Paperdroid
Paperdroid is an offline article reading Android app that integrates with the excellent service Read It Later and/or Google Reader.
Found an interesting but long article while surfing in a costly internet point? Skimming hastily through your feeds for worthy posts? Just save the page to Read It Later (via bookmarklet, the Firefox extension etc.) or star it in Google Reader - and have Paperdroid automatically download it to your trusty Android phone for offline reading pleasure.You can grab it from the Android Market (search for Paperdroid or scan the QR Code on the left), andappstore.com or slideme.org.
Features summary
- integration with Read It Later/Google Reader
- sync your reading list: get new articles, update changes, save articles to the SD card for offline reading
- easily mark articles as new/read/deleted
- easily edit article title and tags
- super-easy article navigation: tap to scroll, swipe to get to the next/previous article
- save articles to your reading list directly from the Android browser (via Share page menu option)
- share interesting articles with your friends - on Google Reader, via email or with any other app that hooks to the SEND intent (e.g. twitter apps, Evernote...)
- configurable, battery friendly background syncing service: sync your list and fetch your articles at regular intervals - it will only wake itself up when there's suitable connectivity (i.e. wifi only or mobile/wifi depending on your preferences) and obey the global "Background data" setting
- found a promising link while reading offline? Just long-click it and save it to your reading list - it will be automatically fetched by the background sync service - an endless recursion of offline pleasure!
Some more screenshots (
Posts
20 comments:
Hi.
I'm an Archos 5 internet tablet user (i.e. no phone) and your app seems excellent - BUT - please can I set it to refresh through wifi more than once every 24 hours?
Also please note I cannot download at the market place or any other site that loads only to phones so its always slideme or similar
thanks
Hi,
Paperdroid Pro enables setting a custom interval for background syncing - it will be veeeery soon (a matter of hours, or few days at most) available also on SlideMe.
But, if the problem is simply that you only have wifi connectivity every once in a while, even the free version background sync works quite well. When the scheduled sync is run (i.e. 24 hours after last sync) it will notice lack of wifi connectivity and go to sleep, and will wake up and sync as soon as you connect to a wifi network.
So if, say, you only have wifi at Starbucks, Monday to Friday 8.00->8.30am, and the device is set to connect automatically, you'll have your fresh reading list every (workday) morning even with Paperdroid free ;)
I hope this helps!
I got a problem using this app on my Android phone.
When I mark something as read on the phone, it still appears as unread/new in Firefox and http://readitlaterlist.com.
Why is this?
Due to the offline vocation of Paperdroid, all changes to the reading list (marking as read/unread, setting tags, saving new articles) are 'cached' on the device and synced back to the (RIL and/or Google Reader) services on the next sync operation. The one exception is sharing on Reader, but 'offlining' that too is in the todo.
If you are using Paperdroid free and need to have your read/unread statuses synced frequently - i.e. you make an intensive 'dual' (mobile and PC) use of RIL - you'll have to perform a manual sync after the reading session on Paperdroid. Or you might want to consider purchasing Paperdroid Pro; also in the todo (perhaps only for Pro, though) is a feature to automatically sync back updates regardless of the sync frequency.
Great app.
If you're looking for a new feature, syncing links found in twitter favorites would be great!
Well, that sounds like a great idea!
Not so easy to implement, but I'll look into it soon.
Thanks!!
I would like to use this program, but when I try to sign in using my google reader account, it seems to give me 2 choices. One is using the account on my phone (but the log in button is still grayed out), so I switched to the 'don't use this account' option and put in the account my phone uses. When I try to log in this way, it says [RIL] log in failed, wrong credentials. Then it says I must use at least one account. Horribly circular logic...
What am I doing wrong?
'Use this account' must be on, if you want to use Google Reader in any capacity. If it's off, anything else in the screen is irrelevant (and the login button disabled). Then you should try to enable 'Use device account' and login. If it fails, uncheck 'use device account' (so that it reads 'use custom credentials') and fill in your username and password in the text fields, then login again.
If you have a Read It Later account, you can also set that up separately. If not, you must disable 'Use this account' in the Read It Later setup screen.
When I did it the first time, it closed back to the window before that one, then closed the program. It then opened again and said I must use at least one account.
When I tried to do it again, it says [RIL] log in failed, wrong credentials.
1. Open Paperdroid
2. If you're brought directly into the Preferences screen ('You must setup at least one account') skip step 3.
3. Regardless of any error message, press Menu/Preferences
4. Tap on Read It Later, uncheck 'Use this account', press Back
5. Tap on Google Reader, check 'Use this account', do the rest of the setup as per previous comment, tap 'Login'
6. Upon successful login, you might be brought back to the reading list and a Sync initiated; if that's not the case, just press Back (to go to the reading list) then Menu/Sync
7. Wait for the sync to complete
8. Happy reading!
hi! i just bought paperdroid pro, and i'm excited about it, especially the auto/tilt scrolling, but i'm having trouble getting it to sync with google reader and fetch articles. i've logged in successfully with both "use device account" and "use custom credentials," but when i sync, no articles appear. i've double checked that i have plenty of unread articles in google reader, and other android feed reader apps, e.g. NewsRob, fetch them happily. any ideas?
Lowne,
Any plan for custom/prettified interface for Paperdroid Pro at some point of development. I would pay if I could look at something better than typical Android UI elements.
Lowne,
Please also consider Instapaper, it is very useful and with usable API. I use Instapaper than Read It Later, even if Read It Later integrates better with Google Reader on Facefox, I do Chrome right now. Instapaper has way better long article/editorial discovery system for random insteresting read.
As stated in http://www.instapaper.com/api - there's no way to pull the reading list from Instapaper. Feel free to nag Marco Arment about it.
On the other hand: ChromeRIL (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bkikpncfbjndhfkipijhdoddiadaipaa) does everything you'll ever need.
About the custom UI: it's not a priority; honestly I'm not sure I'll find the time for that.
I am unable to log into Google Reader. Paperdroid won't let me type in my full user name.
Just paid for the Pro version only to find it consistently crashing or garbling HTML content. What is the suggested best practices for using Google Reader as sync source? Starring articles seems like a bad idea, as do folders. How about tags?
THANK YOU! Only app I've ever seen that lets you share to Google reader from the browser. That feature alone makes this app awesome.
Michael...try selecting the left button first for "use this account." Took me a second to figure that out.
really nice app.! I love readitlate, so I bought the pro version.
wow, you are even in Venezia! I'm in Pisa! haha
RE: The idea above about syncing with links found in twitter / twitter favs, maybe have a look at http://favstar.fm and http://packrati.us/ for some ideas?
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