Readability Makes Webpages More Readable on iPhone and iPad

The popular simple format bookmarking service Readability just came to the iPad and iPhone with the release of the iOS app.

If you’re not familiar with the service, Readability allows users to bookmark sites on the web for later reading in a more text-based form, removing the complicated web interfaces and ads that might annoy you. It competes with Read It Later and Instapaper nicely.

Readability has a intuitive, simple interface that looks great on the iPad and iPhone.

Along the left you have three lists, the articles bookmarked to your account, articles you archived for later reading, and favorites you want to save. Above the three folders you see various app controls for searching, editing your lists, a plus icon that lets you add pages via web address, and the app settings icon. Below the list you will see a refresh button.

Notice above the simple text-dominant interface of the article view. Tap anywhere and various controls show at the bottom of the screen and then disappears after a few seconds. At the left you see an icon for changing Readability’s appearance – things like text and the background color. You can change the font face and size and darken the background for night view mode (see below).

At the lower right you see four more icons. You mark the article as a favorite, archive it, delete it or share it with a number of social networking services like Twitter and Facebook.

If you want to see the article in web view tap the tiny web view button in the upper right (see the web view above).

Readability created a nice free app, which gives it a big advantage over my previous favorite Instapaper. The Instapaper app costs $5. Get Readability for iPhone or iPad in the app store for free. Be sure to sign up for the service at Readability and download their browser plugins so you can bookmark articles on the web and read them later on your iPad or iPhone.