Instapaper Pro 2.0 released!
What’s new:
- Folders for article organization.
- Star articles, and subscribe to other users’ Starred folders for article recommendations. (Directory coming soon.)
- Feed folders: Many RSS-capable, Instapaper-friendly websites can be subscribed to as folders, automatically downloading new articles. (Note: Instapaper is designed for light feed use in addition to its other functions. For heavy feed use, please use a dedicated feed reader. The number of simultaneous feeds supported may be limited in the future.)
- Automatic, continuous updating in the background with an improved offline engine.
- New toolbar layout with easier access to features.
- “Read Later” button when you tap links in articles.
- Download graphical versions of individual articles on demand.
- Many small improvements and fixes.
Special thanks to Joshua Keay and FileMagnet for the new toolbar icons.
And it’s still on sale for just $4.99. What are you waiting for? Get Instapaper Pro!
Coming soon in 2.1: In-app email, a robust Sharing panel, and tons of interface and stability improvements courtesy of iPhone OS 3.0. (I’m never done!) And, of course, this will be a free upgrade for all Instapaper Pro customers.
One more thing.
You can subscribe to another user’s Starred items as a folder. Simply click Add Folder and select “Another user’s Starred items” on top.
Now you can have:
- Shared reading lists
- Recommendations
- Discovery of new articles
- A reason to hit that little star whenever you really liked an article
Starred-item folders are also coming in full force to Instapaper Pro 2.0 on the iPhone. (See? I told you it’s worth the wait.)
Folders
I was holding out on this until the 2.0 release, but I’m tired of waiting. Instapaper now supports folders!
(Note: Folders will not be supported on the iPhone app until Instapaper Pro 2.0, which is still awaiting Apple’s approval. I’m currently not planning folder support for Instapaper Free.)
Log into the Instapaper.com web interface and check out the new options on the left.
This is, by far, the most requested feature in Instapaper’s history. Enjoy!
Instapaper Pro now on sale at $4.99
I have to clear out all of this old 1.3 inventory in case Apple approves 2.0 this week!
Seriously, this is to celebrate the amazing iPhone 3G S, the new $99 3G, and iPhone OS 3.0, all of which improve the experience for developers and users and will significantly expand the iPhone’s installed base.
To clear up a common question: Instapaper Pro 1.3 owners will get the 2.0 upgrade at no additional charge. Developers currently have no way to charge for iPhone-app updates, but even if we did, I’d still make 2.0 a free upgrade once Apple approves it. (And on the approval front, I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard anything yet.)
The sale price is now less than most good sandwiches. And even the best sandwich only provides a few minutes of enjoyment. What are you waiting for?
New bookmarklet (beta?)
I just updated the Read Later bookmarklet code.
Changes:
- It now displays inline with the page — no more separate window popping up. This improves compatibility with Safari 4 and makes the experience much nicer on Mobile Safari.
- It’s much easier for me to update the bookmarklet’s functionality from this point forward without requiring you to reinstall it again. (You will, unfortunately, have to reinstall it this time.)
- The code is a lot shorter, which makes manual installation in Mobile Safari a bit less tedious.
I’d love for you to install it and let me know what you think.
Kindle support improved
I believe I’ve fixed the issues many Kindle users were having:
- Table of Contents only linking to the first few articles, or not all articles present.
- Digests not being delivered on schedule, but working if you chose “Send a digest now” from settings.
Please let me know if you still have any issues with Kindle support. (And if you didn’t know about it, start here.)
Apple came through! Thanks, whoever had any part in making this happen.
So tonight I resubmitted the real 2.0, as 2.0, for real. I’ll modify my approval estimate to the morning of next Friday, June 5.
Every time I use 2.0 on my iPhone, I’m immensely happy with it. I originally made Instapaper to solve my own need, and it was a happy coincidence that I wasn’t the only one with that need. Now, with 2.0, I’ve taken this to the next level: it’s now an even better product, and it’s exactly where I want it to be right now. I’ve made a product that I love, and I hope you will, too. I’m sorry if this sounds arrogant, but that’s not my intent: I’m just very happy with this product, and immensely proud that I’ve finally finished it.
(Of course, I have more planned for the future, but this is a huge step forward — the biggest step in Instapaper’s history since offline reading.)
Just submitted this. Here’s the deal:
Version 1.4 had previously been rejected for that toolbar icon issue. Rather than resubmit it and wait another 8-10 days for the same version to be approved, I took an extra few weeks to finish the next major version: Instapaper Pro 2.0.
Apparently, this isn’t a use case that Apple planned for. There’s a limitation in iTunes Connect, the iTunes app/content publishing interface, that prevented this: my only option was to resubmit a new binary for the “1.4” version. There’s no way to submit a new binary and call it version 2.0 until something gets approved for that 1.4 submission. I can’t even change much of the metadata. Multiple phone calls and support emails to various related departments within Apple got me absolutely nowhere on this. They’re really good at dodging their developers when we need help.
So here it is: Instapaper Pro 2.0, with great new features that will be revealed when it’s approved. Except that I have to call it 1.4 for now.
Immediately after 2.0-as-fake-1.4 is approved, I’ll resubmit it with whatever minor improvements I can make in the meantime and give it the correct designation as 2.0. Hopefully that will be approved 8 days later, as usual, and won’t hit any snags. Of course, I can’t guarantee this, but I’ll do my best.
To avoid confusion from new customers, I’ll delay most of the 2.0 PR I was planning until it’s really called 2.0 in the App Store. And the fake-1.4 won’t fully advertise all of the new features in the description or “What’s new in this version” areas. (The interface for editing those is very buggy, and if I edit them now, they’ll appear in the live store within a few hours for 1.3, misleading current shoppers into thinking that 1.3 has 1.4/2.0’s features, and I’ll get understandably angry emails asking where these features are.)
I know this has taken a while, but trust me, it’s worth the wait. Hopefully, I won’t hit any approval snags and this will go smoothly now.
Note: If you don’t already own Instapaper Pro, DON’T BUY IT YET! If you wait until the real 2.0, not the fake 1.4, I’ll make it worth your while. Just a little treat for Instapaper Blog readers. (If you already own Pro, don’t worry, you’re getting everything and it will all be free for you.)
Note 2: The App Store approval delay has been remarkably consistent — and, in my opinion, artificial. I expect a response, either approval or rejection, on the morning of June 4. Let’s see how close I get.
Update
I’m sorry for the update delays, everyone — my wife and I just moved to a new apartment last weekend, and as I’m sure you’re aware, that can be more hectic and time-consuming than expected. For instance, I didn’t actually find my iPhone sync cable until last night, and I’ve had zero time to write code at home for the last 10 days as we packed, moved, cleaned, and are now unpacking.
Here’s where things stand:
iPhone app: The next major version is in final beta testing. Very little work is needed to finish and release it. I expect this to happen within 1-3 weeks. It’s a major upgrade and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Instapaper Pro will be upgraded first, with Free following a few weeks later. Either release may be further delayed if Apple rejects their submissions for whatever minor, inconsistent, or nonsensical rule they’re enforcing that day — but I expect approval delays to be short.
Website: The Instapaper web interface will have a couple of major feature additions when the iPhone-app update ships, corresponding to the app’s new features.
Kindle: Many users have written to report bugs about the Kindle digests being incomplete or not being delivered. I’ve fixed a few issues but there are still a few remaining. Please do not email or call Amazon about this: it’s my bug, not theirs. Thanks. I apologize for the delay — I didn’t foresee the popularity of this feature and didn’t build in enough capacity initially.
The New York Times: While it still works for most users, I’ve received occasional reports of NYT URLs saving their login page instead of the story. I’m not prioritizing this very highly because, honestly, I believe NYT support is short-lived. It’s only a matter of time before they either ask me to stop parsing their content for offline/text use or they implement a limited-view paywall. I’d be happy to work with them on other ideas, such as letting them charge Instapaper users or requiring a premium NYT.com subscription, but all of my inquiries have gone completely unanswered, so I assume they’re not interested in interacting with me at all. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up for any other outcome, nor do I want to spend much development time on this when I could be improving Instapaper itself or the way every other site works.
I believe that compatibility with most big-name newspaper and magazine sites is not guaranteed long-term. They’re all struggling to be profitable online, and they’re likely to try a lot of tricks (limited-view free access, required logins, paywalls, forced interstitials, etc.) that will break most offline viewers and content parsers like Instapaper. I’m not interested in playing the evasion cat-and-mouse game — if they don’t want me accessing their content for offline/text use, I’ll comply.
Ultimately, Instapaper is a web reader, optimized for sites and blogs that want to be openly accessed, and there’s a ton of great content out there beyond the handful of popular magazines and newspapers that get most of the readers. Maybe the big-name sites’ paywalls and tricks will give other web publishers and individual writers a chance to find bigger audiences — and I’d love for Instapaper to help make that happen.
Finally, while I don’t have time to respond to every email, I appreciate all of the encouraging words and suggestions. Thanks, everyone.
