You know what's terrible for reading? The web.
Graphical elements, ads, buttons, banners — they all compete for your increasingly shredded attention. And on a mobile device, that furniture ends up hogging large sections of the screen. You're already hurrying to finish before you have to get back to work, and the clutter just makes it worse.
Instapaper strips all that away, letting you save articles to read later in a format that lets you focus purely on the prose.
Here's how it works: While browsing the web you find an item that piques your interest, but you don't have time for it now. Click the Read Later button if you're browsing from within Instapaper, or the Read Later bookmark in-browser, and the app saves the article on your computer, iPad, iPhone, or Kindle (or other e-book reader).
Later, click on a saved headline and the text displays as black type on a white background, typically with one accompanying photo or illustration. The spare design may seem like all steak and no sizzle, but that's what makes the app such a pleasure.
Editor's picks and social networking serve up plenty of reading recommendations, and integration with Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter makes sharing stories as easy as swapping tales over beers. A clever navigation feature lets you tilt the screen to advance down the page, or just use the standard swipe to page-flip. Bleary-eyed readers will also appreciate the option for automatically switching to a dark screen after the sun goes down.
It all adds up to a much needed paradigm shift in how we read online — smarter, more selectively, and on our own time.
