I’m the developer of an iOS and iPadOS app that I think is relevant here. My app Ephemera is a simple read-later application that places expiration dates on every link you add. If you don’t read the article in time, it disappears forever.
The app isn’t for everyone, but if you are buried under the torrent of information you “think” you should read, I have found that Ephemera helps me focus and actually read more.
I actually solved this without an app. I realized I had around 10k "read later" items in my bookmarks folder in Chrome, and I simply deleted all of them.
I solved this by forcing myself to read my list in chronological order. After a small period it became very obvious that most stuff I'd put in my list truly did not matter.
I think it's more that you always have a bunch of other things competing for your attention on the internet so there's no incentive to read things you once wanted to read.
Even an article you just opened in a tab competes with scavenging for more info on HN/Reddit/Twitter. I don't think that's evidence that the articles are just worthless.
Once, when the internet was out for a few days, I realized that iOS saves your reading list items for offline reading and I was glad to have it. All sorts of interesting articles that I curated. I now work through the reading queue on flights.
Awesome! I do this with my YouTube Watch Later playlist and it really works. I'll get a couple hundred videos I "definitely want to watch, but not now" and my script will clear them out after X time. Never once have I missed something it's deleted. I don't even know _what_ it's deleted, because if it stood out enough to remember the name and search it up again I'll probably just watch it. Very few things do.
* Somehow, App Store SEO can't find it with "ephemera". "ephemera deadpan" found it though
* For me, personally, bookmarking is usually done on the computer and read elsewhere. Phone-only is restrictive
* Not a fan of paid unlock for basic features (setting expiration dates, accessing my own history (?!?)). I almost understand notifications if server costs are involved, like Apollo, but. While I understand devs gotta make a buck and this is both popular and well within your rights, I am not a fan of this trend
Sure! It's utter garbage but you're welcome to it. I keep it in a notes file and paste it into the console to run it.
It sorts by `Date Added (newest)` and truncates the list to the 150 most recent videos. It also removes anything I've watched more than ~80% of. (Because the built-in button removes videos if you've watched _any_ percent, incl long ones you haven't finished yet)
Nice idea. I use Readwise in the river/shortlist mode and have a similar filter (not in shortlist, saved > x days ago), but I have to manually clear it out.
As you probably guessed, Snapchat doesn't really get deleted. I sat as a juror on a case where some of the most damning evidence was a Snapchat the police obtained from the company following an armed robbery and car theft. Some people are really poor at planning and covering their tracks.
Is there a way to have unread items go in an archive instead of disappearing? Sometimes I find insightful to re-look at the titles of things I've saved, even if I don't read them. It brings me back the why I saved it and it always unlocks some thought.
I'd love something similar with more general aspect, just TODO list with different priorities, expiration etc. Whether the content is URL, name of the book or grocery list are just implementation details.
Love the idea. I use Signal's Note to Self feature with a 4 week timer. Anything that warrants an extension gets readded to the queue. A dedicated app with a custom expiration / reminders / notifications / cross-device syncing would be phenomenal!
I recently launched an iOS app that may be relevant here!
Unlike other apps that save bookmarks that stay unread forever, Ephemera sets a deadline that the bookmark must be read by. Miss the deadline, and that bookmark is gone.
Hi! I’m the developer of Bound, an iPhone audiobook app. My app supports DRM free audiobooks with the ability to save your place and save individual bookmarks. Please check it out if you are interested:
https://bound.timbueno.com/
Been using Bound for a couple of years, it's great. CarPlay is solid and it has upload options for any scenario. I even use https://openaudible.org on my DRM books to play them on Bound, that's how much I appreciate the clean interface.
Thank you! This is a very attractive reading app. I think I'll purchase this when Im finished with my current book. Is there a way to export the list of bookmarks to a file or email or something? I usually have to manually type them all up with other apps
I created and maintain an audiobook iPhone app, Bound. I’ve been meaning to integrate LibriVox as a source but the API leaves a lot to be desired. Has anyone had experience with this? It seems like I should just use Archive.org as the source instead.
One of the first 100% SwiftUI apps I made to practice it was to build a librivox client.
Download the librivox iPhone client and use mitmproxy to see the endpoints it hits.
Oh yeah, looks like it hits https://librivox.app 's api (not the .org). Don't remember if there was/wasn't a relationship between the services. For all I know it's a full 3rd party content mirror.
Looks great - but the App Store says it requires iOS13. iPhone 6 user so I’m stuck on iOS12 - I couldn’t see from the release notes when that change came in?
As an android user, I'm so jelly. Those screenshots look delicious, well done.
I feel like amazon literally hasn't bothered updating their UI since the 90s. I love audible, but god damn their UI is depressing and actually makes listening to audiobooks a worse experience. There's no better alternative either :(
Developer here! I'd love to discuss my project with you guys.
Bound was developed for iOS using (mostly) Swift.
There are many audiobook apps on the App Store but all of them tie you to an
ecosystem or require syncing with iTunes. `Bound - Audiobooks for Dropbox` is
different. Bound lets you download your favorite audiobooks to your iPhone for
quick and easy listening. Never lose your position, even across multiple audio
files, as Bound automatically saves your location as you progress through the
book.
Bound lets you:
- Link your Dropbox account. Quickly download your audiobook files.
- Play your audiobooks in a beautiful modern interface.
- Automatically saves your listening position so you never lose your place.
- Bookmark locations while listening for reference later.
- Add custom cover art (if the default art isn't nice enough for you!).
I'll be hanging out in the comments section in case you guys want to chat!
I kinda want to hijack this thread to ask what specific use cases people have for their Chromebooks? I'm pretty interested in it as a mobile (disposable?) terminal.
I found that Groupon has a refurbished C720 Chromebook for 130 bucks right now and it piqued my interest.
I've been using Chromebook as only computer for the last year as a student/developer(/tech-entusiast) and I am very satisfied.
I have the Samsung ARM one, and I've installed chroagh[1] (super easy, run one command and you have an arch install) headless, so I have a complete linux terminal. SSH would also work.
Right now I'm looking to upgrade (to macbook air 11" I hope) for more power with the same 8h battery time.
As a mobile and disposable (cheap!) terminal (and browser!), I can definitely recommend a chromebook.
Completely agree. AND Evernote is actually THE SAME price. Instapaper's premium tier seems to do nearly the same thing for 12 bucks a year. Where is the value proposition here?
