Introducing Instapaper 4.0 for iPad and iPhone
marco.org
marco.org
Kudos Marco. You're an inspiration to solo founders (and anyone) looking to start something online. P.s. check out Marco's show with Dan Benjamin, Build and Analyze. I've been listening while I walk to work. It's interesting and insightful.
He used to be pretty humble in the first dozen episodes, but he's slowly gotten a big head and turned into a dick. At least from my perspective.
I don't recommend his app any longer, instead, I suggest people use one of it's competitors, Read It Later.
Again, the podcast isn't so much about building apps as it is a soapbox for him to complain about other applications and other developers. While he does discuss some of the aspects of Instapaper, he may as well have called the podcast something else. If you're expecting developer oriented discussion there are better podcasts to listen to.
If you're going to spend time listening to a 5by5 podcast, I suggest two that are much better. Hypercritical with John Siracusa. John at least knows how to complain while being constructive, unlike Marco. The second would be The Incomparable, on a totally different topic but very worthwhile.
As as example of marco being an ass. Just listen to any of the podcasts from 10-onward. Also, listen especially to the programming episodes where he tries to argue against Siracusa but instead sounds like a whiny brat.
edit: Keep on down voting people. Seriously. It's called an opinion. If you don't like it, too bad. But it helps people make a valid attempt at determining whether they want to listen to something, or read something, otherwise spending their time with something. Make your own opinion of the podcast and Marco. But down voting simply because my opinion is different than yours is just stupid.
...unless, of course, this guy was actually transforming into a large male body part, in which case this is a major event in the world of science but irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Nah, I know what you mean. I just do not have to support the manner in which you express it.
But B&A has become more of a Marco Rant show instead of what it was the first few episodes. But I think that's an intended common theme of 5by5 shows. Dan Benjamin encourages that sort of behavior with his hosts and wants that sort of image.
I still listen, but find myself being less interested.
What are some good alternatives?
I was hoping Build and Analyze would be more of the same, but the show took another direction.
Whenever I see a weekly tech podcast of this sort clocking in around the hour mark my instant reaction is "you didn't prepare enough and you didn't edit enough".
See also the StackExchange / StackOverflow podcast.
(Personally, I like some rambling. A good podcast is like a good essay in that it will go off on tangents. But there needs to be unifying theme acting like gravity to reel the tangents back to Earth. For the StackOverflow podcast, the initial unifying theme was building StackOverflow, with the cofounders debating various decisions. With 5by5's The Talk Show it's typically one (or more) Apple events from the week plus a James Bond movie at the end. For The Pipeline and some other podcasts, the focus of each show is the guest who comes on the show that week.)
You know what I'm talking about. The new guy that's quiet because no one knows him outside of "hey, he's the new guy." But as you get to know him, and he becomes more comfortable he starts to show who he really is as he becomes more outspoken.
Now, I don't want to say to not be yourself, and you can't please everyone. But I preferred the first 5-6 episodes of B&A over all the others. He was humble and interesting. Somewhere between 7-15 the humble was disappearing and the interesting vanished.
It's almost as if HN has become a soapbox for you to complain about some application or developer ... ok sorry for that last (clearly hyperbolic) jab. I hope you get the point though, and take it in the friendly and jocular way it was intended.
The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.
But instead there is very little discussion of building... and the analyzing is ranty and uninspired.
One of the recommendations I made was Hypercritical with John Siracusa. Let's compare and contrast a bit..
Siracusa is one of those guys that just knows how to take something, whittle it down to nothing and find the faults. There's nothing wrong with finding fault in things. There will _always_ be faults, however big or small. The difference is in how Siracusa talks about them. He's critical of things to the point of beating a dead horse. Hypercritical is perfect for his podcast. Probably the most apt name I've ever seen for a podcast. But when he discusses these faults he provides some of the best examples he can come up with for _why_ he feels that way, and/or _how_ the faults they could be corrected.
Marco on the other hand just. Complains. I think he tried in the beginning to provide just cause for his complaining. But in the end he failed to be able to do it consistently. Instead, the podcast turned into another version of The Talk Show. At least with the Talk Show Gruber can be entertaining. Though I rarely listen unless the show notes show me something interesting. But Marco is trying to emulate Gruber and failing hard. Even his blog is taking on the same type of thing with a tiny bit more iOS discussion.
Either way. People can make their own opinion. I just hoped to make it a quick way for people to know to avoid it. If they're like me and they find annoying dick-ish podcast hosts to be on the do-not-listen list then they know right away that Build & Analyze isn't for them.
The title is actually taken from a feature in Apple's Xcode, and as far as I can tell is just meant to indicate, "Here are the thoughts of an iOS developer." Nothing wrong with that.
The fact that he comes across the way he does makes me not want to use his app or recommend it, or listen to his show.
Again, he may be perfectly fine in person, but he isn't showing me any good reason to not "dislike" him online.
If Dan could keep his "hosts" on a leash, introduce some structure, and cut the shows down to 30 minutes then they might have something that was more listenable.
Once they started spending 30+ minutes talking about "which Mac they should each buy to replace their current one" I had to stop listening. Siracusa is good, though.
The biggest challenge for Instapaper was the iOS5 "Read Later" feature. This version of the app shows to his customers that they didn't waste their money and ensures that their loyalty continues. It's a great response from a small software vendor, and I applaud him for releasing it at the perfect time right after the new iOS5 feature is out.
I don’t think personality flaws of the creators that don’t impact the product are ever a good reason for not using a product. That line of thinking doesn’t even make sense to me.
(Note that I’m not talking about products where the personality of the creators also impacts my experience of it. I’m perfectly willing to give up on a restaurant – even if I quite like the food – if the waiters are rude and annoying. Now, the food might be so great that I’m willing to overlook those flaws but at the very least the personality flaws figure into my decision. I can, however, happily use Facebook without ever being confronted with Zuckerberg’s personality flaws.)
Sure, he's opinionated, but not in any offensive way. Personally I find it appealing when a podcast/radio host has a strong opinion, whether or not I agree with it.
I was merely saying, maybe in a hyperbolic way, that his attitude rubs me the wrong way. It bothers me that such a high profile example of a "successful" indie developer can be so abrasive towards others on his podcast.
Yes, the app is nice, the latest version is stellar looking. But this is one of those "speaking with my wallet" moments. Sad fact is I've already paid for the Pro version, but I won't be paying him again unless I see the attitude change. That's probably fine by him too. He doesn't strike me as the type of person to be bothered by someone voicing their opinion of him. Needless to say, you put yourself out there and become a "indie" developer heart-throb you get some of the good with the bad. That was his choice. He writes publicly, he speaks publicly on his podcast. It's the same thing with any other person in that type of position.
As for podcasts, there's definitely better out there that I'd recommend way before his.
Agreed 100%. I like Marco, Siracusa, and Gruber's podcasts but it'd be nice if they did a better job coordinating their topics.
On the other hand, when he talks about actually building stuff or even tangential stuff like the App Store review process, that's where he distinguishes himself and can hold his own against Siracusa and Gruber who are stronger pundits.
Hypercritical is a more focused and is a great show in its own right.
As Dan would say "Sorry to lose you as a listener".
You may be being down-voted because of hyperbole rather than disagreement...
One thing I started noticing was that he was parroting things he read about Android without checking the facts. I write mobile apps for both iOS (my preferred platform) and Android, and he says things about Android that are false and misleading.
I agree with the recommendation for Hypercritical. Siracusa holds himself up to a level of truth that some of the other tech-related, mac-focused 5 by 5 shows do not. I also recommend The Pipeline, where Dan Benjamin does a great job of getting inspirational material from his guests.
In general, I have not listened to many different podcasts, but so far I felt that they were very repetitive and there was very little to gain from them. It kind of felt like I was reading a forum with debates about text editors. It is addictive, but not productive.
Aside: If anyone has a good podcast to recommend, please do.
I'm not sure how many people think like me but I just can't stand using software I think is ugly. It's no fun for me.
(That said, I think the actual user experience has also improved – which is equally as important.)
I was an avid Instapaper user on my iPod Touch until I got an Android phone. Marco has publicly stated his reluctance to support Android, and the third party apps for instapaper were all pretty pathetic. So I switched to Read it Later for a while.
Until I got a Kindle, which changed the game for me. Reading on the Kindle is so much a better experience than on another glowing screen that I don't even bother to try to read long form on the phone anymore.
I went back to Instapaper for a while, using a Windows app called Wordcycler to sync, but now use Readability's Send to Kindle bookmarklet. It cuts out the syncing part (the Kindle just downloads content automatically when it has an internet connection), and I've found that it retains author and publication data more reliably.
klip.me's "Send to Kindle" extension is free and also pretty awesome http://www.klip.me/
0: http://www.readability.com/addons 1: http://www.readability.com/bookmarklets
Save articles i want to read to instapaper, and once a day (or on demand with one click) it emails the .mobi file with your top instapapers to your kindle email address. Delivery is free if connected on wifi and you send to username@kindle.free.com.
Readability makes them all separate items in my reading list, and does a better job (last time I checked) of keeping the author and publication info.
And I didn't say anything about getting through more than 20 articles. I said I save that many. I try to read a few every night, but usually on a weekend or on an airplane is where I get a lot of reading done.
http://www.marco.org/2011/10/13/ios5-caches-cleaning
This is less of a problem if you are online all the time as Instapaper will redownload them, but it still kinda sucks.
[1] http://www.marco.org/media/2011/10/ip4-footnote.png
Also, a footnote of my own on the search subscription: Marco's talked a bit on his podcast about people wanting to subscribe to Instapaper via in-app purcase rather than through PayPal. However, Apple won't let you have an in-app purchase that doesn't add any functionality. Putting 2 and 2 together gives you a "search subscription" that is identical to a normal Instapaper subscription.
[1] http://openideas.ideon.co/2011/rehabilitate-disruptive-footn...
I check my phone for quick hits of information, but I hate reading long-form articles on it. Do you guys know of any "Send to Kindle" apps or bookmarklets for iPhone/iOS?
I know, I know: this is a hell of a first-world problem, but I'd like to read on glowing screens as little as possible.
I use it all the time (and vastly prefer it over the timed, once-a-day-at-most send-a-batch-of-stuff option).
The advantage of sending the content instead of the link is that you can save things that exist behind paywalls or that require logging in.
(Do you work for Readability? Literally every single comment you've ever made here mentions it.)
Source: https://twitter.com/#!/qiansh/status/125938836562919424 (vetted by @Gedeon & @Iconfactory)
https://twitter.com/#!/marcoarment/status/125991945523822592
Edit: Dan's post here: http://simplebits.com/notebook/2011/10/17/instapaper4/
Both text and video. First-class Android and iPhone support. Alas, no iPad support, but I don't use that much anymore.
I dont know how to contact you/message you on HN but there's one thing that has gotten a little annoying on spool; when you get to the bottom of the article - it brings up a big spool banner and this gets in the way of finishing up reading the article. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature but it's a little annoying :-/
I don't think I would have noticed if they images weren't right next to each other.
However, if I get an iPad, I may move back just for Instapaper's iPad app. Looks beautiful.
It may sound a little trivial but I tend to remove the articles when I have read them and it gets annoying when I have to remove 15 (I tend to add a lot of articles).
I understand the need to have archive and delete, and the confusion of two buttons, but I'd really rather have a setting. I Pinboard articles i want to keep archived, so I would always want to delete.
Perhaps it was ep 38 [1]...?
[1]: http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/38-decaf-compatibility-stick
There is a decent Window Phone 7 client that uses the API - Stacks for Instapaper (http://www.stacksforinstapaper.com/) and one for HP/Palm webOS - Paper Mache (http://ryanwatkins.net/software/papermache/ - disclosure, its my app)
Interestingly the Terms of the Instapaper API prevent any integration with other "Read Later" apps, though Read It Later API terms do not seems to have this restriction.
"Apps must not include support for any other services that compete with or are substantially similar to Instapaper, unless the app uses only the “Add Bookmark” and/or “Verify Credentials” methods from this API. Instapaper reserves the right to decide whether another service or application is considered a competitor or substantially similar." (http://www.instapaper.com/api/terms)