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

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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:

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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.

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Top Rated Comments

Cougarcat Avatar
183 months ago
How about allowing us to read iBooks on the computer, Apple?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arn Avatar
183 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.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Consultant Avatar
183 months ago
Or just open 100 tabs in Safari like I do.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Matthew Yohe Avatar
183 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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JKK photography Avatar
183 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).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KirkL Avatar
183 months ago
That's so cool! How's the stability of Safari in Lion? It beachballs all the time in Snow Leopard.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)