Unread 4.8: Syncing With Inkwell, Significant Webpage Text Improvements

Unread 4.8 adds these improvements and more:

Syncing with Inkwell, a new web-based RSS reader from Micro.blog
Reliability improvements around webpage text
Faster opening of link articles

This update is available now from the App Store.

Syncing With Inkwell

Inkwell is a new web-based RSS reader and syncing service by Micro.blog. This update adds the ability to sync with Inkwell. Add an Inkwell account to Unread just like you would any other feed service account. Manton Reece describes Inkwell in his introduction post:

Today we’re releasing a new RSS feed reader called Inkwell. It’s a companion product to Micro.blog, so you’ll sign in with your existing Micro.blog account.

Inkwell is a special take on RSS. It has many features you’d expect in an RSS reader, but it also adds integration with Micro.blog conversations and text highlighting. While reading a blog post, you can highlight passages to blog about later.

I encourage you to read his entire post. Congratulations to Manton and the Micro.blog team on the launch of Inkwell!

I updated Unread’s privacy policy, adding a link to the Micro.blog privacy policy.

Reliability Improvements Around Webpage Text

When the webpage text cloud service is unable to generate webpage text for a specific article, Unread now falls back to the on-device webpage text generator that it uses for articles associated with website accounts. This makes webpage text generation much more reliable.

Faster Opening of Link Articles

When showing both feed and webpage text for an article whose webpage text has not yet been retrieved, Unread now shows the feed text immediately when it is opened. It then retrieves the webpage text and appends it to the article. This makes it possible to start reading the feed text immediately, saving time and making the app faster.

A two-second video showing the opening of a Daring Fireball link article. The webpage text for the linked apple.com article was not retrieved before opening it. The Daring Fireball content is available instantly. When webpage text for the apple.com content is retrieved, it is appended to the article.

Additional Improvements

On iPhone and iPad, menu items for renaming folders and tags are now consistently called “Rename Folder” and “Rename Tag” respectively, except when working in a NewsBlur account. In a NewsBlur account, the menu item is still called “Edit Folder” because the resulting screen also allows you to set the parent folder of the NewsBlur folder.
Unread now treats most kottke.org articles as link articles. If you set the link article display mode to Feed & Webpage Text for the kottke.org feed, you will see both the kottke.org article and the article to which it links. This change will apply to new articles downloaded after installing this update.
This update adds minor improvements around sharing articles to other apps via the share sheet on iPhone and iPad.
This update adds a variety of improvements to the in-app webpage text generator.

This update is available now from the App Store. If you enjoy using Unread, please consider subscribing to Unread Premium.