7 ms·

Meh. Pocket (née Read It Later) pretty much already filled Instapaper's uses for me, and it's free. Too little too late, IMHO.

Zikes 14y ago
I am also a Pocket user, and find it to be an adequate analog for Instapaper.
- shawnc 14y ago
  Interesting to me that you both don't really seem to love Pocket - you're just happy it almost does what Instapaper does, for free. What's interesting about it, is the things people will decide to go without, due to something being free - when really the price difference of Free or $5 is fairly negligible. ( I don't use either service... merely an observation )
  - groby_b 14y ago
    Keep in mind that there's a cognitive cost to evaluating alternate services, too. If Pocket works for you, and trying out InstaPaper costs you an hour and $5, the $5 are negligible. The hour isn't. That's IMHO the big problem with all app market places - there's a glut of solutions for every problem. Nobody can be reasonably expected to sift through this, and so we end up with lots of small apps. Corollary to that: By now, it's almost a waste of time to develop an app in a segment where a cheap clone can be knocked off in a few weekends.
    - shawnc 14y ago
      That's a good point. And an interesting observation I'd never consciously taken into account.
  - roopeshv 14y ago
    well, all those $5s add up when you buy enough apps, and that's the whole economics of the app market. you spend small amounts on enough apps, and you won't even realize how much you have spent compared to one time payment to all apps as a bundle. Also I never understood the appeal of instapaper, what exactly does it do better than pocket? I never used instapaper, so any answer would be appreciated.
    - myko 14y ago
      As a user of both (though it's been awhile since I've used Instapaper) I think Pocket does more than Instapaper (handles videos), I'm also curious to hear what Instapaper does better, if anything.
  - roopeshv 14y ago
    why is this reply being downvoted? Damn it people, if you don't agree, reply. don't downvote. (EDIT: shawnc's answer was being downvoted at the time of writing, now its' in green)
  - Kylekramer 14y ago
    Eh, I just think the service read it later type apps provide has been commoditized. I have used pretty much every one of this kind of app. They all do the same, relatively unimportant thing with about the same level of polish. In the words of Jobs, it is a feature (of future browsers), not a product.
  - myko 14y ago
    It does more than Instapaper though I think. As far as I can tell Instapaper doesn't handle video like Pocket does? (I've been using Pocket since before it was Read-It-Later on my iPhone and paid for it on iOS and again after switching to Android, maybe Instapaper does more now).
  - charlesroper 14y ago
    I love Pocket. It's one of my favourite Android apps. Apart from the great features (video, paging, tagging) I've always found the parsing algorithm to be superior to the alternatives. Another plus is their dedication to support many platforms, which means I'm not tied to Android. Ultimately I liked Pocketso much I paid for the pro version, just like many others[1]. Their business model seems pretty sound and they have a lot of users and the product is excellent. What is so exciting about Instapaper? [1] http://getpocket.com/blog/2012/01/what-devices-did-read-it-later-users-unwrap-over-the-holidays-here%E2%80%99s-what-the-data-shows/ http://getpocket.com/blog/2012/01/what-devices-did-read-it-l...
  - fluidcruft 14y ago
    Actually, there's a third option: people that have never used instapaper (because it's never been on any of our platforms). Some people like me have boycotted Apple hardware for years. (Shock, horror)
  - sjs382 14y ago
    > Interesting to me that you both don't really seem to love Pocket - you're just happy it almost does what Instapaper does, for free. I'm a former Instapaper user that loves Pocket. I was barely willing to try Pocket since my queue was already in Instapaper, but I was tired of my chosen platform being treated as second-class. Android Instapaper apps sucked except for the excellent PaperMache (Yes, I have an HP TouchPad), which was just slow on Android. So, I moved to Pocket and I love it. The text formatting on my CM9 tablet is GREAT by default, keeps images (in offline mode, too) and has a VERY attractive grid of unread articles that shows an article thumbnail. It's a much more enjoyable experience. That said, I bought Instapaper for and tried it out. I'd be happy with the new Instapaper app had I never switched to Pocket, but Pocket is just better than Instapaper in their current iterations. I'm definitely glad there's competition on Android now though. One Instapaper feature I miss though: auto-tweeting articles that I have starred.
huggyface 14y ago
This is likely true: there are a number of Instapaper similes that are available now, many gratis (if your time/screen space are free, though that is a different conversation). I hope that we don't see a "this confirms all my suspicions about Android" type of post in the coming months. The market is nothing like it was when Instapaper first hit it big on iOS (during a period where some of the biggest yielding apps were "Where's my car" and flashlight type products).
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- myko 14y ago
  To be fair to Pocket it would be better to say Instapaper is a simile of it, as Read-It-Later (Pocket's original name) was first. edit: Read-It-Later was a web service initially. The idea behind it is the same as Instapaper. Instapaper released a mobile app before Read-It-Later (though Read-It-Later was around as early as 2007).
  - jcampbell1 14y ago
    Please don't try to rewrite history. Instapaper was first and basically invented the space. The oldest comment in the iTunes reviews for Instapaper are from Aug 28, 2008 which is before the Android Market even existed. Read it Later originally launched in 2009. Edit: Read-It-Later appears to have launched Apr 8, 2009. http://blog.ideashower.com/post/15139665330/read-it-later-iphone-app-released http://blog.ideashower.com/post/15139665330/read-it-later-ip...
    - myko 14y ago
      Read-It-Later came out in 2007, the mobile application came later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_(application) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_(application)
      - jcampbell1 14y ago
adidar83 14y ago
While waiting for Instapaper, I also moved on to Pocket and Readability.
- pacomerh 14y ago
  Same here, he took a bit long so I became a pocket user.
- mitchellhislop 14y ago
  I always loved Instapaper, but the single focus killed it for me. Pocket, which looks just as pretty (if not more so - the colors do add a lot), can also handle other types of media. I would end up with about 10 videos on Pinboard, a handful of presentations, and a dozen articles by the end of a week. Pocket can handle all those. Instapaper meant I needed other services to fully capture all the media I wanted to deal with. Easy choice.
minalecs 14y ago
agree its just I'm invested in Spool and Pocket and provides better functionality. I see no reason to switch at this point.
ja27 14y ago
I liked using Picplz too, and it was free.
baddox 14y ago
I'll have to check out Pocket. Do many apps support it? The main reason I use Readability is that many apps I use (like Tweetbot and Alien Blue) support it. Sure, I could always copy and paste the URLs into whatever read-later app I want, but it's so much more convenient to have integration.
- MikeKusold 14y ago
  Using the official Twitter client for Android, I just share the tweet to Pocket and it parses out the link for me. I can't comment on it for iOS, but it works great on Android.

Zikes 14y ago

I am also a Pocket user, and find it to be an adequate analog for Instapaper.

shawnc 14y ago
Interesting to me that you both don't really seem to love Pocket - you're just happy it almost does what Instapaper does, for free. What's interesting about it, is the things people will decide to go without, due to something being free - when really the price difference of Free or $5 is fairly negligible. ( I don't use either service... merely an observation )
- groby_b 14y ago
  Keep in mind that there's a cognitive cost to evaluating alternate services, too. If Pocket works for you, and trying out InstaPaper costs you an hour and $5, the $5 are negligible. The hour isn't. That's IMHO the big problem with all app market places - there's a glut of solutions for every problem. Nobody can be reasonably expected to sift through this, and so we end up with lots of small apps. Corollary to that: By now, it's almost a waste of time to develop an app in a segment where a cheap clone can be knocked off in a few weekends.
  - shawnc 14y ago
    That's a good point. And an interesting observation I'd never consciously taken into account.
- roopeshv 14y ago
  well, all those $5s add up when you buy enough apps, and that's the whole economics of the app market. you spend small amounts on enough apps, and you won't even realize how much you have spent compared to one time payment to all apps as a bundle. Also I never understood the appeal of instapaper, what exactly does it do better than pocket? I never used instapaper, so any answer would be appreciated.
  - myko 14y ago
    As a user of both (though it's been awhile since I've used Instapaper) I think Pocket does more than Instapaper (handles videos), I'm also curious to hear what Instapaper does better, if anything.
- roopeshv 14y ago
  why is this reply being downvoted? Damn it people, if you don't agree, reply. don't downvote. (EDIT: shawnc's answer was being downvoted at the time of writing, now its' in green)
- Kylekramer 14y ago
  Eh, I just think the service read it later type apps provide has been commoditized. I have used pretty much every one of this kind of app. They all do the same, relatively unimportant thing with about the same level of polish. In the words of Jobs, it is a feature (of future browsers), not a product.
- myko 14y ago
  It does more than Instapaper though I think. As far as I can tell Instapaper doesn't handle video like Pocket does? (I've been using Pocket since before it was Read-It-Later on my iPhone and paid for it on iOS and again after switching to Android, maybe Instapaper does more now).
- charlesroper 14y ago
  I love Pocket. It's one of my favourite Android apps. Apart from the great features (video, paging, tagging) I've always found the parsing algorithm to be superior to the alternatives. Another plus is their dedication to support many platforms, which means I'm not tied to Android. Ultimately I liked Pocketso much I paid for the pro version, just like many others[1]. Their business model seems pretty sound and they have a lot of users and the product is excellent. What is so exciting about Instapaper? [1] http://getpocket.com/blog/2012/01/what-devices-did-read-it-later-users-unwrap-over-the-holidays-here%E2%80%99s-what-the-data-shows/ http://getpocket.com/blog/2012/01/what-devices-did-read-it-l...
- fluidcruft 14y ago
  Actually, there's a third option: people that have never used instapaper (because it's never been on any of our platforms). Some people like me have boycotted Apple hardware for years. (Shock, horror)
- sjs382 14y ago
  > Interesting to me that you both don't really seem to love Pocket - you're just happy it almost does what Instapaper does, for free. I'm a former Instapaper user that loves Pocket. I was barely willing to try Pocket since my queue was already in Instapaper, but I was tired of my chosen platform being treated as second-class. Android Instapaper apps sucked except for the excellent PaperMache (Yes, I have an HP TouchPad), which was just slow on Android. So, I moved to Pocket and I love it. The text formatting on my CM9 tablet is GREAT by default, keeps images (in offline mode, too) and has a VERY attractive grid of unread articles that shows an article thumbnail. It's a much more enjoyable experience. That said, I bought Instapaper for and tried it out. I'd be happy with the new Instapaper app had I never switched to Pocket, but Pocket is just better than Instapaper in their current iterations. I'm definitely glad there's competition on Android now though. One Instapaper feature I miss though: auto-tweeting articles that I have starred.

huggyface 14y ago

This is likely true: there are a number of Instapaper similes that are available now, many gratis (if your time/screen space are free, though that is a different conversation). I hope that we don't see a "this confirms all my suspicions about Android" type of post in the coming months. The market is nothing like it was when Instapaper first hit it big on iOS (during a period where some of the biggest yielding apps were "Where's my car" and flashlight type products).

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
myko 14y ago
To be fair to Pocket it would be better to say Instapaper is a simile of it, as Read-It-Later (Pocket's original name) was first. edit: Read-It-Later was a web service initially. The idea behind it is the same as Instapaper. Instapaper released a mobile app before Read-It-Later (though Read-It-Later was around as early as 2007).
- jcampbell1 14y ago
  Please don't try to rewrite history. Instapaper was first and basically invented the space. The oldest comment in the iTunes reviews for Instapaper are from Aug 28, 2008 which is before the Android Market even existed. Read it Later originally launched in 2009. Edit: Read-It-Later appears to have launched Apr 8, 2009. http://blog.ideashower.com/post/15139665330/read-it-later-iphone-app-released http://blog.ideashower.com/post/15139665330/read-it-later-ip...
  - myko 14y ago
    Read-It-Later came out in 2007, the mobile application came later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_(application) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_(application)
    - jcampbell1 14y ago

adidar83 14y ago

While waiting for Instapaper, I also moved on to Pocket and Readability.

pacomerh 14y ago
Same here, he took a bit long so I became a pocket user.
mitchellhislop 14y ago
I always loved Instapaper, but the single focus killed it for me. Pocket, which looks just as pretty (if not more so - the colors do add a lot), can also handle other types of media. I would end up with about 10 videos on Pinboard, a handful of presentations, and a dozen articles by the end of a week. Pocket can handle all those. Instapaper meant I needed other services to fully capture all the media I wanted to deal with. Easy choice.

minalecs 14y ago

agree its just I'm invested in Spool and Pocket and provides better functionality. I see no reason to switch at this point.

ja27 14y ago

I liked using Picplz too, and it was free.

baddox 14y ago

I'll have to check out Pocket. Do many apps support it? The main reason I use Readability is that many apps I use (like Tweetbot and Alien Blue) support it. Sure, I could always copy and paste the URLs into whatever read-later app I want, but it's so much more convenient to have integration.

MikeKusold 14y ago
Using the official Twitter client for Android, I just share the tweet to Pocket and it parses out the link for me. I can't comment on it for iOS, but it works great on Android.