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Tag: Instapaper

  • Betaworks Follows Digg Purchase With Instapaper Acquisition

    Betaworks, the company behind Bit.ly, news.me, Chartbeat, and now Digg, has added Instapaper to is portfolio.

    Instapaper has served as a nice complement to news readers like Google Reader (or whatever you’re using these days). It’s great for when you find things you want to read later that you didn’t actually get to through your reader, and don’t have easy access to the star feature. With Digg building a Google Reader replacement of its own, it will be interesting to see if Instapaper plays a role.

    Of course some current alternatives to Google Reader basically render Instapaper unnecessary. Feedly, for example, offers its version of the Google Reader starring for any page you visit on the web, and adds it to your reader. Still, the addition of Instapaper could be a key element of Digg’s creation. Either way, people already known and like Instapaper, and it will continue to have its own user base.

    John Borthwick told TechCrunch in an email that Instapaper will be a “perfect fit with Digg and its forthcoming reader.

    Instapaper creator Marco Arment discusses the situation in a blog post:

    When I launched Instapaper in 2008, it was a very basic web app. It quickly expanded to define the pillars of the read-later market: a one-click “read later” bookmarklet, a web sync service, an adjustable text view optimized for reading, and an iPhone app with offline saving. I did almost everything myself, which worked well for the first few years, but for the past year, I’ve had a lot of trouble keeping up with it.

    Instapaper is much bigger today than I could have predicted in 2008, and it has simply grown far beyond what one person can do. To really shine, it needs a full-time staff of at least a few people. But I wouldn’t be very good at hiring and leading a staff, and after more than five years, I’d like an opportunity to try other apps and creative projects. Instapaper needs a new home where it can be staffed and grown, but I didn’t want to give it to a big company that would probably just shut it down in six months.

    Being familiar with Betaworks (apparently eating lunch at their office a lot), Arment figured they’d be the right company to acquire a majority stake in Instapaper. Betaworks evidently agreed.

    According to Arment, the deal is structured so that Instapaper will remain a top priority, and he will continue to advise the project indefinitely.

  • Apple Resolves App Store Update Problem

    Apple Resolves App Store Update Problem

    Apple has fixed a bug that was causing certain updates to crash on launch. Yesterday we told you that many users were experiencing a bug that caused recently updated apps to crash on launch. The update affected over three dozen apps, including Instapaper, the free version of Angry Birds Space HD, GoodReader, Readdle Scanner Pro, and many more.

    According to a statement released to AllThingsD, Apple says they have now fixed the problem. According to the statement, the problem stemmed from a server that generated the DRM code for the affected apps. Instead of unlocking the apps for their users, the faulty DRM code caused the apps to crash.

    The problem was first brought to light by Instapaper developer Marco Arment, who posted to his blog that he had received a “deluge” of message complaining that the recent update to Instagram crashed on launch. A little digging revealed that the problem was on the App Store side, and that somehow Apple was releasing apps that had been corrupted.

    According to Apple, the situation has been resolved. If you had one of the affected apps, you’ll have to delete it and re-download it from the App Store in order to get it to work.

  • App Store Bug Causes Newly Updated Apps To Crash

    Sometimes in life, the littlest things can be the most exciting. When you’re young and living on your own for the first time, you get a little thrill out of checking your mail and seeing stuff addressed to you, even if it’s junk. When you got your first email address (all the way back in 1997 for me; get off my lawn), getting email was great. Nowadays, checking the App Store on your iPhone and discovering you’ve got updates is nearly always fun (especially when it means new levels for Angry Birds).

    Except when it isn’t. Numerous reports have been coming in since yesterday that certain recently-updated apps have been crashing on launch. The earliest report came from Instapaper developer Marco Arment. According to a post on his blog, he was “deluged” with support messages following Apple’s approval of an update to his app. It seems the app would crash immediately after launch. Users tried deleting and reinstalling the app clean, and the same thing happened. Arment began investigating and found that his own archived copy worked just fine. He ultimately concluded that the App Store’s copy of the app had gotten corrupted somehow, and that the corrupted copy of the app was causing the crash. Within a couple hours Apple put up a functional version of the app and the problem was resolved. For users who installed the bad app, though, the only solution is to delete and reinstall it.

    Arment is clearly annoyed about the situation in the post. He encourages developers with non-critical updates ready to go to wait a few days:

    Because if this happens to you, all of your most active users, the people who will install updates within hours of them becoming available, will be stopped in their tracks. They’ll think you’re careless, incompetent, and sloppy for issuing a release that doesn’t work. And they’ll leave you a lot of angry 1-star reviews.

    Because it seems that Instapaper isn’t the only app affected by this problem. The App Store has apparently been releasing corrupted copies of dozens of apps. Arment has compiled a list based on user reports:

  • GoodReader
  • Readdle Scanner Pro
  • SmartScan+OCR
  • Angry Birds Space HD Free
  • Lords & Knights
  • The Early Edition 2
  • Gaia GPS
  • Meetup
  • Pair
  • Redshift
  • Flick Soccer
  • iBike Moto
  • Please Stay Calm
  • Pinball Maniacs
  • Lucky Slots
  • Stack the States
  • Gluddle
  • Qwak
  • Bunker Buster
  • MemoryBrands
  • Threadnote
  • Checkout Helper
  • Metronome+
  • Cocktailpedia
  • Phoster
  • Melodies Pro
  • MoPho
  • TEDiSUB
  • FlattrCast
  • iCoyote Europe
  • @View
  • Huffington
  • Tap’N Ride
  • Dosecast
  • Stat E&M Coder
  • SMARTReporter (Mac)
  • PDX Bus
  • CommBank Kaching
  • CincyMobile

    • That’s 39 apps in all. While Instapaper is working now, it’s not clear whether Apple has gotten the others fixed. If you have any of the apps on the list and have downloaded the most recent updates, you should check to make sure it’s working on your phone. If they’re not working, try deleting and reinstalling. Apple may have gotten them fixed, in which case you should get a functioning app. If you have any of the apps and they work, you might want to wait a few days before downloading any updates, otherwise you risk getting the corrupted version and having to delete and re-install the app.

  • Can’t Read It Later? Read It Now With Read It Now

    Life these days is pretty busy. The internet, which was supposed to make our lives simpler and more connected, has actually linked us up to virtually limitless amounts of content. Sometimes it feels a little overwhelming. There are blog posts and news articles and how-tos and top tens (and top 50s, and top 100s, and so on). There’s just too much to consume.

    To help with that, there is a veritable plethora of utilities designed to help you save content to read later. Services like Instapaper and Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later), promise to let you save what you want to read with just the touch of a button. That way you can come back to it later, when you’ve got time.

    But suppose you’re busy later. Suppose you don’t have time to read it later. Then your lists get full and when you finally get around to clearing it out you find yourself staring dumfoundedly at half the stuff you’ve saved and wondering why you cared in the first place. Sometimes you just have to read it now.

    Fortunately, for those situations there’s a new bookmarklet available. Developed by Lex Friedman and Dan Moren, Read It Now is a simple bookmarklet that you install in your browser when you want to read something now, rather than saving it for later. All you do is drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar and you’re ready to go. When you want to read something now, all you do is click the bookmarklet and you’re ready to go. You can find out more about Read It Now by checking out the Read It Now website. Check out a screenshot below:

    Read It Now

    So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and read it now!

  • Howard Stern Sings the Praises of Instapaper in a New Ad

    Howard Stern Sings the Praises of Instapaper in a New Ad

    If you haven’t heard of Instapaper, you are not alone. Instapaper is an app that lets you save articles and web content you would like to read, but don’t have the time. You just click, “Read Later” and you’re done. It’s waiting for your on your mobile when you’re ready.

    Instapaper’s Marco Arment is a big fan of Howard Stern so he thought it would be a great way to promote his product. According to Arment, the spot cost him a lot of money, but it was definitely worth it in the end. The ad aired last week on Stern’s radio show and will run for two weeks.

    Those who listen to Stern’s show know how eccentric and sarcastic his advertising voice can be, but Arment is a regular listener too, so he was very pleased with the results. The spot features Howard educating his co-host on the functionality and utility of the app.

    Howard sings the praises of Instapaper in the paid spot on his show:

    ”I am a huge fan by the way, and this for real, of Instapaper,”

    “I have Instapaper on all my devices… I love you Instapaper. I want to make out with you.”

    Instapaper has already gained recognition with the more tech savvy crowd, but hopefully this new Stern spot will bring it some fame in a larger context. Arment commented on his decision to go with Stern’s show over other advertising spaces and he said, “the Howard ad was very attractive to me. I know who listens to the show. I listen to the show. People underestimate The Howard Stern Show audience”.