Read It Later

It has been great seeing users posting screens of their Digests on Twitter.  They look incredible!  It’s awesome to see how different users’ Digest can look.  Even better, I’m glad to see users already creating their own custom topics.

If you’d care to share, I’d love to see how your Digest looks!  Thanks to all of those who have shared theirs already.

How to Share Even Further

Beyond just posting a screenshot, if you are interested in sharing your Digest with your friends, you can make it public and send out a permanent link.  Even if you bought Digest on the iPad, you can access it on the web at http://readitlaterlist.com/d/.  Once you are there, click the ‘Share’ link in the top for further instructions.

Posted Screenshots

Here is a random sampling of Digest screenshots I’ve seen posted on Twitter:

via @tokerud

via @Lightbring3r

via @othylmann

via @fotomaf

via @stevestreza

User created apps are a powerful way to improve your RIL experience.  These apps help you connect Read It Later in even more places. Here are some of the most recent additions in case you’ve missed them.

For a full list of all supported apps see the Read It Later App Directory.

iPad Apps

Read It Later for iPad
Read It Later’s official iPad app is now available.

NewsRack
Google Reader client

Bulletin
Google Reader client

Reeder
Google Reader client

Twittelator
Twitter client

Osfoora HD
Twitter client

See all iPad apps

Safari Extensions

Save for Later
Save to RIL directly from inside Safari

Read It Later Restyled
Restyle your RIL experience

See all Safari extensions

iPhone Apps

Twitbit
Twitter client

Android Apps

Dolphin Browser HD
Web browser with built in RIL support

Windows Mobile

LateReader
Full Read It Later client

Here is a feature you may not have discovered yet in Read It Later for iPad.  You can control the screen brightness from anywhere within the app!

How to Use It

1. From anywhere within the app, tap and hold your finger over the bottom center of the screen.  (See below)
2. A brightness control will appear.
3. Slide your finger to the left to dim, slide to the right to brighten.

On Development

This was a feature originally slotted for version 2.1.1 but because of the number of times I had to resubmit the app, I was able to include this in the initial release.  However, I didn’t have time to document it anywhere.

It was pretty clear even after the first night of using my iPad that a brightness control was crucial to anyone doing reading at night.  The iPad screen is gorgeous, but at night it feels like staring at the sun.

Having a brightness control was important, but it was difficult to decide where to place it.  What view does it go in?  Is it on every page?  Just the reader?  Or is it buried in the options screen?  None of those solutions really worked for me.  I needed the brightness control to be accessible everywhere within the app without cluttering the interface.

I had always wanted a system-wide brightness control for iOS.  It drives me crazy that I have to exit the app I’m in, open options, open the brightness settings, adjust it, and then go back to the app I had open.  If I couldn’t have that, the least I could do was make my own app wide control for my own app.

This was a feature I played around with a lot and tried several variations of.  The original gesture I had in mind was using all five fingers to pinch the screen (as if you were pulling the light right out of it).  This one felt the most natural to me and seemed to be the fastest.  Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that it was almost impossible to do in a way that didn’t interfere with the rest of the app.  If you didn’t get all 5 fingers down fast enough, the app might think you are simply tapping a link or starting to scroll a table.  In 30% of the times I would try to use the gesture, I’d by accidentally start interacting with the app, opening links and other views.  That simply wouldn’t do.

I tried other hotspots around the app, different types of taps and swipes and drags.  Because this control is app wide and there are so many different types of views within RIL (list, digest, reader, options, etc), it was difficult to find a solution that wouldn’t create potential for accidental interaction.

How I decided on the the final gesture was simple.  I turned the iPad off.

The iPad is a smudge machine.  Use that thing for even 5 minutes and it’s covered in smudges.  Once I turned it off and angled it right in the light, I was able to see where most of my touches were.  Most of the marks were on the top and sides.  The bottom center of the screen was almost spotless.  This seemed like the perfect place to add a touch area that wouldn’t get in the way of any other functionality.

The tap and hold on the bottom center of the screen has worked really well for me so far.  It’s placed in an area that I almost never touch and yet, it’s right there when I need to make a quick adjustment to the brightness.

I hope this makes your night reading a lot more enjoyable!

Update: Just to clarify, this does not use an undocumented APIs.  It simply overlays a dark layer over the UI and adjusts the opacity.

So obviously the big news is that version 2.1 brings native support to the iPad.  However, version 2.1 brings a number of important updates for iPhone users as well.

Digest Support

2.1 brings initial support for Digest.  If you are a Digest user, you’ll have a new option appear within the app that allows you to navigate through your topics the same way you do with tags.  You can also edit/create topics directly from within the app.  If you are not a Digest user, you can check it out here.

Embedded Media in Text View

If you are a Digest user, your text view will now include the main image from each post.  If the article contains an embedded video, this will appear as well.  You no longer have to switch back to the web view to find any videos or other media.

New Share Menu in Free

Read It Later Free now includes a share menu with the option to open articles in Safari.  For additional share options (Twitter, Email, Facebook, and a lot more), check out Read It Later Pro.

Updated Fullscreen Viewer

The fullscreen viewer in Read It Later Pro has been redone.  You can tap any corner to bring the controls back up (instead of that tiny little button that used to be there).  In addition, I’ve eliminated the lag that used to exist when bringing the controls back on longer pages.

Support to Select/Copy Text

The text view now supports selecting and copying text.

User Agent Option

In the advanced options you can select which type of content RIL should download when downloading the complete web page.  If you’d like RIL to attempt to download the mobile/iphone versions of pages, flip this new option on.

Lots of Improvements and Bug Fixes

- The text scroll position was not being saved in some instances
- Several improvements to the complete web view download accuracy
- Speed improvements and minor bugs

Almost 3 years ago, I created a simple little tool that let you save a link to read later (even offline) on your desktop or laptop.  At that time I never would have imagined I’d be able to use it like this.

Digest on the iPad

Digest is a new way to use RIL that I’ve been working on since late 2009.  This was even before we had verification the iPad existed.  Even so, I had the iPad in mind from day one of development.  It is where Digest belonged.

Digest is Read It Later with a Brain

Digest looks at every article that you save to your list and automatically groups it into topics you choose.  You can select from a predefined list of topics suggested to you based on what you’ve already saved or create your own custom topics.  Think of it as reverse tagging.  Instead of manually tagging each item in your list or moving them into folders, you simply tell Digest what topics/tags you care about and it takes care of the organization for you.

The Death of the Reading ‘List’

When you have as much screen real estate as you do on the iPad, how could I possibly do your reading list justice by simply displaying it in a list?

Digest takes your existing list and displays it in a beautiful new way.  Using the topics you’ve chosen, Digest breaks your list into sections.  Each section uses a dynamic layout that changes based on how new and relevant the content you’ve saved is.

The sections also extract special content from your list.  Videos are found and displayed in their own column.  Digest even looks for trends in your list.  For example, if you save a lot of links from one particular source, they’ll be highlighted for you in their own section.

The Ultimate Newspaper

Combine this beautiful new layout with the fact you can save a link to Read It Later with just one click from any web browser or mobile phone and the end result is a fluid, customized newspaper delivered in real-time to your iPad, comprised of only content hand picked by you.

Video

In addition to articles, I save a lot of video content to my list.  And if there is one thing the iPad is better at than reading, it’s watching.  On top of its ideal viewing form factor, the iPad supports HTML5 video in a much stronger way than the iPhone does.  I wanted to make sure Read It Later took full advantage of this.

You’ll find video better supported in four areas of the iPad app:

Video Player

When you open any direct video link, it will open in a dedicated video player.  This offers much fewer distractions than opening a YouTube page in RIL’s standard reading view.  Plus, it just looks awesome.

Watch It Later Topic

One of the predefined topics you can select from in Digest is a Videos topic.  This serves as your personal ‘Watch It Later’ channel and shows any item within your reading list that contains a video.

Digest Videos

Within the Digest view (as mentioned above), videos are pulled from each topic and separated from your list so they are easy to find.

Embedded Videos in Text View

If you are a Digest user, you’ll find embedded video appears within the text view.  This means while reading the text view, you do not have to switch to the web view just to find any embedded media in articles.

List View

While Digest is an awesome way to consume your reading list on the iPad, there is still something to the raw efficiency offered by the list view.  The list view is the ‘backside’ of Read It Later on the iPad and is the view you are familiar with on the iPhone.  This list view is the real workhorse of Read It Later and offers a robust feature set to tackle even the longest reading lists.  The list view still offers sorting and searching filters and a swipe action menu for quick list management and sharing.  Digest topics can even be viewed in list format, searched and sorted.

Even without Digest, the list view of Read It Later is incredibly robust and offers enough functionality to stand completely alone.

Offline Reading

Read It Later brought offline reading to the ‘read later’ reading list almost 3 years ago and today, the iPad app is no exception.  RIL can download the full web page including images and layout or a stripped down text view.  You can easily flip between either mode with a single tap.

Having both views on a screen this size is critical.  When I’m viewing design blogs, the web view is the only true way to get the full sense of every detail.  It also works perfectly for sites that offer informational sidebars, non-article content like forums or non-traditional layouts.  When I get to a long form article, I simply switch over to the text view and enjoy a simplified reading experience.

It’s the best of both worlds.  And for a Wifi-only iPad, it’s even better.

Position Sync

One of most powerful features of Read It Later is probably one of its least well known.  Read It Later on the iPad remembers where you left off in every article.  Not just on the iPad, but everywhere.

Your position is synced with every place you access Read It Later.  This means you can start reading an article on your computer, get up, grab your phone and pick up exactly where you left off.

RIL for the iPad fully supports position syncing and works in combination with your iPhone and computer despite screen size differences.

What Does It Cost?

I have to say to every single person who has already purchased Read It Later Pro on the iPhone… thank you.  The support you have provided has allowed me to turn a simple little idea into a job and into a living and that is an incredibly overwhelming thing.

Read It Later Pro

Read It Later for iPad is a universal app.  This means if you’ve already purchased Read It Later Pro on the iPhone, you already own Read It Later Pro for the iPad. For new users, the price remains the same at $4.99.

Get Read It Later Pro (iTunes Link)

Read It Later Free

In addition to Read It Later Pro, Read It Later Free is a complete and powerful app in its own right and is available today alongside Pro.  (See a comparison of the two here)

Get Read It Later Free (iTunes Link)

Digest

Digest is a completely new type of product.  It is an add-on to all existing apps and works even independently outside of those apps.  While Digest is separate, your Digest purchase is completely portable.  This means that no matter where you get it, Digest is added to your account and is then available everywhere.   In addition to the web version, Digest is now supported by both Read It Later Free and Pro on both the iPhone and iPad.  This means if you have no interest in Pro’s features but still would like Digest, you can still use it within the free apps.

While in beta, Digest will continue to be only a one-time $5 purchase. You can add Digest to your account on the web here or directly within either iPad app using in-app purchase.

Next

This is simply the first version of Read It Later on the iPad.  Expect a lot more awesomeness coming down the line in the next few weeks/months.

I also want to say a big thanks to my friends at OpenCalais.  They provide an integral part of the data I use behind Digest.  Digest has been an enormous undertaking for a one man show and the support they’ve given in flushing this out has been tremendous.

See it?  Okay it’s the old icon from last year, but Read It Later is on the main WWDC banner!

Read It Later (read: I) will be at WWDC this year.  If you’d like to meet up, chat, or even get a peek at the RIL iPad app, drop me a line.  I’d love to get together.

To coordinate, send me a message on Twitter @Ideashower or email nate@ideashower.com.

Every day I’m getting more and more emails asking where the app is. I’ve held off being forthcoming in respect to the app review team, but now that it’s approaching 3 weeks in review, I decided that you all deserve more details about what is happening.

At D8 this week, Steve Jobs countered any criticism of the app store by stating “we approve 95% of all the apps that are submitted every week“.  The problem with this argument is that approving apps is the easy part.  A developer submits an app, Apple approves it, it hits the app store and everyone (the developer, Apple, and the users) all prosper.  It’s all happiness, sunshine, and rainbows.  That’s where I’ve been the last year, in the 95%, and it has been awesome.

But where an app store is truly proven is how they handle that other 5%.  The other 5% is where all of the hard work is.  This is where a company’s true colors present themselves.

This is not a post to say Apple should be more open.  This is not a post to say get rid of the app review process (in fact I think quite the opposite).  This is a post to highlight that there is single gargantuan problem with the other 5%.  It’s called communication.

Read It Later for the iPad is very close to being out, but it was rejected for what appears to be a tiny misunderstanding.  One that I believe could be explained very quickly, but I’ve had no luck getting anyone’s ear at the app review team.

Here is exactly what has happened:

May 17th (day 0) – The app was submitted

May 25th (day 8 ) – A reviewer logs into the demo account (Noted from the server logs)

May 28th (day 11) – After not hearing anything, I send an email inquiring about the status of the app.

June 1st (day 14) – Apple sends a rejection email

Why was it rejected?  The iPad version uses (spoiler alert) in-app purchase to allow users to purchase Digest.  This was rejected because an in-app purchase must be able to “be re-downloaded and shared across multiple devices.”

The problem with this rejection reason is that RIL already does that.  When you purchase Digest, it is assigned to your account permanently.  This means no matter what device you log into with your account, Digest will immediately be activated and just works.

Now here’s the real kicker: The reviewer only tested the app on one device. (Again I can see this because of server logs).  This means they wouldn’t have been able to verify the actual reason the app was rejected for.  It seems that it was merely assumed.  If the reviewer had logged into the demo account on another device, they would have seen that Digest was in fact carried over.

It seems like a simple misunderstanding given the speed in which the reviewers have to race through each app.  One would assume a quick conversation would clear this up and I could be on my way to the 95% happiness land.

What happened next:

June 1st – early morning – I re-upload the application file and respond trying to clarify the misunderstanding and ask if they could confirm that Digest does in fact carry to another device.

June 1st – evening – Apple responds with a canned one-line response thanking me for uploading new binaries.

June 2nd – morning – I respond to say that the “new” binaries were unchanged because the rejection seemed to be a misunderstanding.  I restate the issue and say that I believe this whole thing could be solved by having a reviewer simply log in to another device and see that Digest comes through.

Today – Still no response

Yesterday I called Apple’s Developer Support phone number.  It rang twice before someone answered.  The guy I spoke with was incredibly nice.  I explained the situation and he was sympathetic.  Unfortunately, he said there wasn’t really anything else he could suggest beyond what I was already doing (emailing app review).  The app review team is cut off from the rest of the company and essentially works as a separate department that he could not contact directly.

This is what is so crazy and seems so unlike Apple.  If you’ve ever interacted with anyone at Apple, they are all like this guy from dev support: insanely nice.  Whether I’m in an Apple store or calling Apple Care, I’ve had nothing but fantastic support from Apple.  I’m confident that the people working in the app review department are just as nice, but for whatever reason, they’ve been forced to work behind this veil of secrecy that makes any reasonable communication almost impossible.

It took me 3 minutes to explain the issue to the guy I spoke with on the phone.  In 3 minutes, he understood and could see where there was a misunderstanding.  That is all I need, just 3 minutes of someone’s time at app review and I’m confident this issue could be resolved instantly.

The problem with the lack of communication is that it leaves me with complete uncertainty about what to fix, if anything.  It’s completely possible that I’ll wait another 7-14 days and get the exact same rejection notice again.  Without being able to speak with someone about the issue, it’s impossible to clear this up.

Overall, I’m not mad, just disappointed.  The reason I held off on writing this was because I had hoped that the next post on this blog would announce the app that provides the best Read It Later experience to date; The app built for a device I was so excited about that I started building Digest specifically for it even before we knew the iPad actually existed.

The stone cold truth is that today, I have no more information about the status of this app than the day I submitted it.

So I wait, in the 5%.

–

Update: At WWDC I was able to sit down and speak with a member of the app review team IN PERSON.  Just as I expected, they were incredibly nice.  We had a great conversation, I got a handle on where Apple was coming from and they got my viewpoint.  I believe we came to a solid agreement and I’m hopeful that this should be resolved in the near future.

Update June 4th: Read this post

Update May 31st (2 weeks later): Nothing like anticipation huh?  The app is still in review and I have not heard anything from Apple.  Past review times have been consistantly around 7 days so this is longer than usual.  I assume the delay is due to WWDC being next week, OS 4.0 preparation, and an increase in submitted apps (new iPad versions).  I’m hopeful that I’ll hear something soon and trust me, as soon as it is available, I’ll be shouting it from rooftops.

—-

The iPad version of Read It Later has been submitted to Apple and is currently awaiting approval.  If all goes well, it should be available in the app store within a week.

I’ll provide more details when it goes live, but I will just say that this is the best Read It Later experience to date.  I’ve read more articles and watched more video in the past month with RIL for the iPad than I’ve consumed anywhere else this whole year.

I can’t wait for you guys to try it out!

Users are continuing to make great apps and mashups that connect with Read It Later.  Here are some of the most recent additions in case you’ve missed them.

For a full list of all supported apps see the Read It Later App Directory.

Desktop Apps

Quiet Read – Mac
Drag any link into your menu bar for quick saving to your list.

Read Now – Mac
Access your entire list from your menu bar.  Save by dragging links or using global keyboard shortcuts for saving.

Winslew – Windows
Full client for Windows with support for offline reading & list management.

Desktop Google Reader – Windows
Google Reader client with support for saving links to Read It Later.

See all Desktop Apps

Chrome Extensions

Mark For Later – Chrome
Quick button to save links to your reading list

Postponer – Chrome (Updated)
Previously covered Chrome extension, recently updated to include Google Reader support.

See all Chrome Extensions

Twitter Apps

Gravity – S60
Save links to your reading list

SimplyTweet 3 – iPhone
Saving links to your reading list

Osfoora – iPhone
Saving links to your reading list

Tweetings – iPhone
Saving links to your reading list

See all Twitter apps

Firefox users: Version 2.0.6 has been released.  Firefox should prompt you for an update within the next few hours.

Thank you for your continued feedback.  The level of detail you provide in your support requests have made my job as a solo developer a million times easier.

What’s New (Mainly bug fixes):

• Fixed: Missing icon from location bar after session restore
• Fixed: Share to Firefox bookmarks
• Fixed: Issue with RIL offline file system on some computers
• Fixed: Plaintext debug messages appearing in console log
• Fixed: Clearing tags for an item did not sync
• Improvement: Syncing update