Read-it-later services give people the best and the latest from the web, instantly

The Internet is called the information superhighway for a reason. Exabytes of data all over the world are ready for access, right beneath your fingertips, whether it’s on a PC or a mobile phone. Looking for a place to eat out? Check the web for local listings. Need directions to the cinema? Check the web for a map. Wondering when your favorite band’s next concert is? Look for schedules online. What used to be endless pages of directories on paper, endless sheets of newspaper, had all been replaced by pixels.

The “New”-spaper

If correspondences that range from email to fax can all be done online, then why not newspaper subscriptions too? Instead of waiting for the newspaper in the mornings or evenings, waiting for the evening news reports, and bringing a hardcopy of the paper everywhere with you, there are now instant read-it-later services that allow you to take the news with you and access instantly it from anywhere you are.

The premise is simple: say you’re following a particular blog or news source and you were keeping track of an issue you were very interested in, or maybe you spot and article that you would like to read later. With the use of the read-it-later services available online, you can instantly send the article to your tablet or mobile device, ready for you to read wherever you are, without even the need for an internet connection. This eliminates the need for printouts or paper immediately, without the hassle of copy-pasting an entire document and uploading it into your device for later reading.

The best services

Instapaper – Instapaper is a handy app for Android at 2.99USD that will import and export all the articles you want to read into your device. Using Android “Share” menu, users can save articles, blog posts, news reports, and other relevant textual information that they need. Instapaper not only bookmarks these pieces, but also caches them onto your device for instant reading later. In order to save space, it also caches the articles without the ads getting in the way.

Pocket– A free app that is the successor to Read-It-Later’s original form, Pocket has similar features to Instapaper. The idea is the same—it will access, bookmark, and save your desired articles and posts. But once you’ve signed up for an account on Pocket, you can also share the article to other people in your social networking sites. Again, in order to save space, it won’t cache ads, images, or videos. You’ll have to watch those online.

Send to Kindle – Amazon is known for making apps and features uniquely speedy and excellent with the use of their own products. In answer to other read-it-later devices, once installed into your computer or device, the Send to Kindle button can “easily send that content to your Kindle to read later, at your convenience.” This Send to Kindle feature is compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.