11 ms·

Instapaper for Retina iPad

144 points by nsavant 15y ago

pixelcort 15y ago
I'm very impressed by the year over year continued refinements and improvements to Instapaper. Back in 2008[1] Marco mentioned he only spends a few hours a week on it. I wonder how many hours a week he spends on it these days. [1]: http://blog.instapaper.com/post/60070053 http://blog.instapaper.com/post/60070053
- jonursenbach 15y ago
  He left Tumblr back in 2010 to work full-time on it. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/marco-arment-instapaper/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/marco-arment-instapaper/
  - pixelcort 15y ago
    Ah yes I remember that now. Thanks for the reminder!
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- theraven 15y ago
  After listening to the recent Build and Analyze podcasts, the 'threat' of readability has him very busy refining and cementing his vision for the app.
rdl 15y ago
Instapaper is one of the main reasons I got an iPad 3.
- mds101 15y ago
  That doesn't really make much sense. If reading articles is your main application for the device, why not buy the iPad 2 especially after the huge price drop?
  - hboon 15y ago
    Because the retina display makes it so much better for reading.
    - c1sc0 15y ago
      More beautiful, sure, but better? I doubt it, my guess is it'll strain your eyes just as much as any other backlit display.
      - mmahemoff 15y ago
        How is "more beautiful" not better? Instapaper's also one of the main reasons I'm considering an upgrade.
      - gnaffle 15y ago
        How can quadruple the resolution not be better for reading text? People who have compare it to looking at glossy print.
      - rdl 15y ago
        I've been relatively happy with the IPS panel in the iPad 1 not straining my eyes. My main gripe is that the brightness of the backlight doesn't go low enough -- in a dark room (i.e. in bed with no lights and someone else sleeping nearby), it would be nice to be able to use the iPad with very minimal backlight. E-Ink would require a book light (which is kind of lame). This seems to be one of the places where OLED would be superior. It's frustrating that IPS LCD, OLED, and E-Ink all have such distinct advantages, so the idea of having a single device with the best screen in all contexts isn't really possible. I assume OLED will eventually be that.
      - batista 15y ago
        There's nothing inherent in e-ink that makes it less stressful than a backlit display. Photons are photons, whether they are reflected from a light bulb or the sun to the book and then your eyes, or they are send from a led behind the screen to your eyes. Some early e-ink manufactures used to claim that e-ink is better than backlit for the eyes, but they retracted those claims because there was no scientific evidence behind them. You just need to set the brightness of the iPad appropriately, to match what the relative brightness of an e-ink reader would be. You can also adjust the colors, i.e have a sepia background etc. Battery life and reading in the sun is indeed much better with e-ink devices, though.
vacri 15y ago
This is slightly embarrassing: Instapaper doesn’t show Retina-resolution graphics on the new iPad yet. It's only slightly embarrassing for Apple's culture of product secrecy, which prevents them from releasing tools in time for devs to have gear ready for release.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - DaveMebs 15y ago
    Did you read the article? He has been shipping the 2x version, however, was unaware that he needed to rebuild the app with a new drop of the tools that came out last week.
- batista 15y ago
  Yes, if only that secrecy had worked well otherwise for the company. <sarcasm />
  - guelo 15y ago
    If only creating natural disasters had worked well otherwise for BP. <as long as they make money it's all OK />
  - vacri 15y ago
    The world does not exist only in stark black and white.
- smackfu 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure the simulator that devs use supports the Retina iPad, and was available before release date. The tricky bit is that the Retina iPad is higher resolution that most people's desktops, so simulation becomes difficult.
  - frankus 15y ago
    I saw a tweet from him the other day saying he's got a 2650x1600 display (HP ZR20W, I believe). So that just barely fits. The simulator now scrolls, however, so you could in theory test retina iPad apps full size in portrait mode on an 11" MacBook Air. My 27" iMac (2650x1440) isn't quite tall enough even in landscape mode, but it's not unusable thanks to the scrolling.
OoTheNigerian 15y ago
Competition is good. Readability is certainly making him stepup. I still think ignoring android is a mistake (assuming he continues to do so in the future.). I foresee sharing happening within these read later apps and the size of the network matters.
- gtufano 15y ago
  I don't really know. Assuming that this is a free market, I think the fact that nobody stepped up on Android (with a noticeable success) is probably an indicator of the fact this could not be an error. More seriously (hoping we can have a quiet discussion about differences in market between iOS and Android): Instapaper makes (probably serious) money selling the app. Can you make (serious) money in Android without Ads and without going the freemium way? Enough money to justify the additional effort and the fact that this will probably slow the development on the current platform?
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    Marco has implied that he makes a "six figure income" from it (on the Planet Money podcast) but has never given more details than that that I'm aware of. My reading of a lot of the commercial Android developer pieces is not that it's impossible to make money on Android, just that where you have limited resources it tends to be the case that they can more profitably be utilised on iOS work. The issue for someone like Marco where it's just him is is less can you make money in Android (with or without ads, that's kind of secondary), more is working on an Android version going to bring him more money than putting that same effort into keeping Instapaper close to the top of the iOS pile. Obviously if you're a company with several programmers and you're happy with that model then so long as the cost of building an Android version is less than money it brings in, it makes sense because you can just bring in someone else to do it without detracting from your other work. If you're a one man band (or similarly small outfit) with no interest in taking on and managing more people it might not.
    - tuananh 15y ago
      May I ask is that "six figure income" is per month?
kijin 15y ago
> the new selection of six beautiful, professional fonts designed for maximum legibility and long-form reading I haven't been following the iPad 3 closely. Are these new fonts included with iPad 3, or are they included with the Instapaper app? If it's the latter, are they available elsewhere? I'm still on the lookout for a nice serif font that looks good on screen.
- hrktb 15y ago
  From the developper's podcast, these are custom fonts included in the app, that he bought from foundries directly.
Erwin 15y ago
The screenshot is looking great. Ignoring form factor, is the new iPad going to match Kindle's reading quality? I generally read fiction on the Kindle (2nd gen) and anything that has graphics or requires rapid page turning on the iPad (1G).
- nirvana 15y ago
  Having used a retina screen iPhone and iPod I'd say in my opinion the new iPad (which I haven't seen) is going to far exceed the kindle's screen in readability. Where I think kindle probably still has the edge is in ergonomics, specifically weight. The iPad is too heavy for me to hold like I would a physical book. (but I make do with this fact and use it anyway as one... and I've got the heavier first generation iPad.) All the other things the iPad does have a big impact, but as a pure reading device (iBooks is my killer app) the iPad is working out great for me, so I look forward to getting a third generation.
  - smackfu 15y ago
    It does make me wonder if a higher DPI screen would really help the Kindle in readability. Or if the major issue now is just the contrast.
  - Heliosmaster 15y ago
    give also a try to Stanza :)
melling 15y ago
I didn't know Marco had a podcast until I heard about it in this thread. Got it this morning and I'm listening to him say how he was ready for iPad Retina back in October. I've had that being ahead of the game feeling before then something comes along at the end to throw a wrench in it. I think that's why releasing/shipping is such a good feeling. Even then, once I built the free version of my app without a necessary ObjC linker flag and shipped it with a bug that caused it to crash on a couple of screens. Was always testing in debug mode...
frankus 15y ago
I uncovered a bug when naively recompiling a universal (iPad/iPhone) app with the 5.1 SDK. The app had high-res assets for the iPhone but not the iPad. Apparently the @2x modifier takes precedence over the -Landscape and -Portrait modifiers, resulting in retina iPads preferentially using the high-res iPhone launch screen over the low-res iPad launch screen (which are optimized for each launch orientation). So you end up with a mildly- (portrait) or greatly-distorted (landscape) launch image on high-res iPads if you simply recompile. I imagine this is what Apple was trying to avoid, with reneging on what their API docs say about modifier precedence.
TheFuture 15y ago
Just got the update Marco. You nailed it with the new fonts. Looks really nice in retina!

144 points by nsavant 15y ago

I'm very impressed by the year over year continued refinements and improvements to Instapaper. Back in 2008[1] Marco mentioned he only spends a few hours a week on it. I wonder how many hours a week he spends on it these days. [1]: http://blog.instapaper.com/post/60070053 http://blog.instapaper.com/post/60070053

jonursenbach 15y ago
He left Tumblr back in 2010 to work full-time on it. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/marco-arment-instapaper/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/marco-arment-instapaper/
- pixelcort 15y ago
  Ah yes I remember that now. Thanks for the reminder!
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
theraven 15y ago
After listening to the recent Build and Analyze podcasts, the 'threat' of readability has him very busy refining and cementing his vision for the app.

rdl 15y ago

Instapaper is one of the main reasons I got an iPad 3.

mds101 15y ago
That doesn't really make much sense. If reading articles is your main application for the device, why not buy the iPad 2 especially after the huge price drop?
- hboon 15y ago
  Because the retina display makes it so much better for reading.
  - c1sc0 15y ago
    More beautiful, sure, but better? I doubt it, my guess is it'll strain your eyes just as much as any other backlit display.
    - mmahemoff 15y ago
      How is "more beautiful" not better? Instapaper's also one of the main reasons I'm considering an upgrade.
    - gnaffle 15y ago
      How can quadruple the resolution not be better for reading text? People who have compare it to looking at glossy print.
    - rdl 15y ago
      I've been relatively happy with the IPS panel in the iPad 1 not straining my eyes. My main gripe is that the brightness of the backlight doesn't go low enough -- in a dark room (i.e. in bed with no lights and someone else sleeping nearby), it would be nice to be able to use the iPad with very minimal backlight. E-Ink would require a book light (which is kind of lame). This seems to be one of the places where OLED would be superior. It's frustrating that IPS LCD, OLED, and E-Ink all have such distinct advantages, so the idea of having a single device with the best screen in all contexts isn't really possible. I assume OLED will eventually be that.
    - batista 15y ago
      There's nothing inherent in e-ink that makes it less stressful than a backlit display. Photons are photons, whether they are reflected from a light bulb or the sun to the book and then your eyes, or they are send from a led behind the screen to your eyes. Some early e-ink manufactures used to claim that e-ink is better than backlit for the eyes, but they retracted those claims because there was no scientific evidence behind them. You just need to set the brightness of the iPad appropriately, to match what the relative brightness of an e-ink reader would be. You can also adjust the colors, i.e have a sepia background etc. Battery life and reading in the sun is indeed much better with e-ink devices, though.

vacri 15y ago

This is slightly embarrassing: Instapaper doesn’t show Retina-resolution graphics on the new iPad yet. It's only slightly embarrassing for Apple's culture of product secrecy, which prevents them from releasing tools in time for devs to have gear ready for release.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- DaveMebs 15y ago
  Did you read the article? He has been shipping the 2x version, however, was unaware that he needed to rebuild the app with a new drop of the tools that came out last week.
batista 15y ago
Yes, if only that secrecy had worked well otherwise for the company. <sarcasm />
- guelo 15y ago
  If only creating natural disasters had worked well otherwise for BP. <as long as they make money it's all OK />
- vacri 15y ago
  The world does not exist only in stark black and white.
smackfu 15y ago
I'm pretty sure the simulator that devs use supports the Retina iPad, and was available before release date. The tricky bit is that the Retina iPad is higher resolution that most people's desktops, so simulation becomes difficult.
- frankus 15y ago
  I saw a tweet from him the other day saying he's got a 2650x1600 display (HP ZR20W, I believe). So that just barely fits. The simulator now scrolls, however, so you could in theory test retina iPad apps full size in portrait mode on an 11" MacBook Air. My 27" iMac (2650x1440) isn't quite tall enough even in landscape mode, but it's not unusable thanks to the scrolling.

OoTheNigerian 15y ago

Competition is good. Readability is certainly making him stepup. I still think ignoring android is a mistake (assuming he continues to do so in the future.). I foresee sharing happening within these read later apps and the size of the network matters.

gtufano 15y ago
I don't really know. Assuming that this is a free market, I think the fact that nobody stepped up on Android (with a noticeable success) is probably an indicator of the fact this could not be an error. More seriously (hoping we can have a quiet discussion about differences in market between iOS and Android): Instapaper makes (probably serious) money selling the app. Can you make (serious) money in Android without Ads and without going the freemium way? Enough money to justify the additional effort and the fact that this will probably slow the development on the current platform?
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  Marco has implied that he makes a "six figure income" from it (on the Planet Money podcast) but has never given more details than that that I'm aware of. My reading of a lot of the commercial Android developer pieces is not that it's impossible to make money on Android, just that where you have limited resources it tends to be the case that they can more profitably be utilised on iOS work. The issue for someone like Marco where it's just him is is less can you make money in Android (with or without ads, that's kind of secondary), more is working on an Android version going to bring him more money than putting that same effort into keeping Instapaper close to the top of the iOS pile. Obviously if you're a company with several programmers and you're happy with that model then so long as the cost of building an Android version is less than money it brings in, it makes sense because you can just bring in someone else to do it without detracting from your other work. If you're a one man band (or similarly small outfit) with no interest in taking on and managing more people it might not.
  - tuananh 15y ago
    May I ask is that "six figure income" is per month?

kijin 15y ago

> the new selection of six beautiful, professional fonts designed for maximum legibility and long-form reading I haven't been following the iPad 3 closely. Are these new fonts included with iPad 3, or are they included with the Instapaper app? If it's the latter, are they available elsewhere? I'm still on the lookout for a nice serif font that looks good on screen.

hrktb 15y ago
From the developper's podcast, these are custom fonts included in the app, that he bought from foundries directly.

Erwin 15y ago

The screenshot is looking great. Ignoring form factor, is the new iPad going to match Kindle's reading quality? I generally read fiction on the Kindle (2nd gen) and anything that has graphics or requires rapid page turning on the iPad (1G).

nirvana 15y ago
Having used a retina screen iPhone and iPod I'd say in my opinion the new iPad (which I haven't seen) is going to far exceed the kindle's screen in readability. Where I think kindle probably still has the edge is in ergonomics, specifically weight. The iPad is too heavy for me to hold like I would a physical book. (but I make do with this fact and use it anyway as one... and I've got the heavier first generation iPad.) All the other things the iPad does have a big impact, but as a pure reading device (iBooks is my killer app) the iPad is working out great for me, so I look forward to getting a third generation.
- smackfu 15y ago
  It does make me wonder if a higher DPI screen would really help the Kindle in readability. Or if the major issue now is just the contrast.
- Heliosmaster 15y ago
  give also a try to Stanza :)

melling 15y ago

I didn't know Marco had a podcast until I heard about it in this thread. Got it this morning and I'm listening to him say how he was ready for iPad Retina back in October. I've had that being ahead of the game feeling before then something comes along at the end to throw a wrench in it. I think that's why releasing/shipping is such a good feeling. Even then, once I built the free version of my app without a necessary ObjC linker flag and shipped it with a bug that caused it to crash on a couple of screens. Was always testing in debug mode...

frankus 15y ago

I uncovered a bug when naively recompiling a universal (iPad/iPhone) app with the 5.1 SDK. The app had high-res assets for the iPhone but not the iPad. Apparently the @2x modifier takes precedence over the -Landscape and -Portrait modifiers, resulting in retina iPads preferentially using the high-res iPhone launch screen over the low-res iPad launch screen (which are optimized for each launch orientation). So you end up with a mildly- (portrait) or greatly-distorted (landscape) launch image on high-res iPads if you simply recompile. I imagine this is what Apple was trying to avoid, with reneging on what their API docs say about modifier precedence.

TheFuture 15y ago

Just got the update Marco. You nailed it with the new fonts. Looks really nice in retina!