Nate Weiner

This is an old archived post from my former blog The Idea Shower. It's where I cataloged my product explorations and releases, one of which ultimately became Pocket.

This post was published back in 2008. It may not function as originally intended or may be missing images.

Read It Later 0.99 Released

October 29, 2008

Sort By Quality with PostRank

Read It Later is a great tool for saving things to read later, but now it's great for helping you actually READ those pages too!  By sorting your list by PostRank (from AideRss), you can quickly find what's worth a read and start with your best content first.

Google Reader Integration

If you use Google Reader to manage your RSS feeds, you'll now find the familiar Read It Later checkmark right next to the Google Reader star.  You can now save directly to your reading list from Google Reader!

Customize Read It Later

Now you can take full advantage of all the features of Read It Later without the UI bloat.  Almost all of Read It Later's components can be hidden and/or customized to your liking.  You can use all of the provided elements or even run Read It Later from a single 10x10 icon in the location bar.

New Appearance Options:

  • Choose between two list views (Normal and Condensed)
  • Open Read It Later in the sidebar
  • Select how many items to show per page
  • Use a scrollable list instead of a paged reading list
  • Enable/Disable Read It Later context menus and additional toolbar buttons

Updated Online Access

Read It Later isn't just for Firefox anymore.  You can manage your list online at readitlaterlist.com and use the provided bookmarklets to maintain Read It Later's core functionality regardless of the browser you have.  So if you have Firefox at home, Internet Explorer at work and an Iphone in between, you won't have any problem keeping your list up to date.

Privacy Controls

It's your data.  It's that simple.  You can now delete individual items from Read It Later's online storage or even wipe your entire account.  And of course if you don't want any of your list saved online you can still disable the online access and Read It Later will only save locally.

Additionally, you may now password protect your RSS feed to ensure privacy while still taking advantage of the online features.

Improved Existing Features

Syncing

A new syncing system has been implemented to provide stability and ensure your list stays up to date no matter how many computers you have.  Updated sync options and setup gives you easier control over your sync setup.

Offline Mode

You can now have Read It Later automatically save an offline copy of every page you add to your list.  And the new Offline Cache Manager will allow you to control/view what has been saved.

Additional Updates

  • Firefox 3.1b compatibility
  • Full Ubuntu support
  • Option to control how 'click-to-save' checkmarks appear
  • Option to hide the plaintext password inside the sync settings
  • Ability to select a Read It Later folder in the Bookmarks Toolbar
  • Improved foriegn characters support
  • Read It Later button can be ctrl/shift/middle clicked with the same behavior standard Firefox links
  • Option to close the current tab when saving a page