Pocket > Google Reader

A few months ago Google Reader was retired.  I quickly passed through the 5 stages of grief, and I knew I'd find something that would fill the void.

I started with Feedly.  This app looks much nicer than the old Google Reader app.  However, I found it hard to use.  It was just a bit too slick, with too many animations, and too many views.  It's not a knock on Feedly.  I suppose there's someone that likes all of the eye candy, but it wasn't for me.  I eventually found and settled on this dirt simple Rss reader - Sparse Rss.  

Sparse Rss has been serving me well, but in the midst of transitioning away from Google Reader, I started reading more articles that were brought to my attention via Twitter, Google Plus and even email.  I realized that I needed a place to store these articles that came at me from multiple sources.  The answer is Pocket (aka Read It Later).  I mainly use the Android App, but I've also used the Chrome App.  

Pocket looks great, yet is super simple to use.  It automagically decides on the best view for articles so that they are very easy to read.  It's hard to explain.  Somehow, the articles look great in Pocket.  It is as if they optimized the UI to make it best for someone who wants to read.  Perfect.

Even better, I found out that they have a developer API.  There are already a number of existing applications that use RSS to add articles to Pocket.  I will try them out and see if any of them improve my Pocket experience.  But even if I can't find an app that I like, I can't complain because the option is always there to write one myself.  Thus, the onus is on me, which is great.

Update: I usually use pocket on my phone, but today I decided to read some articles over a web browser.  They have this feature, where if you press "/", a quick screen guide for keyboard shortcuts is shown.  The guide itself looks great, and it is incredibly useful.  I already started using keyboard shortcuts (mostly j and k to navigate through a list).  This application always impresses me.