Eternally Unsatisfied With My Reading Apps blog.numericcitizen.me

@numericcitizen that's EXACTLY how I feel. I spend more time ping-ponging between apps - because one does something and the other does something else - than actually enjoying the things I want to read.

@numericcitizen Reeder has a built in read later function — available from the share sheet — that syncs with iCloud. It’s fantastic, and allows one to stay in the same app they’re reading RSS.

@pimoore yeah I'm aware... but I need more like keywords filtering, tagging, etc.

@numericcitizen Have you tried GoodLinks? It’s excellent, also syncs with iCloud, and can act as a bookmarking app as well.

@pimoore @numericcitizen the problem with GoodLinks is that once you start using it, you're kind stuck with it. I had to parse the JSON it exported to upload the entries back to Pinboard.

@pimoore @numericcitizen Matter has a built-in RSS reader. It's kinda limited, but it works most of the times.

@pimoore GoodLinks certainly looks good.

@otaviocc I wish Matter was THE solution because I like their design but it does have its challenge.... cc @pimoore

@rcrackley Well, that’s disappointing but unsurprising if I’m being honest. I don’t want to be tied to the Amazon universe for books (or read later). Sadly, this isn’t the first time something in Canada isn’t supported, nor will it be the last. I wanted to like Readwise, but I’m not willing to pay the premium price for what arguably has the most useful features. I can take my own book notes for free.

@pimoore

I know what @rcrackley means about ‘overbuilt’ .. the fact that they actually need two apps to do everything is testament to that, but in fairness, they do have a tonne going on under the hood. I am a big user, and have had a lot of back and forth with them through email and on their Discord and still always learning new things.

They have also focussed on adding functionality first to the web and then generally rolling out elements into the apps.

Dan Dyon has said that they are now working on UI improvements .. so they are aware. Personally hoping that ‘views’ and their filters get sorted sooner rather than later.

Libby, Kobo, Feedly, Medium are just some of over 30 integrations they support.

For me, it has become an essential part of my apps and would have a hard time living without.

// @numericcitizen @otaviocc

@numericcitizen @pimoore

Re Kobo .. not a user, but this is on their site

.. what am I missing?

@rcrackley aah .. yes, I wouldn’t have spotted that since I don’t use an ereading device other than Kindle on the iPad (occasionally), Libby and iBooks on the iPad .. for books. Thanks for the clarification, I am definitely in the camp of pulling everything into a single place that I can read anywhere with whatever device I have to hand … thus my penchant for Readwise’s Reader for everything except books.

@numericcitizen I have felt the same way and hoped that Readwise Reader was going to be my all in solution but agree with your assessment. I feel like it is very close with the overall package but the RSS is too hard to navigate. However, I just reverted back to an older process I have used and going to give that a go. Might explain more in post at some point but I use FreshRSS (since it is web) with Reeder and just recently Pocket since it can integrate with both of those. We will see how this goes.

@ericmwalk @numericcitizen Are you self-hosting FreshRSS, or is there a hosted service available?

@pimoore I self host it. However, if you are ever curious I am more than happy to fire an instance up for you to mess with as I have been known to do that before so just let me know.

@pimoore I’m self-hosting FreshRSS on a RaspberryPi.

@ericmwalk That’s very generous, thank you. I’ve been meaning to spin up a droplet and play around with some stuff anyway, so I should be good. If I change my mind I’ll certainly let you know.