reading feature can help you get an overview of a long document. It might help you decide if you want to read the saved content or ignore it. If you want, participate more slowly..
Measuring your reading speed is much easier than putting a yardstick on your reading comprehension. But this is a skill you can try and see if it works for you, at least for some types of content.
Greedy readers know all the obvious benefits of reading on a Kindle. Less eye strain thanks to e-ink and backlit eyes and better battery mileage are two that matter when counting down to an unread count. Instapaper also allows you to control the background of the app. But Kindle comes to the fore when you want to read in bright sunlight and just when you run out of power outlets.
There are many online services (such as Five Filters) that deliver web articles to Kindle. With Instapaper you don't have to trust one. It is baked in.
You can set up Instapaper with Kindle and receive a daily or weekly summary of 10/20/50 unread articles at the time of your choice.
Pocket doesn't have this as an official feature, though there are solutions for Send to Kindle How to Automatically Send Pocket Articles to Your Kindle How to Automatically Send Pocket Articles to Your Kindle Kindles are great for reading because of their e-ink screen technology. Now here's how you can read your saved Pocket articles with your Kindle device! Read more available.
There is the usual way to bookmark videos and save them in the Instapaper videos folder. As you can see from the screenshot below, it's a much messier experience.
You can also set auto capture with instant IFTTT recipes and collect the videos you want to watch later. It can be a good replacement for YouTube's Add to Watch Later list.
Which feature will make the biggest difference to your reading?
You can use Instapaper as a research tool. Take it beyond curated content by capturing inspiration with notes. Organize with folders. Boost Your Reading Habit How to Organize Your Out of Control Reading List Right Now How to Organize Your Out of Control Reading List Right Now A reading list serves many purposes, from practical to inspiring. But it can also get out of hand. Using these tips to manage your reading hobby can do wonders for your life. Read More
The switch from Premium to Free is great news for online curators. The near future will reveal what plans Pinterest has for the read-later service. Let's hope that not only is he saved but that he gets better. For now, let's enjoy the good news and exploit the free features to discover and digest new knowledge.
Do you use a read-after service? Tell us about your favourite. Does this move from Premium to Free make you rethink your choice?
