Ephemera for Mac
Ephemera will comfortably synchronize your ebook reader with Instapaper.com via USB. It works with the Amazon Kindle, Sony readers and pretty much any device capable of reading HTML, Mobipocket or EPUB files, which should cover quite a bit of ground.
It will fetch your news as single articles or in Instapaper’s premade bundles (Mobipocket & EPUB). Personally, I prefer the former. I can read an article, delete it on my reader, and during the next sync it’ll be archived on Instapaper.com.
Being the lazy guy, I’ve also implemented a feature I call “Plug, Sync & Go”: If you want it to, Ephemera will automatically start up, sync, and then unmount your reader when it detects the USB connection. My idea was that you’d configure the app once, and then just have it work — by simply connecting your reader.
Great idea: a Mac app to automatically synchronize Instapaper’s downloads to USB-mounted e-readers. I especially like the synchronization of deleted articles to your Instapaper Archive page.
Native Instapaper support in FeedDemon
Nick Bradbury of FeedDemon emailed me to show me the new send-to-Instapaper support in FeedDemon’s update from this week. Nick says:
To use it, first click the “gear” icon to enable the “Send To” menu:
Once that’s done, simply click the “Send To” icon beneath an article, then select Instapaper from the menu:
This replaces the method from my earlier post with a native, built-in feature.
Thanks, Nick!
Sending from FeedDemon to Instapaper
FeedDemon does have support for sending 3rd party blog posts to your own blog, though. It also allows you to specify your blog’s input however you want. So effectively, you can consider Instapaper your “blog” and just send articles to it. Fantastic!
Clever use of the Instapaper API for FeedDemon users. Update: This is no longer necessary.
Wired: 5 Apps We Can’t Wait to See on the iPad
Instapaper, not iBooks or anything else, is the thing that will turn your iPad into the ultimate, personal, newspaper.
Thanks! I’ll do my best to make it worth the wait.
I’m honored.
Indie+Relief tally
Yesterday, through participation in Indie+Relief (whether they realized it or not), Instapaper Pro’s new customers donated over $1500 to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Thanks, everyone!
Support Haiti relief by buying Instapaper Pro today
All of today’s (Wednesday’s) proceeds from Instapaper Pro are being donated to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as part of the Indie+Relief program.
You have half of the day left to buy. If you’ve been on the fence, what better reason to buy than to support a charity?
Kindle feature dramatically improved
I’m very happy to announce the result of a lot of work that dramatically improves the Kindle edition of Instapaper: periodical formatting. (This is one of those things that’s much harder to get working properly than you’d expect, but the result was worth it.)
Instapaper’s Kindle files are now formatted like Kindle magazines and newspapers.
This means:
- Tapping left or right on the stick (between Menu and Back on the Kindle 2) quickly switches to the previous or next articles, respectively. No more moving the cursor through the page for navigation links.
- Tapping the center of the stick shows the Sections List, and selecting the number (under “view articles”) shows a convenient table of contents with quick up/down navigation and the first few words of each article.
- Only the most recent Instapaper file is shown on the Kindle’s home screen. Old Instapaper files are automatically moved to the “Periodicals: Back Issues” folder. So if you don’t read your Instapaper articles all week, and you use daily delivery, you won’t clutter up your home screen with a huge stack of Instapaper issues.
This applies to all wireless deliveries starting from today’s (Monday) and all files downloaded from the Kindle-download button in the Unread sidebar since last night. (Set up Kindle wireless delivery from Instapaper.)
In my opinion, these changes transform the Kindle wireless deliveries from a novelty into a truly useful feature, and it’s now my favorite way to read content from Instapaper. And I really like Instapaper Pro on the iPhone, so that’s really saying something.
Instapaper: Offline Reading On-The-Go
AppStorm review of Instapaper Pro on the iPhone.
The Boston Globe: There’s an app for this
Joanne McNeil for The Boston Globe includes Instapaper on the short list of apps that let you “tap into the world of ideas”.
