Tame Instapaper with ReadNow

ReadNow is a Read It Later and Instapaper app for the Mac:

ReadNow gives you access to your Instapaper or Read It Later accounts in a single easy-to-use application. Within ReadNow you can manage your read later account without logging in to the services via browser. With ReadNow all stored articles are just one mouse click away. Its design offers you a fast navigation and will save you time storing and accessing articles you are planning to read.

I love Instapaper, but I’m guilty of letting my account overflow with thousands of articles I’ve promised to read later. The fact is I usually have too much to read just keeping up with RSS and Twitter.

One of the ways I manage to keep my RSS feeds under control is by using a great RSS app. Reeder is my preference on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone because it allows me to process hundreds of new RSS items quickly and efficiently. It’s both functional and enjoyable to use, so I rarely have trouble zeroing out my Google Reader.

Instapaper is an entirely different beast. When I send something to Instapaper, I’m promising to sit down with it one-on-one and read it slowly and carefully. By its very nature, Instapaper is a service meant for reading, not skimming and processing. At least, that’s how I feel.

An Instapaper’d article is one I believe contains unmissable information. Of course, that’s not always the case, and that’s where ReadNow comes in.

ReadNow is like Reeder for Instapaper. It allows me to quickly process articles that have been sitting in my account for years(!), waiting to be read. It comes with gestures for navigation and archiving, so I can fly through a hundred articles in half an hour. I can read the most worthwhile items and archive the rest with a swipe, just like Reeder allows me to do with RSS. Short of deleting my entire account, I can’t think of a better way to manage Instapaper overflow.

Read Later Guilt is a terrible affliction among us web nerds, and ReadNow is the solution I’ve been waiting for. It’s efficient Instapaper processing in a clean, simple UI, and its brand new 2.0 release is only $3.99 in the App Store. Highly recommended.