New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Apple's Upcoming 'Reading List' for Safari to Compete with Instapaper and ReadItLater

Friday April 29, 2011 6:53 pm PDT by Arnold Kim

Apple is working on a new feature for Safari in Apple's Mac OS X Lion that will bring a different kind of bookmarking functionality to the browser. Apple calls it "Reading List" and is meant to offer users a way to save pages for later reading. The new feature is described by Apple here:

Reading List lets you collect webpages and links for you to read later. To add the current page to your Reading List, click Add Page. You can also Shift-click a link to quickly add it to the list. To hide and show Reading List, click the Reading List icon (eyeglasses) in the bookmarks bar.


And the accompanying eyeglasses icon:

This feature is currently inactive and hidden within the latest Mac OS X Lion builds. Apple has not yet made any mention of the feature in any of their Mac OS X Lion documentation. The basic functionality would pit the feature directly against popular services such as Instapaper and ReadItLater. Apple's implementation appears to be partly based on HTML/js but it's not yet clear how robust a solution it will be. For example, one compelling feature of Instapaper and ReadItLater is the ability the synchronization of bookmarks across devices.
[ 81 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
Cougarcat
99 months ago
How about allowing us to read iBooks on the computer, Apple?
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Consultant
99 months ago
Or just open 100 tabs in Safari like I do.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
arn
99 months ago
ya, just from what we've seen so far, I'm not sure this is going to be as fully featured a thing as the 3rd party apps. cross-device syncing is a pretty big feature actually. so, it may help bring awareness to instapaper and readitlater. but we don't know the final features I guess.

Now if Apple includes MobileMe/iCloud syncing/centralization, it would be more worrisome.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
KirkL
99 months ago
That's so cool! How's the stability of Safari in Lion? It beachballs all the time in Snow Leopard.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
JKK photography
99 months ago

ya, just from what we've seen so far, I'm not sure this is going to be as fully featured a thing as the 3rd party apps. cross-device syncing is a pretty big feature actually. so, it may help bring awareness to instapaper and readitlater. but we don't know the final features I guess.

Now if Apple includes MobileMe/iCloud syncing/centralization, it would be more worrisome.


I'm sure that if they did that, then he would probably look into moving into less Apple-centric markets (webOS, WP7, and possibly Android) so to avoid the Apple solution as much as possible.

Either way, Instapaper has a major heads-up as long as Apple doesn't release an API for apps to implement. Sending articles from Reeder on my iPhone to Instapaper is so simple, it's silly. If Apple can't compete there, it can't compete with Instapaper (for me).
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
Matthew Yohe
99 months ago

I am sure Marco won't be very happy with this.


He's already said it's not an issue.


For once, he will consider going webOS and android.


Developing on Android is a joke. Maybe when it doesn't suck so bad, he'll consider it.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
peterdevries
99 months ago

I believe they should put their energy else where.


They do. Apple doesn't only have one employee you know.. And furthermore, if you pay Apple enough money, they will probably hire some extra employees to make an OS just for you, with none of the functions that you don't like. :rolleyes:
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
wizard
99 months ago
Has no one here heard of *.webarchive?

Does it save the page to be able to read it later offline?

If yes, that could be cool.

Spid


We have been able to do that for years now by saving as a *.webarchive so there is nothing special here. Maybe it will be a feature expanded to support the cloud but even then it really isn't a big deal.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
RebeccaL
99 months ago



I doubt Apple is that daft. This will probably be a Framework made available so that Firefox or any other browser can utilize.

That said, I agree that other services won't be going anywhere.



Highly doubtful considering Apple has not licensed larger and more robust technologies like Facetime.

This is a feature more similar to Opera's note function.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
steadysignal
99 months ago

RIP Instapaper & Read It Later.


-1.

if you dont like the apps, dont use them.

and, unless readability is a component, apple's efforts will not be widely accepted by content providers.
Rating: 1 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]