This is an interesting story about an app I found in the App Store two days ago. Just like every night before I go to sleep, I opened AppShopper to take a quick look at new apps that could be worth a mention on MacStories. I’ve been looking for new great iPad apps recently, but universal ones are, of course, more than welcome.

So I stumbled upon this new application with a nice looking icon called “Reader Mode” which, supposedly, enabled you to browse the web and switch to a text-only view (for long articles with the tap of a button). It was universal and priced at $0.99. I bought it.

The morning after, I woke up and synced my iPad. I remember I had this new app to try, so I grabbed an espresso and fired it up. It was the day Ars Technica posted one of their huge 15-page reviews - what better site to test Reader Mode? Sweet, I browsed to Ars and tapped on the button. Server error. Uh? I investigated and I discovered that the app relied on a service called “Printful” (never heard of it) that allowed users to see webpages without all the clutter. I tried to open printful.com and the website was, indeed, down. My only mistake was to assume that the app used some sort of API to plug into Instapaper’s Mobilizer service because man, it looked like Instapaper judging from the screenshots. True, I was tired and I was sitting in a dark room - but seriously? It looks like Instapaper. It’s not Instapaper, though.

Now, I had this app and it wasn’t working. I could have tweeted it, trashed the developer and sent Steve an email about his shitty App Store selling broken software (I believe there are people who do this on a regular basis), but I acted as a good guy instead: I tried to gather info about the source of all problems, Printful. The service was nowhere to be found on Google. I filtered the results and ran a query for last week / last month results (the alleged “service” must be new) - nothing. My last resort was a WHOIS query: please take a look at the results by yourself.

Printful doesn’t exist, but now it’s online and working. Which brings me to the second part of the story.

The day after my unsuccessful test of Reader Mode I gave the app a second chance. I browsed to Ars again and hit the Reader button. It worked: I got a text-only view of the review and, somehow, the app also managed to break Ars’s pagination and display everything on one page, while retaining full-size images. Admittedly, it was pretty good. In the app you can also change font size and switch between different themes. Very nice. So where’s the catch?

As Printful was up and running, I rushed to visit the website and see what it looked like. The homepage was empty, just a navigation bar at the top. In the middle, a link to the page I just “printed”. Reader Mode didn’t display anything about links being publicly available on Printful’s homepage - I did not create an account or anything. Serious “what the hell” moment followed. I went back into the App Store and read the app’s description carefully to see if I missed something about links going public, but I was right: “Reader Mode uses technology developed by Printful.com”. I clicked on the developer’s website link in iTunes and I was brought to an empty Get Satisfaction page. The thought that this whole thing could be a well-conceived scam started to slip through my brains, but then I saw the name of the developer: Alberto Garcia Hierro. The guy’s the developer of popular apps such as Buzzie and Latitude, no way he wanted to “deceive” people.

I think that this is all a giant misunderstanding and a demonstration of poor app marketing. First, the app is nice: if you’re looking for a way to browse the web and get a text-only view with one tap (even though I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to use the awesome Instapaper), go for it. The app has a nice icon and it runs on the iPhone as well. But I have a problem with links being showed publicly without asking any kind of confirmation to the user. Seriously, Alberto? Haven’t you learned anything from Google’s privacy fail back when they launched Buzz? What makes you think that I want my anti-Pope essays and Justin Bieber confessions appear on Printful.com - even if (apparently) they’re anonymous?

If privacy is not a concern to you, you can go download the app. Or, you can just go get Instapaper.