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Speed-reading app ReadQuick shrinks down for iPhone
How much do you read in a day? Is there a backed-up queue of articles, documents and stories that you'd tackle if you had more time -- or if you could read more quickly? ReadQuick, a US$4.99 iOS app produced by the husband and wife / TV journalist team of Clayton and Natali Morris and programmed by Pablo Quinterros, aims to up your reading speed gracefully. The new version adds iPhone support, a longstanding request from fans. The original version of ReadQuick, launched last year to generally solid reviews, was only available on the iPad. It features an accessible, sleek interface (if you like Instapaper, one of ReadQuick's content sources, you'll like the Wondersauce-designed RQ look) and the ability to adjust reading speed from the default 250 words per minute down to a plodding 100 WPM or up to a blazing 800 WPM. The app delivers stories from Pocket, Instapaper or a collection of featured specialist, news and tech sites in a very specific way: one - word - at - a - time. You get a preview of how long reading the story will take, helping to optimize your reading time. There's also a "timed playlist" feature, checking how long your full set of stories will take to read, and a statistics page with your reading performance. This chunked content delivery -- an implementation of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP -- has shown promise in some research contexts for improving reading speed without a proportional drop in comprehension. For me personally, RQ is a great way to enforce focus and attention on what I'm reading; if I look away, daydream or get distracted, I'm going to miss something. Aside from feeling like you can only blink one eye at a time, it's actually quite immersive. The iPhone version is just as effective as the iPad; in fact, the smaller screen makes the single-word UI seem more appropriate. ReadQuick is a solid combination of brain training and handy story aggregation. For the cost of a grande latte, you can try to widen your personal information bandwidth, and who couldn't use an upgrade?
The New York Times' Nick Bilton describes "a day in the life" of his iPhone
Have you ever thought about how often you pick up your iPhone and use it to perform some task or another? That's exactly what Nick Bilton, tech columnist at The New York Times, did for a story published today. Bilton's post follows his iPhone app usage throughout a typical day. Bilton begins his day with the Walk Up! alarm clock app, then spends the rest of the day grabbing information from a variety of free and paid apps. At the end of the day, he may read a few articles from Instapaper, use the Kindle app to read a book, or use Apple's Remote app to control his Apple TV before going to bed. It's a fascinating look at one blogger's iPhone app usage throughout a day, and an indication of just how much we've come to depend on our smartphones.
Pulse for iOS adds LinkedIn sharing
LinkedIn is quickly settling into its ownership of Pulse: fresh from integrating itself into the news app's Android edition, it's doing the same for iOS. Version 3.1 of the news aggregator largely mirrors the Android refresh and lets users flick a switch to share stories through the extra channel. The update also simplifies saving articles to Evernote, Instapaper and Pocket for those that aren't quite so public with their reading habits. Whichever camp you're in, the Pulse upgrade awaits at the source link.
Digg owner Betaworks acquires Instapaper
Betaworks, the company that rescued the faltering Digg, has now acquired Instapaper, says a report in TechCrunch. The news originated from an email sent by Betaworks founder and CEO John Borthwick and was confirmed by Instapaper founder Marco Arment. Arment writes on his blog, I'm happy to announce that I've sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We've structured the deal with Instapaper's health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff and develop it further. Borthwick says that Instapaper is a "perfect fit" with Digg and the company's upcoming Digg Reader. He also confirms that Betaworks plans to expand the staff working on Instapaper and develop it further. [Via TechCrunch]
Betaworks acquires Instapaper, promises continued development
If you're the sort who likes to catch up on web articles through a dedicated reader app, you're likely familiar with Instapaper and its lone creator, Marco Arment. His solo work makes for a cohesive experience and a great story, but it also involves a lot of strain -- enough so that Arment is selling majority control of the app to Betaworks, the owner of Bitly and Digg. Thankfully, this shouldn't represent a classic acquire-and-absorb deal that ultimately kills the original brand. Arment says he'll remain involved as an advisor, and the takeover is arranged with promises that Betaworks will add staff and continue building the read-it-later tool. While neither side has said just where they'll take Instapaper with more resources, there's a real chance that competitors like Pocket will feel some added pressure.
Daily Update for July 27, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Marco Arment on the Mac App Store's future
Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, weighed in with his thoughts on the future of the Mac App Store. He argued that, unless Apple changes some of its rigid policies, the Mac App Store is doomed. He pointed to the recent departure of the email client Postbox, which in part was the result of Apple's strict sandboxing requirements, as an example of what the future holds for the Mac App Store. Because of Apple's policies, Arment predicts that an increasing number of developers are going to leave the Mac App Store. Arment writes, "The problem with sandboxing isn't that any particular app is incompatible with the current entitlements. It's a deeper problem than that: Apple is significantly reducing the number of apps that can be sold in the Store after people have already bought them." This developer departure will not only affect developers, it will also affect customers who bought a piece of software that is now gone from the App Store. Arment says that even he has "lost all confidence that the apps I buy in the App Store today will still be there next month or next year." It isn't just sandboxing that's causing some developers to leave. The lack of a paid upgrade system, no access to important customer information and no volume discounts are making some developers return to selling their software through their own storefronts. Arment makes a compelling argument for buying apps directly from the developer instead of through the Mac App Store, even through the App Store is convenient. You should take the time to read his post and consider what he says the next time you click on the "Buy App" button. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Apple aware of corrupt apps issue, working on a fix (Update: Fixed!)
Earlier this morning, reports started circulating that the App Store was pushing corrupt binaries to iOS and Mac users, resulting in constant crashes of the affected apps. Marco Arment, of Instapaper fame, was one of the first to notice and very vocal -- bringing the issue to the attention of many in the media and at Apple. The list of affected apps is pretty staggering, including such high profile titles as Angry Birds Space, Yahoo! Search, Google Reader and, of course, Instapaper. The number of developers affected now tops 115, so we'd hold off on those updates. For the first several hours Apple was mum on the issue, but it has finally acknowledged the problem in the support forums and even reached out to developers via email. Suspicions seem to be that the FairPlay DRM is at the root, but until we have official word from Apple we'll refrain from laying the blame at its feet. Cupertino is working (we assume tirelessly) on a fix, which will hopefully be delivered sooner, rather than later. Update: Apple has confirmed to AllThingsD that the problem was due to a "server that generated DRM code" and has been fixed. Affected end users are advised to delete the corrupted apps and redownload them.
App Store delivering corrupted binaries for some apps (Updated)
Update: Per AllThingsD and TechCrunch, Apple has now commented on the binary corruption problem; it says the server issue that was responsible for problematic DRM code has been rectified. There are better ways to spend the 4th of July holiday than answering scores of angry support emails, but that's apparently what several iOS and Mac App Store developers wound up doing thanks to a glitch in Apple's software distribution systems. First reported by Instapaper sole proprietor Marco Arment and subsequently affirmed by other devs including Good.iWare (Goodreader) and Readdle (Scanner Pro), the problem seems to have affected apps updated on July 3rd forward. User symptoms are pretty simple: the app crashes, rather abruptly. The good news is apparently only users who updated within the first few hours of a new version's availability are affected, and deleting and reinstalling the app generally clears up the issue; that removes any on-device settings and stored content, however. Goodreader's developers did a nice job of documenting the backup/app removal/reinstall/restore process, if you've got a corrupt app with onboard data. As to the "why" of this problem, it's not clear yet, but the affected developers (more than 70 so far by Arment's count) are zeroing in on issues with Apple's encryption pass on the submitted executables. When an app is handed off to Apple for distribution in the App Store and approved by the review team, it's signed with Apple's digital keys (to allow iOS devices and Macs to run it) and encrypted to discourage piracy. The Goodreader devs suggest in their post that this encryption process isn't fully complete at the point that customers are getting a "new version available, download now!" notification -- so when they click that Update button, what they get is a half-baked binary rather than the correctly formatted app. In the short term, there's not much for users to do except wait an hour or two before downloading new app updates that show up (kind of like waiting 30 minutes after eating before heading into the pool). We'll reach out to Apple for comment and see what, if anything, we hear back.
Instapaper update introduces automatic background updating
The latest Instapaper update contains a pretty nifty new feature: the ability to update automatically in the background; the app uses geofencing to turn updates on and off. The Instapaper blog describes how the app will download articles whenever you enter a pre-set location, such as your home or work. You can add up to 10 locations using this feature. Developer Marco Arment gives credit to News.me, which was first released in April 2011, for introducing the feature. Arment reassures users that location data is only stored within the app and not shared with anyone. Arment also said there is no noticeable drain on battery life. Instapaper also now has an Android version of the app, introduced today at a lower price point than the iOS app. [Via The Verge]
Instapaper launches on Android devices
Instapaper creator Marco Arment has been kept so busy with the iOS version that he decided to contract out the Android iteration to Mobelux. Fortunately, this is the same developer that crafted Tumblr apps for both the iPhone and Android, so we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Available today, priced just shy of $3, Instapaper ties together one of iOS' favorites with Android's capacity for sharing across multiple apps. It arrives cocooned in a decidedly classy UI, even on our Gingerbread devices -- although it does get a little squashed in some sub-menus. As long as you're running an Android version higher than 2.2, hit up the source below to give it a try.
Yahoo Axis on desktop, iOS unifies your bookmarks, makes the web visual (hands-on)
We're all familiar with syncing bookmarks and save-for-later web services like Instapaper, but it's not often that they come with a full web component. Yahoo's hoping to hit the proverbial two birds tonight with Axis, which combines a desktop web browser extension (your choice of Chrome, Firefox or Safari) with a mobile app on the iPad and iPhone. You can bookmark any page and get at it later through a common portal -- hence the Axis name. That unity idea also extends to the idea of browser searching, where you'll see both trending topics as well as immediate answers and visual thumbnails of the top search results. Mobile users can share content through email, Pinterest or Twitter, if that's their inclination. Axis is ready and free to use as of today, although Android users won't get their turn until closer to the end of the year. Engadget had a chance to give Axis a quick spin, and we largely like what we see, even if we'd say it's not for everyone. The desktop browser extension largely stays out of your way until you need it, although we're surprised the social sharing elements are left out. On the mobile side, it's effectively a full, tabbed web browser, and a fairly solid (if simple) one at that. Most of the advantage comes through having the deeper search options just a pull away. Our issues mostly stem from the need for the app and the ecosystem it's leaping into. If you already thrive on (or want to try) services like Instapaper or Pocket, you're not going to get significantly more here, especially since you can't save content offline. Choosing iOS also means you can't make Axis your default browser, so any links you get from other apps can't be directly shared with Yahoo's mobile app. %Gallery-155648%
Berg's Little Printer churns out RSS feeds with a receipt and a smile
It's hard to think of a device more aptly named than BergCloud's Little Printer. It's little. It prints. It even smiles at you. And why wouldn't it? It's adorable. Equally notable is what it produces -- RSS feeds printed out on grocery store-style receipts. All you have to do is hook it up to your router, configure your RSS subscriptions from your smartphone and press a button to print them out. The Little Printer connects wirelessly to a small box that's plugged into your router. This box, in turn, interfaces with the Berg Cloud (also unveiled this week), providing constant updates and pulling down any web content you've selected. If, for instance, you want to print out Foursquare updates, you can use the app to add them to your queue and print them out for later reading. It's basically like InstaPaper... with more paper. BergCloud has already struck partnerships with ARUP, Foursquare, The Guardian, Nike and Google, though more are on the way. No word yet on pricing, but the device is slated to go up for pre-order sometime next year. Check it out in action, after the break. [Thanks, Dave]
Instapaper gets iPad refresh: more friends, more reading
Instapaper, the internet equivalent of a bookmark, has been given a top-to-toe makeover for its latest outing on the iPad. Fear not, your reading materials remain easy to read (and ad-free), but version 4 has now been smoothed over with a thick layer of tablet gloss. Navigation is all done through a bar on the left, and remains available for prodding as you read through your article selection. The upgrade also adds a subscription option for searching all your previous reads, as well as better social skills, with the ability to pick up and store articles and posts shared by your Twitter buddies -- ensuring that you'll probably never run out of reading material again.
Daily iPad App: Instapaper 4
Like to read? Got an iPhone or iPad? You really ought to have Marco Arment's US$4.99 Instapaper, which just got an upgrade to version 4.0. Instapaper's free web service allows you to flag stories to 'Read Later' with a single click, and you can always get your complete reading list via the site. For reading on the go, however, the cached stories in the app are ideal. The Instapaper app now features an iPad-specific article list interface; it swaps out the simple headline-by-headline scroll for a more spacious grid arrangement, complete with the first few lines of the story. The iPhone version has been streamlined too, with story excerpts, bylines and site information clearly visible. iOS 5 users get true hardware brightness control, making it easier to read under varying lighting conditions. Instapaper wants to let you know what your friends are reading, so now in addition to the stories flagged by your Instapaper-specific social connections, you can also browse all the linked stories posted by your Twitter and Facebook friends or by the Tumblr microblogs you follow (Arment is a founder and former CTO of Tumblr). For Instapaper subscribers who choose to fork over $1 a month to support the service, the app now includes full-text search of all the articles you've ever saved to Instapaper -- downright handy. You can see the full list of new features at Arment's blog. If you're only using Instapaper via the website, you're not getting the full-on experience. There are very few apps that have made themselves a home on the front screens of both my iPhone and iPad, and even fewer that rate a spot in the app Dock for both devices. Instapaper has been firmly lodged there since version 1, and I don't anticipate pulling it out anytime soon.
Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me
Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post. Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happen once the product is out of beta and developers are given access to a Siri API. This is my way of letting some iOS developers know that I'd love to see Siri integration in their apps. Here we go: I'd love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: "Check me in here" I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: "Tweet @NikFinn that I'm sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger" I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the "original" Siri app did have OpenTable integration): "Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening" Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking "What time is 'Moneyball' playing near here?" and getting a choice of times, then saying "7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets" to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver. How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: "Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive." Once you see the specs, Siri asks "Would you like to buy this item?" Answer yes, and you've purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you'd like to look at other similar items. Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool. Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying "Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac" or "See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow," and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver. My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I'd love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say "Read me the first two items on my grocery list" and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with "OK, what are the next two items?" and so on. For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you're running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say "Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany" and have it respond with "Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?" could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not. Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say "Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars" and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you. I think that Siri has the ability to become the intelligent agent that the mid-90s MagicCap mobile operating system always wanted to be. While MagicCap's TeleScript agents suffered from the lack of cheap and ubiquitous Internet service as well as public acceptance of electronic commerce, those barriers are no longer a problem. Add Siri as a super-friendly interface, and the future is going to be very nice indeed. What are some of your ideas for "serious" integration of Siri into your daily life? Leave your comments below.
Instapaper usage stats show high iOS 4, iPad adoption
Marco Arment, developer of Instapaper, has provided some intriguing usage stats for his bestselling app. While the numbers aren't representative of the entire iOS ecosystem, the fact that Instapaper is a popular paid app (almost always in the top 5 paid apps in the News category on the App Store) makes these stats worth looking at for developers looking to efficiently design and market their apps. The majority of Instapaper users (56 percent) are using the app on an iPad, versus 39 percent on iPhone and a tiny six percent on the iPod touch. In only four months of availability the iPad 2 accounts for over 27 percent of devices using Instapaper, with usage numbers already nearly identical to those seen from the original iPad. As a universal app and a news reader, it's not particularly surprising that iPad adoption is so high among Instapaper users, but the huge jump in iPad 2 numbers in such a short time is rather startling. Based on the numbers he's seeing, Arment estimates that approximately 40 million iPads have been sold since its introduction. As for OS compatibility, 99 percent of Instapaper users are using iPhone OS 3.2 or above, and 98.4 percent are on iOS 4 or later. After taking into account the high adoption of iOS 4.2 and above (96 percent of users) and the tiny number of users running Instapaper on devices that can't be upgraded to iOS 4 (0.4 percent of users still running an original iPhone or iPod touch), Arment has decided to make iOS 4.2 the minimum supported OS for the next release of Instapaper. According to Arment, dropping support for versions of iOS earlier than 4.2 has allowed him to streamline Instapaper's code in several ways. 5.4 percent of his users are running Instapaper on devices that are capable of running iOS 4.2, but for whatever reason those users have yet to update. If you're one of those users, now's the time to update your OS... and if you're still running a first-gen iPhone or iPod touch and want to keep Instapaper current, it's time to upgrade your hardware. Other iOS developers can learn a lot from Instapaper's usage stats. While the stats for your app are probably going to be a bit different, it seems that as time goes by the number of users actively using older iPhones and older versions of iOS steadily declines to the point that it's no longer efficient to support them. Arment estimates that the number of Instapaper users still using an iPhone 3G will diminish significantly after the iPhone 5 hits the market, which means many types of apps (games in particular) may benefit from dropping support for that model iPhone sometime in the next few months. If you're in the same position as Arment -- looking for ways to improve your app's codebase and considering dropping support for earlier hardware and iOS versions -- it's worth comparing your usage stats to his and seeing if, like him, you'll be better off in the long run by bumping up your app's base requirements.
No Comment: Video game systems vs. non-iPad tablets
Marco Arment posted this graph today, which shows some relative sales numbers of what he calls "obscure game consoles" (which presumably just means those outside the Microsoft/Sony/Sega/Nintendo dominion) right up against tablets which aren't the iPad. It's true -- the numbers do kind of put things in perspective about just how well non-iPad tablets are selling. We will also say that the TurboGrafx 16 launched at a price of US$249.99 way back in 1989, and you can compare for yourself just how inflation has matched that up against these other tablets. But sure, other than that: no comment. [via Touch Arcade]
Engadget app for iPhone and iPod touch updated to 2.2.0, get it now!
Hey there fellow iOS users, just thought we'd let you know that the Engadget app for iPhone and iPod touch has now been updated to version 2.2. What's new, you ask? Well, on top of a stash of performance tweaks, there's now a handy landscape viewing mode along with much improved sharing features; or if you prefer saving the goodies for yourself, then you'll also like our new "save for later" options for Evernote, Instapaper, and Read It Later. Head over to the App Store to nab the fresh update now. Oh, don't worry, we haven't forgotten our buddies on the Windows Phone boat. We can assure you that our devs are hard at work at cooking up an Engadget app for Windows Phone 7 just as we speak, so stay tuned for an announcement soon.
Mac OS X Lion feature 'Reading List' to compete with Instapaper and ReadItLater
MacRumors has discovered a new Safari feature that will compete with Instapaper and ReadItLater in the latest Mac OS X Lion Developer build. The feature, called Reading List, allows users to save web pages for later reading. It's represented in the toolbar by the eyeglasses icon to the right. Currently the feature is inactive, but Apple does offer a description of it: "Reading List lets you collect webpages and links for you to read later. To add the current page to your Reading List, click Add Page. You can also Shift-click a link to quickly add it to the list. To hide and show Reading List, click the Reading List icon (eyeglasses) in the bookmarks bar." As MacRumors points out, Apple's implementation looks to be partly based on HTML/js, which off the bat wouldn't allow for synchronization between devices. However, if Apple plans on adding the popular functions of services like Instapaper and ReadItLater into Safari, it's very likely that they will add syncing features as Safari for Mac OS X and iOS are tightly integrated. The image below shows you how items will be displayed in your Reading List.
