Think about your iPad, and tell me what’s the thing you do most with it. I bet that of all activities, reading with the iPad would be the most popular answer. So much has been said about the tablet being able to revolutionize the print industry and old media (e.g. Newspapers that still have to figure out a way to monetize their online presence), but let’s face it: revolutions don’t happen in two months. It’s a constant and daily evolution, led by Steve Jobs, the App Store and developers.
Third party applications is where it’s at. Creative devs coming up with innovative solutions that show how a new device such as the iPad can indeed reshape the industry. We’re waiting for a second wave of great iPad apps to come along, and those apps will do even better than the ones we’ve seen in these two months.
Back to reading, we have seen newspapers outsourcing the development of their apps, and while some applications are good (like the Financial Times, winner of an Apple Design Award), some can do better (New York Times, WSJ). Let’s not focus about newspaper apps though, let’s talk about “indie” devs. When it comes to reading, RSS apps represent the most popular category in the App Store. Reeder for iPad is still awaiting approval, but I’ve been beta testing it and it’s easily become one of the apps I use the most to read stuff. There are many other good apps that you can try, such as Newsrack and NetNewsWire. On the other hand, there’s Pulse: a major hit in the App Store, a visual news aggregator that has been praised by Steve Jobs on stage at the WWDC keynote. These are apps for immediate consumption though, what about long reading sessions?
Instapaper by Marco Arment is the app I use every day to save articles for later and read them when I have time, usually before I go to bed. I reviewed it here, and I think the current version of Instapaper for iPad is the best around. It makes much more sense than the iPhone and web version, because of the device it runs on. It’s an incredibly polished piece of software.
Now I guess you already know what I’m trying to say and the alternative to Instapaper I’m about to mention. Read it Later by Nate Weiner has been around for a couple of years now, it’s gone from being a Firefox extension to a full featured suite of tools to save links for later, and it’s got a huge user base. The latest introduction to the Read it Later platform, the Digest, allows you to save links and have a customized “newspaper” with the articles you saved grouped by topics and relevance. It’s been a huge success, and looks great, visually speaking. One of the best things about RiL is the attention to UI design. Both the iPhone and web app look stunning in terms of interface design.
When I heard that Nate was working on an iPad version of Read it Later, I asked him to keep me posted about the development. I was a RiL user before moving on to Instapaper, and I was curious to see what the Digest and a new device could bring to the platform. Months passed by and I didn’t hear a word from him, while Arment publicly said that Instapaper would be available at the iPad’s launch. He wants to do things slowly, I figured. Then a few weeks ago I finally had the chance to get my hands on a beta of the app, which has been sitting on my iPad’s home screen since then.
It might sound trivial, but Read it Later for iPad looks great and definitely makes more sense than its web version. The app Nate envisioned is a wisely crafted piece of software that aims at becoming your new favorite solution to sit down and enjoy a good reading session, perhaps together with a cup of coffee. It’s different from Instapaper, The Early Edition and Pulse, yet it feels natural and intuitive. It successfully manages to mix Instapaper’s “read later” concept with a much more appealing virtual newspaper design, and the result is interesting.
RiL for iPad is made of two separate sections: the reading list and the Digest. You can find them in the web version as well, but they are better integrated in the iPad UI and switching back and forth between them is fast and pleasant. The design is top notch, with dark UI elements and menus that show all the attentions to pixels Nate put into this app.
The app supports landscape and portrait mode, but for this review I’m going to focus on the landscape mode, which is more comfortable in my opinion. There’s a sidebar on the left which displays your reading list, currently reading items, archive and topics. The actual to-read / archived items are on the right, and you can swipe over them to bring up a menu to quickly archive them, tag them, download them (cache). You can also filter items and share them across a large selection of online services and social networks. As for the archive, you can permanently delete items or put them in the unread list again.
The reading experience is smooth, good looking and consistent within the application. You can change the background from white to black, increase and decrease font size, change from serif to sans-serif fonts (nice), switch from text only view to full web view. Videos play inline in the text only view as well. Too bad you can’t zoom and adjust brightness, but I guess Nate’s already working on it for an update.
The Digest is what makes this iteration of RiL stand out. It feels like it was meant to be on the iPad since the beginning, as it’s beautifully laid out, polished and it feels good to swipe between topics while on the couch. It’s an elegant customized newspaper that learns from you, understands your reading habits and organizes articles so that you won’t miss the important stuff.
We had the chance to chat with Nate Weiner about his newest creation. Here’s what he told us about Read it Later, the iPad and Digest.
“I began working on Digest late last year for the sole purpose of putting it on the iPad. The current web version was the initial experiment and a way for me to start testing the logic/semantic brain behind it before the official release.
Around that time, we all knew that Apple was creating a tablet. I didn’t know what it looked like or how it’d even work, but I knew that a flat, portable device with a large screen was where Read it Later was born to run on.
I wanted the experience to feel more like a magazine that you throw on your coffee table. For me, the iPad isn’t a device I carry around all day or use to do work. It’s the device I use when I just want to relax and take in some reading or video. I use it on my couch, or in bed, or at the kitchen counter.
What I envisioned is adding the final piece to Read It Later’s massive syncing capability. With RIL, you can save a link on any browser, device, and even from a number of popular apps. So during the day you save links from all of these places and when you come home, you can put your feet up, grab your iPad off the coffee table, open Read It Later and everything you saved during the day will be there, right in your hands, organized into the ultimate customized newspaper.
There is no need to manually organize items or connect your iPad to your computer to sync your articles. You save all of the articles you want, from anywhere and it just works.
That’s what I wanted it to feel like.”
Read it Later for iPad will be available soon in the App Store. It’s one of those apps you should really look forward to.
Check out our Read it Later for iPad photo set on Flickr.
