I went through a phase (OK maybe I went through it more than once …) where I tried to pour everything into one bucket assuming that it would make life easier. I’m now unwinding that setup as fast as I can. (And spending money to do it, I might add).
I tried loading all of my intentional reading into Readwise Reader, but it made for a cluttered workspace that defeated its very purpose. I now reserve Reader for books and PDFs of journal articles—no web content. I have Reader export my notes and highlights to Obsidian.
I used to use GoodLinks as my read-it-later bucket for casual, not particularly intentional content. Now that its developer has added exportable notes and highlights, it’s where I put web content I need to read intentionally, and only that. I export my notes and highlights to a markdown file I add to Obsidian. GoodLinks is excellent eight different ways and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I use Matter for exactly two things: it’s the bucket into which I dump all of my newsletters, irrespective of where they’re published (e.g. Substack, Patreon, Beehiv, etc.) and creating transcripts of podcasts episodes I’ll need to refer to later. Nothing else happens there. When it’s time to read through my newsletter inbox, that’s where I go. (I have gmail forward them to Matter for me.)
I have an Arc workspace that is dedicated to the publications to which I am a paid subscriber, and only read them there. (I’m pretty meh on their dedicated apps.)
I use Natural Reader (the paid version) for intentional content I can listen to when my hands are busy but my mind is free. (Natural Reader is within a hair’s breadth of being a pretty decent RIL app, actually.)
I’m weaning myself off of algorithmic feeds, so I’m making a concerted effort to reserve social media for something to do when I’m waiting in line.
Note that I don’t have a general interest read-it-later app. This is for my own protection, because I am a digital Bird That Likes Shiny Things.
I downloaded it. I am a daily user of Iconfactory’s Triode radio app, so this was on my radar. My first impression is that the UX isn’t for me, in comparison to the new version of Reader, at least.
Apparently I got a great deal by paying $40 to back them on Kickstarter. For that I got the lifetime plan, access to all beta versions, and a year of Wallaroo.
I also backed it on Kickstarter – but the way the timeline is laid out just doesn’t work for me, and my Mini phone, at all… =/ It’s just sooo busy, with large font sizes and very little space. (I went into detail on it in a blog post here.)
The tech behind it looks really cool, though! So, in time, I hope some more UI customisations land.
In most screenshots, I’ve used Dynamic Type to turn down the font size 1 notch. I like Tapestry the most if I can turn it all the way down – but then all my other apps get too small.
You can set this per app: (I recently learned this in the Tapestry beta Discord channel)
Ah, that’s great intel! I searched online, looked through my phone, asked Claude, and asked Iconfactory (they replied to me, but didn’t mention that), and got only negative results, so I didn’t think it was possible, heh.
That helps! But most of my issues still stand…
(And now my Tapestry menus have very small text. )
My solution to algorithmic hell is to simply avoid it. Haven’t been on Facebook for over 10 years, never used the algorithm on Twitter except the final few months before I abandoned it for good, when it wasn’t a choice. Mastodon doesn’t have one (and I don’t even use hashtags or regional/instance feeds). BlueSky I am dipping my toes in for one specific community, but it is locked on the timeline view.
I read little long form content on my phone. Which is another reason I don’t want everything aggregated. I do read Mastodon on my phone. I do not read articles from my RSS feeds on my phone.
I didn’t know this. How to activate that one year of Wallaroo? I don’t remember the KS rewards mentioned this although I do see a zip file of wallpapers which I didn’t download.
There’s a lot of comparison to the new Reeder and I feel that new Reeder has a fair pricing at just $1/month. I wish many more people follow Reeder’s lead.
I chose Linen, because I was curious and wanted to participate in the beta development.
If you have the right level, you can use the Tapestry backer website (with your registered email address) to unlock the free year of Wallaroo. This was possible for quite some time; my free year already ends next month.
Soo, no-one here convinced me that Tapestry was something worth trying. What it took was listening to The Talk Show with Craig Hockenberry. For anyone who doesn’t know, Craig is part of IconFactory who created Tapestry.
I’ve ponied up for a year (a month or two seemed pointless) and moved (via OPML export/import) my RSS feeds over from NetNewsWire for a start.
What sold me on giving it a go? Not RSS, not BlueSky, not any of the default capabilities. Rather, it was Craig’s description of the connector architecture. The mere concept intrigued me, and none of the gushing I’ve heard anywhere about the product has concentrated properly on this aspect.
Since downloading it and setting it up, I’ve noticed another little detail that I’d not heard (or at least not noticed) about it — it removes the need for a “read later” service, because you can simply bookmark posts to return to. This has been a huge problem for me over the years, as I never think to return when I have time. Now when I get to the top of my timeline, I can just skip to the Marked items feed and decide if I want to actually consume any of them at that time. A habit to learn, for sure, but easier for not having to maintain another app.
But… what I’m missing for now, and Craig did allude to this coming at some point, is finding out what cool connectors people have already created that I didn’t know I needed. I’ve found a small handful, but I was expecting a lot more.
I have a few of my own ideas for connectors which I will get around to when time allows, too.
I started building a connector of my own tonight. So far it’s a lot of fighting with JavaScript which I’m not particularly familiar with. I did find a bug in the test app, too.
The one thing that annoyed me about the discussion on the podcast was the mention of “algorithms” as a bogeyman. None of the services included actually use one!
Oh, and I’ve seen the page they put up but there’s very little on it.
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