Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later) • Hacker News Board

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#11

Post by apricot13 » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:40 PM UTC

thought I had an account, turns out I dont. too many connections when I register. woe :(

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#12

Post by thoradam » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:49 PM UTC

The key part here is that it is tailored for any kind of content as opposed to just text, everything you'd like to "view later".

Spool (http://getspool.com/) did this as well, with the twist that they actually scrape content (videos and all) to save to your devices to view offline. For some reason it doesn't seem like Spool ever took off.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#13

Post by ge0rg » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:50 PM UTC

Udo wrote: post #5

ge0rg wrote: post #3

Seems to be an intersting idea. I wish there was a way to achieve the same effect with your own "personal cloud" server, instead of relying on a startup's infrastructure.

It's essentially a bookmark service, right? This concept is extremely well suited for running on a personal server. I'm not sure there'd be widespread interest in such a thing, however.

I am sure there is no widespread commercial interest. The privacy implications of such a service are comparable to these of GReader, and you know what they tell about you not being the customer if you are not the one paying.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#14

Post by camiller » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:50 PM UTC

For textual stuff I use instapaper and let calibre fetch an epub and drop it on my eReader. I may have to sign up for pocket for the non text stuff, especially once I upgrade phones in August.

Edit: Actually I just noticed I can "Pocket" something from feedreader on my current (but aging) WebOS phone.

Edit2: OK so I also see that Calibre can create an ePub from Pocket as well.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#15

Post by _b8r0 » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:58 PM UTC

This is less descriptive to me than read it later, but then again in some respects read it later may be the wrong call to action.

I hope these guys get a better uptake, but I've been with Instapaper Pro for so long I'm entrenched.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#16

Post by Udo » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 2:59 PM UTC

ge0rg wrote: post #13

Udo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's essentially a bookmark service, right? This concept is extremely well suited for running on a personal server. I'm not sure there'd be widespread interest in such a thing, however.

I am sure there is no widespread commercial interest. The privacy implications of such a service are comparable to these of GReader, and you know what they tell about you not being the customer if you are not the one paying.

Oh I agree absolutely. I just wish more people would see the need for a personal repository.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#17

Post by dhawalhs » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:04 PM UTC

I had bought Read It Later on Android as part of 10cent deals. Might be a good time to try it.

On a completely unrelated note, Nate Weiner forked my code https://github.com/ideashower/Export-Wordpress-posts-to-Tumb...

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#18

Post by xuki » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:12 PM UTC

cormullion wrote: post #6

I can't remember now why I chose ReadItLaterPro over Instapaper - it was a few years ago, and I think I just preferred the look of RIL, but the name was always less than brilliant, since it was quite generic. Both are supported well by the iPad and iPhone apps I use, although the newcomer that's been getting all the press recently is Readability. The ReadItLater app has just magically renamed itself and re-iconed its…

What do you mean by magically? Did you not update the app and the icon changed?

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#19

Post by camiller » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:13 PM UTC

OK, I think the bookmarklet/text scraper needs a little tweeking. I just tried Pocket's bookmarklet vs. Instapapers's on the "How Microsoft Fought True Open Standards" article that is also on the Hacker News front page. Pocket mis-identified the headline, instead getting the name of the blog. In fact the title of the article/blog post is not anywhere in Pocket's scrape.

Link to the article: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/how...

Edit: It also didn't do well with Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram Newsletter at http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1204.html

In both of these instances the simply needed to get the content of the tag in the HTML. I would think (careful, here be dragons!) more often than not that the tag should be a reliable way of getting the title of the story.

Re: Pocket Released (Formerly Read It Later)

#20

Post by Splines » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 3:20 PM UTC

flyosity wrote: post #2

I think the name Pocket is absolutely perfect. It lends itself to a really clear and understandable marketing slogan ("Don't have time to read it now? Just put it in your Pocket!") but also leaves room for how the company might grow and expand in the coming years. "What else can you put in your Pocket?" I'm sure they have that written on a whiteboard in their office with 30 bulleted items below it detailing what they…

It's not a great name for search though. I couldn't find it on Google, and it's nowhere near the top in App Store search.

It's possible it'll get better as the name gains popularity, but telling someone "Search for 'Pocket'" isn't going to work right now.