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Pocket, for me, is a weird product/feature. I've tried to use it, but it ends up just being like a clumsy bookmarking feature. Allegedly, you can read things o

Pocket, for me, is a weird product/feature. I've tried to use it, but it ends up just being like a clumsy bookmarking feature. Allegedly, you can read things offline, but that feature never works for me. It seems the feature for offline reading doesn't exist at all in Firefox (which I'd assumed was the point of its integration, but my assumption was wrong), and I've tried the Chrome desktop app and the Android mobile app ..nothing I save to pocket is ever readable without a data connection. It must work for some content for some people because I see people talking about it like it does. But, without that feature I see literally no utility in Pocket...it's just a clunky bolted-on bookmark manager, and so I end up going back to bookmarks with tags. I use Sync and I have Firefox on all of my devices. So, my bookmarks go with me. So, I guess it's good that it's going open source. I wasn't comfortable with the way integration was presented back when they added it...it wasn't at all apparent, to me, that Pocket was a third party for-profit entity when the "setup your pocket" process launched in Firefox, since I'd never heard of it before that. But, it still seems like a solution looking for a problem. I'll give it another look. Maybe I was just unlucky with my choices of what to save...but it seems like if offline reading is not going to work on a page (for whatever reason) it should warn you. It'd suck to get on a train/plane or get lost in the woods, with plans to catch up on some reading, only to find there's nothing there. But, maybe that's not even the primary purpose of Pocket? I dunno, it's still pretty fuzzy to me wtf it's for, if not that.

sharkbot 10y ago
The Kobo ereaders have had Pocket integration for a while now, and it works great offline. My usual routine is to find interesting articles on Hacker News, and if they are longer than a page or two, click the Pocket button and read them at home on the ereader. A few don't render well (the article on Arrival/Story of your Life not being a time-travel story was a recent fail), but generally it works great.
- padraic7a 10y ago
  I love this feature. My only concern was being tied into Pocket and wondering what might happen to the company. I imagine that being acquired by Mozilla makes that future a bit more secure.
- forevercrashing 10y ago
  the article on Arrival/Story of your Life not being a time-travel story was a recent fail Loved the book / movie but haven't read that article. Do you have the link? Thanks.
  - terminus 10y ago
    Probably this one: https://www.gwern.net/Story%20Of%20Your%20Life https://www.gwern.net/Story%20Of%20Your%20Life
Broken_Hippo 10y ago
It isn't all that obvious how the offline function works - which is a shame. I've been caught without offline availability for some articles I saved. The main thing with the work-around is that you need to start Pocket on your phone while you have a data connection so that the articles are on the phone. There may be an option to automatically download the articles, but I've never found it. After the one-time data connection, it comes up offline. This is the case when I save from the computer and view them on my phone (or different device, I guess, but I've not checked a different computer). Your luck may vary.
- greyman 10y ago
  > The main thing with the work-around is that you need to start Pocket on your phone while you have a data connection so that the articles are on the phone. Hmm, I always found this to be obvious, and not a work-around. How else would they entered the phone?
  - SamBam 10y ago
    I would not expect to have to open the app. I can set my podcast manager to download episodes automatically -- I don't need to remember to open the app while I'm on data.
- manigandham 10y ago
  Turn on "Instant Sync" and new additions will be added to your app asap. Also check your download settings. If set to "download only on wifi" then the app won't download if you're on mobile networks. You can also set the "refresh when opened" option to sync everything when the app is first loaded.
greyman 10y ago
> Allegedly, you can read things offline, but that feature never works for me. Strange, because that is the main use case I use in Pocket. I save article there, and it stores it for offline reading, striping all formatting. It isn't a bookmark manager, it stores stuff and doesn't need internet to read it.
- joatmon-snoo 10y ago
  My experience has been GP's: Pocket will claim to save something, but the moment I go offline, it craps out and tells me I need a connection to read the content I've saved. This is much more common on larger PDFs, but I've had it happen on so many sites that there was a point when I literally resorted to PDF'ing the pages I wanted to save - which is a damn shame, because Pocket's reader view really does do a good job.
  - philliphaydon 10y ago
    I used to use Poki on windows phone and never experienced any issues. But since moving to iOS I often add stuff to pocket only to realise it hasn't auto synced or that I forgot to download before getting on the plane. The experience isn't that great IMO :( If I remember to open pocket on my phone before flying I don't have issues.
  - inapis 10y ago
    Pocket doesn't store videos or pdf's offline. Only HTML articles with the formatting stripped.

sharkbot 10y ago

The Kobo ereaders have had Pocket integration for a while now, and it works great offline. My usual routine is to find interesting articles on Hacker News, and if they are longer than a page or two, click the Pocket button and read them at home on the ereader. A few don't render well (the article on Arrival/Story of your Life not being a time-travel story was a recent fail), but generally it works great.

padraic7a 10y ago
I love this feature. My only concern was being tied into Pocket and wondering what might happen to the company. I imagine that being acquired by Mozilla makes that future a bit more secure.
forevercrashing 10y ago
the article on Arrival/Story of your Life not being a time-travel story was a recent fail Loved the book / movie but haven't read that article. Do you have the link? Thanks.
- terminus 10y ago
  Probably this one: https://www.gwern.net/Story%20Of%20Your%20Life https://www.gwern.net/Story%20Of%20Your%20Life

Broken_Hippo 10y ago

It isn't all that obvious how the offline function works - which is a shame. I've been caught without offline availability for some articles I saved. The main thing with the work-around is that you need to start Pocket on your phone while you have a data connection so that the articles are on the phone. There may be an option to automatically download the articles, but I've never found it. After the one-time data connection, it comes up offline. This is the case when I save from the computer and view them on my phone (or different device, I guess, but I've not checked a different computer). Your luck may vary.

greyman 10y ago
> The main thing with the work-around is that you need to start Pocket on your phone while you have a data connection so that the articles are on the phone. Hmm, I always found this to be obvious, and not a work-around. How else would they entered the phone?
- SamBam 10y ago
  I would not expect to have to open the app. I can set my podcast manager to download episodes automatically -- I don't need to remember to open the app while I'm on data.
manigandham 10y ago
Turn on "Instant Sync" and new additions will be added to your app asap. Also check your download settings. If set to "download only on wifi" then the app won't download if you're on mobile networks. You can also set the "refresh when opened" option to sync everything when the app is first loaded.

greyman 10y ago

> Allegedly, you can read things offline, but that feature never works for me. Strange, because that is the main use case I use in Pocket. I save article there, and it stores it for offline reading, striping all formatting. It isn't a bookmark manager, it stores stuff and doesn't need internet to read it.

joatmon-snoo 10y ago
My experience has been GP's: Pocket will claim to save something, but the moment I go offline, it craps out and tells me I need a connection to read the content I've saved. This is much more common on larger PDFs, but I've had it happen on so many sites that there was a point when I literally resorted to PDF'ing the pages I wanted to save - which is a damn shame, because Pocket's reader view really does do a good job.
- philliphaydon 10y ago
  I used to use Poki on windows phone and never experienced any issues. But since moving to iOS I often add stuff to pocket only to realise it hasn't auto synced or that I forgot to download before getting on the plane. The experience isn't that great IMO :( If I remember to open pocket on my phone before flying I don't have issues.
- inapis 10y ago
  Pocket doesn't store videos or pdf's offline. Only HTML articles with the formatting stripped.