Readability
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Readability eliminates the fluff and lets you read: our chat with Rich Ziade
Readability is now in the iOS App Store, ready to change how you read the web. We were able to get a preview copy and have been playing with app for a few days. It's a universal app that lets you browse articles without the clutter of ads, superfluous links and redundant images. For those who use Readability in a third-party client like Tweetbot, you'll immediately feel at home when you first open the app. The idea behind Readability is similar to Instapaper and Read It Later, you browse the web on your desktop or mobile browser and send articles to Readability to read. When you launch the app, you'll need to enter your Readability login credentials or sign up for a new account. You'll need this account so you can access your reading list, which is shared across devices. Using Readability to read is a pleasant experience for those who like to get to the meat of an article - the words. The app does an excellent job of taking the core parts of a post and presenting it in a pleasing way. If you don't like the way Readbility displays the text, you can change it by adjusting the font size and column width. There's even a toggle to change the color theme for night and day reading. It's easy to add items to Readability and then read them on your iOS device. You can add articles using a desktop browser, from desktop apps like Reeder, and from mobile apps like Tweetlogix and Pulse. If you're using mobile Safari you can easily copy the URL of a web page and Readability will ask you to add it to your reading list when you open the app. Overall, I enjoyed using Readability. I love the clean interface and how it formats an article so you can jump right in and start reading. The ability to sync articles between devices is also a major benefit. I spend a lot of time on my computer during the day and read on the iPad at night. Readability works perfectly for my reading habits. Though I like Readability, the biggest question is whether I will keep using it. There are so many options for consuming media on the iPad and other well-established systems like Read It Later, why would you switch to Readability? We were able to talk to Rich Ziade, founding partner of the New York-based design and technology firm Arc90 and one the many talented people behind Readability. We asked him that exact question. Read on to find out what he has to say about the new iOS app and the company's plan for the future. Question: Most people think of readability and remember last year when your app was rejected by Apple and you wrote Apple an open letter. What happened between then and now to bring you back? Answer: In a word - a lot! We'd always wanted to get onto the iPhone and iPad with native apps. It's something we'd been working towards for a while. What complicated things was that we were evolving as a service rapidly over that time. It was pretty tricky to get the apps done and lined up with where the service was going. In any case, we're finally here and we're really excited to finally release them. Question: Why would people chose to use Readability over a competitor like Instapaper or Read It Now, which are similar services? Answer: We're pretty convinced that the notion of providing comfort and flexibility has barely been touched today. While we're incredibly proud of the app, we're most proud of the development community and apps built atop the platform (they're listed here). The idea of building a community around a platform is what drives us. From a reader perspective, this allows us to embed your reading list in a lot of different places, devices and platforms. As far as the app itself, our goal was to keep it dead simple and elegant. We're pretty convinced the great majority of people don't know about this way to read the web. We want to make it as simple as possible for them. Question: Can you comment on how users access your service? Is it mostly web-based, mobile, or through a third-party app? Answer: Today most people access the service in their web browser. We are seeing more and more mobile and tablet use though. This probably mirrors general trends. You have a web-based version of Readability designed for mobile devices. Question: Do you think fewer people will use it now that you have a dedicated iOS app? Answer: If they own an iPhone or iPad - absolutely. We do want them to have the best possible experience and we expect them to download the iOS app. Question: You are now doing optional subscriptions, a portion of which is being donated to the writers and publishers. With a free app, a free API and optional subscriptions, how are you generating revenue? If you're not focused on revenue now, is there a revenue plan for the future? Answer: We're seeing a healthy number of readers opt in to the subscription model so we are generating revenue that way. Down the road, we think there are a handful of ways to generate revenue. We're constantly engaging readers, developers and publishers to explore avenues. For now though, our focus is to just bring a great reading platform to as many people as possible. Question: What's next for Readability? Where do you see the company over the next three to five years? Answer: That's a great question. It's tough to answer because the landscape we're in is changing and shifting so dramatically. There are so many directions to go because these new ways of consuming content are just now emerging. Our goal is to pay attention to what people are doing and to enable others to leverage the platform.
Readability: Coming to an iOS device near you on March 1
Do you like reading articles on the web, but hate all of the cruft that ends up making posts hard to read? Relax. Readability is going to be available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch for free on March 1, 2012. Readability is somewhat akin to Reader in Safari on the Mac, only much better. Both provide the capability to read web pages sans ads in an very text-centric format, but the similarity ends there. Readability adds extra functionality, including the ability to change text size to accommodate aging or tired eyes, swap fonts, tweet links to posts to your followers, and easily browse a pre-saved reading list. Users of the popular Tweetbot apps for iPhone and iPad know just how handy Readability can be. The Twitter client includes a way to switch linked web pages to a Readability format for easy reading -- I've found that it's my preferred way to view websites on an iPhone. For a tantalizing glimpse of Readability for iPad, be sure to watch the video below.
Readability: Apple's new subscription policy 'smacks of greed'
Apple's new subscription policy has already drawn plenty of criticism -- not to mention the eye of the FTC and DOJ - but that doesn't make the missive issued by Readability today any less pointed. As you may be aware, Readability's technology uses the Reader feature recently added to Safari, and the company also provides a subscription-based service of its own that allows you to pay for the convenience of reading articles that have been stripped down to nothing but text -- something they're able to get away with because they pay 70 percent of that subscription fee back to the publishers. Not surprisingly, Readability recently decided to expand with an iOS app, and that's where things got dicey. Apple rejected the app on the grounds that it relies on a separate subscription -- one where Apple doesn't get a 30 percent cut. In a post on its blog, the company says that 30 percent "drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works," and that, frankly, Apple's new subscription policy as a whole "smacks of greed." Obviously, that leaves Readability in something of a bind at the moment, as the nature of its business doesn't give it the leeway to agree to Apple's terms, but it does have a suggestion. It says it'll gladly deliver a Readability app for iOS with in-app purchasing if Apple agrees to pay 70 percent of the 30 percent fee it collects to writers and publishers, just like it does. Hit up the source link below for the company's complete letter.
Android may save the day for Apple's iPad subscription policy in the EU
There may never be an official "thank you" note sent, but Apple may be secretly grateful for the explosion of Android tablets about to hit the market. Apple is under the watchful eye of both the United States and the European Union's regulatory bodies regarding its new subscription policy for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The terms of this new policy have prompted some to question whether it runs afoul of current anti-competitive regulations. These anti-competitive concerns may be allayed when the tidal wave of Android tablets lands, and both consumers and publishers can choose between Android and iOS for their media consumption and distribution needs. European Union commissioner Andris Piebalgs echoes this sentiment when he writes to a European Parliament member, saying that "alternative applications platforms exist and several companies have recently launched or are expected to launch in the near future a number of devices similar in terms of functionality to the iPad." Though this statement was released prior to Apple's subscription changes and Google's One Pass announcement, its premise of increased competition from Android tablets remains the same. With an influx of Android tablets slated for release and an alternative subscription service, market forces and not a single company's policies will shape the future of digital media. Of course, this laissez-faire sentiment may change when regulators catch wind of Readability, a paid web service whose app was reportedly rejected from the App Store because it does not offer an in-app subscription option.
The Reader feature in Safari 5 can change your whole web experience
I'm surprised Apple didn't hype the Reader feature in Safari 5 a bit more. It's almost a stealth function, and you might not even notice it is there. My colleague Dave Caolo touched on it in his Safari 5 overview, and I want to make sure everyone tries it. (If you're a fan of the Readability bookmarklet, you're probably going to like it -- in fact, it's built on the same code base.) Here's how it works. Click on an article or post on your favorite website. Take a look at the Smart Address Field. If the word 'Reader' appears, you're good to go. Click on the word 'Reader' and you'll get a clean view of the page. If it is a multi-page article, they will all be there as you scroll down. Even better, you can print the page cleanly, or send it via e-mail. When you are done, navigate to the bottom of the displayed page and click the 'x' and you'll be back to the regular web. Check the screen shots for before and after renderings to see how it works. I found reading this way to be a terrific experience. Reader simplifies the web, getting rid of a lot of the annoying sidebars and extraneous content. It won't work on a front page with lots of links to articles, but once you are in the article, it should re-render your page if you ask it to. Apple support boards are seeing a bit of traffic about Safari 5 compatibility, but the reader functions seems to be very solid. Give it a try and see if it doesn't change your web experience. Reader works on both the Windows and Mac version of Safari. I'd love to get it on the iPad and the iPhone -- but you can get a taste of it now on those devices by using the Instapaper Mobilizer to create Reader-esque pages from your favorite sites. Note that not everyone is pleased with Reader, as it can impact advertising revenues for some sites (although it does load the complete page before it lets you go to Reader view, so it should not hinder pageview counts). It's a lot like the tension between television networks and the time-shifting/ad-skipping technologies that began with the VCR and continue today with DVRs. Ad-blocking and Reader views will probably be a flashpoint between content creators/advertising networks and the audiences they serve. %Gallery-94724%
