Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/10646
application for more than six months and I highly recom- mend all of them. I Instapaper The Instapaper application makes it simple and pleasant to read lengthy articles on your mobile device. Instapaper is optimized for the type of articles where you find yourself starting in your browser and thinking, “I’d rather read this later”. The application automatically loads any new content from the Instapaper Web service, which reformats Web pag- es for small screens and strips away unnecessary elements. The service provides an experimental option to save pages formatted for the Kindle as well. There are multiple ways to save content to the Instapaper service including a bookmarklet, email, or applications that nstapaper, Dropbox, GoodReader, and Simplenote are my favorite applications for reading, writing, and sharing documents on the iPhone and the iPad. I have used each ON MESSAGE WITH BEN GROSS Great iPhone and iPad Apps for Reading and Sharing Docs integrate Instapaper directly. The “Read Later” bookmarklet is compatible with most desktop browsers, mobile browsers and Google Reader. Each Instapaper user receives a unique email address that will import included links and text. Many iPhone and iPad RSS feed readers, Twitter clients, and social bookmark clients support saving links to Instapaper directly. The Instapaper service allows sharing of individual articles via email, Tumblr, and several Twitter clients. Instapaper is available in two versions, a free ad-supported version with a limit of 10 articles, and a $5 (USD) pro version with a 250-article limit. The pro version includes additional features, such as background updating, folders for organi- zation, saving the last position of each article, tilt scrolling, multiple font options, and disabling rotation. I find that the pro version is well worth the price. Dropbox In a crowded market of Web-based consumer storage ser- vices, Dropbox is popular and widely praised. The minimal user interface of the desktop application is one reason for its popularity. When I say minimal user interface, in most cases I mean non-existent. This is the beauty of Dropbox. After installing the application, Dropbox appears as a folder on your desktop. The folder is essentially magic. Any files in the folder are automatically synchronized to all other machines where you have Dropbox installed. Mobile Dropbox clients synchronize with the server upon launch. In my experience, it just works, and this is high praise. Dropbox is fully accessible via a Web interface for devices without an installed Dropbox client. Dropbox saves any revisions to your files for 30 days by default. These revisions are only available via the Web interface and do not count against your storage quota. Working with shared files on Dropbox is as easy as work- ing with files on the desktop. Shared files and folders are synchronized with all authorized users’ accounts. My only real complaint is that sharing must be configured from the Dropbox Web interface rather than a Dropbox client, which is not intuitive. Access control for sharing is based on email addresses and can only be configured via the Dropbox Web interface. It is important to recognize that any shared files count against the storage quota for all shared accounts. Each user’s Dropbox folder has a public directory—any files placed in that directory become publicly accessible without access control. The mobile Dropbox can generate links and can be used to share individual files with any email address. Be careful, the mobile links can also share private files and currently there is no way to revoke access. mes sagingnews.com messagingnews.com 23 23