comments

1. Rich on September 18th, 2011 at 1:48 pm

   I use Instapaper myself. Played with Readability for a bit, but could’t see any reason to pay $5/mo vs. the one-time $5 for Instapaper (iphone app).

2. Deron Bauman on September 18th, 2011 at 2:02 pm

   I’ve just used the Readability plug-ins and haven’t paid anything. I was under the impression that Instapaper was the pay-for service?

3. Jamie on September 18th, 2011 at 2:04 pm

   I’ve been an instapaper user for years, and I bought the Instapaper Pro app. Other than that, it’s free, and I just like it better than readability.
   That said, Readability does pay the sites a small amount of money, which might make it the stronger ethical choice…

4. Pete Ashton on September 18th, 2011 at 2:33 pm

   I use Instapaper all the time. Even have an ifttt to send starred items from Google Reader to it. Invaluable, especially at night when I can’t sleep.

   Readability I used to use when it was a simple browser bookmarklet. Now it loads the page on their site which seems unnecessary, but that’s no reason not to use it. I guess I just don’t read long text in the browser anymore.

5. Deron Bauman on September 18th, 2011 at 2:35 pm

   Okay, that’s an interesting question. Where do people read long text now? I’m reading using Readability on the laptop, in browser.

6. Pete Ashton on September 18th, 2011 at 2:38 pm

   iPhone Instapaper app, leaning off side of bed with one eye shut.

7. Deron Bauman on September 18th, 2011 at 2:39 pm

   Ha! I love the extra detail.

8. Chris on September 18th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

   I use Instapaper in two ways – I use its make-it-readable applet to make longform text readable, and things that are too long or too interesting get sent to Instapaper which eventually wraps them all up and sends them to my Kindle. And then I read that bunch of non-fiction inbetween fictions books. Mostly on trains.

9. Frank Patrick on September 18th, 2011 at 5:41 pm

   When I got my iPad last year, Instapaper was one of the first apps I got, and haven’t looked back.

10. Joshua on September 19th, 2011 at 7:03 am

    Instapaper. An option does exist to pay money to Readability and connect that account to your Instapaper one so that publishers recieve micropayments when you read their articles via Instapaper, but I am not nice enough.

    Readability started off much like the Safari Reader feature. Readable has filled those shoes for me.

11. Michael Smith on September 19th, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Deron, I use Instapaper mostly. Every now and again I might hit the readability bookmarklet if, let’s say, I don’t want it to be super obvious I’m reading a long article on the internet.

    I paid for the InstapaperPro app when I got the iPad and, when I get around to it, I find it great for reading long form articles.

12. Deron Bauman on September 19th, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    I guess I’m realizing I prefer the Readability bookmarklet but also that I use it only to read long form articles on the laptop. So far I don’t have an iPad or Kindle and I don’t read long form on the iPhone.

13. Michael Smith on September 19th, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    Deron, the reason I prefer Instapaper over Readability is because I, often, can’t read long articles at work and Instapaper will save the article for later and make it readable. I prefer the bookmarklet if I’m just going to read something right away, but mostly I save things to read from different device.

    The $5 a month verson of Readability, I think, does the same thing.