Readability

In a day and age where we consume all our information online, it gets a little difficult if we are “cut off” from the Internet. Considering the length and breadth of articles today, we don’t read what we see online then and there. We save the article or bookmark it to be read later. But what if there’s a power cut or we are at a location where we do not have access to the Internet. How will we read those saved articles?

Well, today we have with us a reader app called Readability. It removes all the junk from a webpage such as advertisements, videos, etc. giving you an e-book like reading experience. You can save articles, share them between your laptop, smartphone and tablet. The best feature – read the articles offline.

Features: 
Accessing the Readability app is easy. You can download it from the app store both for your iOSor Android device. Hit up readability.com, register and voila! You are all ready to save and read articles offline.
Saving an article too is a breeze. You download the browser plugin that sits next to the settings tool on the Chrome browser (the icon is a red chair). In the Safari version, the Readability options are on the left of the address bar.

On your Android or iOS device, the interface is very simple. Your articles are listed chronologically with the latest being on top. If you have recently added an article to the Readability list, you can update in in your device by simply dragging the list down (same as you’d update the wall on the Facebook app).

In the app, you also have the option to add articles to your favourites or archive them. There are other handy options available in the app as well such as search, edit (move or delete) and the regular app settings. You can also share the articles you have saved (of course you have to be online for that), as the app lets you e-mail articles or share them via Facebook and twitter. You can also at anytime access the web link of the article you are reading with a single click.

All in all, the app is efficient enough to help you keep track of your content and view it offline.

Performance:
The browser-based performance of Readability is pretty good. You simply open an article on your browser, hit “read now”, and the app removes all ads and unnecessary information leaving you with the article and the images.

This however did not work perfectly with all articles. The app did manage to add an advertisement in the middle of the article.

If you wish to read the article later, you can simply click on “Read Later” and the article is added to your reading list. It will automatically get synced to your iOS or Android device that you have linked. There is also the option to send the article to your registered Kindle.

Another cool feature is that you can add articles to the Readability list via e-mail. Copy and paste up to 20 URLs into the body of an e-mail and send that to your personalized address generated by Readability. SHAZAM! The articles appear on all your devices.

There are a variety of cool features that are shared between the browser based app and the iOS/Android app. You have 5 different styles to choose from for the text font. You can change the background as well.

Click to enlarge

From the bottom navigation bar on the app (the left navigation bar on the browser), you can add an article to favourites, archive it, delete it, control the text size and bring up the sharing options. The app also has an inbuilt browser if you wish to view an article in its original form.

The only downside we found with the Readability app is that it crashed a couple of times on our iPod Touch and the performance of the inbuilt browser of the app was underwhelming.

Just so you know, Safari and iOS powered device users can sync their bookmarks between the Safari browser of your Mac/PC and the iOS device. The Safari browser also has the “Reader” option that removes the ads and unnecessary information giving you a simple view of the article. The only catch is that there is no offline reading.

VerdictReadability isn't the only app that gives you the pleasure of reading articles by removing the ads and other unnecessary aspects found on websites. You have apps like "Read it Later" and the Safari "Reader" that perform the same function as well. But the best aspect of the app is the ability to read the content offline. If you are someone who likes to save articles and read them on the go, you should definitely take a look at this app. Besides, it's free.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later. Android 2.1 and up