My favourite app for this week is Pocket. The app used to be called Read It Later, but they’ve since changed the name. http://getpocket.com/
The Pocket app is a bookmarking tool that actually works
Put simply, Pocket allows you to bookmark articles for reading later. I used to use Evernote for this, but since I use Evernote for so many other things, the articles were getting buried and I never actually read them, which is why I decided on a standalone app that would allow to focus on reading when I opened it.
Pocket is available on iOS, Android and as a Chrome extension (Firefox too) as well as being accesible via email; so no matter where you find cool content, you can out it in your Pocket to read later.
There’s also an app for Mac called Read Later that you can use to read the contents of your Pocket. Sometimes I find that reading the article in Read Later a much better experience since the content is stripped of all extraneous formatting, advertising and the like. It’s just you and the content.
The Pocket User Interface is simple and elegant (an odd word to use for a reading app, I know, but that’s what comes to find when using Pocket). The subtle textures and perfectly blended colour palette make it a pleasure to read using Pocket.
The Pocket iPad apps makes is easy to review the content you’ve saved and then choose which one you would like to read.
Tagging is simple and fast and there’s not much to say other than it works. I’m working on a research project right now and consequently reading lots of papers an pdfs online. I tag these with my Research Paper tag in Pocket and I can find them all later.
My discovery process is as follows:
- Sometimes I’ll spend an hour just looking for information, not actually consuming it.
- The next step I take is to scan and filter.
- Finally, I sit down to read, study and process what I’ve deemed relevant and important.
Pocket is great at helping me do this and in the two weeks that I have been using it, I’ve had a much better experience with the content I love.
You should Get Pocket
