Instapaper Update Brings Background Update Locations Feature
Marco Arment’s creation, Instapaper, continues to personally be my favorite way of reading long articles later, even though we have other apps, like Pocket and Readability. Even with competition, Instapaper continues to get innovative new features that make it the best read-it-later tool you can have. And that continues to be true with the latest update.
While this 4.2.2 is mostly a minor update, it does include one major new feature: Background Update Locations (an iPhone or iPad with 3G/4G is required for this to work).
With this new feature, users can set up specific locations in the app (once enabled in the app settings), and among arriving or leaving a particular place, such as work or home, Instapaper will automatically download new articles — without you having to open the app. This technique was first introduced with News.me’s Paper Boy feature, and now it’s also available in the finest read later app there is.
Now, this new feature will require Location Services to be on all the time for it to work, so you may be skeptical on battery life. However, according to his blog post, Arment had the feature enabled for two weeks and has not noticed much difference in battery life on his iPhone or iPad. I have also turned it on myself and, so far, have not noticed much difference on my iPhone.
Other changes in the 4.2.2 update include improved typography and other bug fixes and improvements. The improved typography includes support for ligatures and advanced kerning in articles when using Lyon, Tisa, Meta, or Hoefler Text fonts.
I was definitely a bit surprised to see such an amazing new addition to one of my favorite apps. Now I get to look forward to seeing new articles ready to go without having to do anything, and I couldn’t be happier.
Are you still faithful to Instapaper? What do you think of this amazing new feature? Let us know!
