There are few apps users couldn't live without, but one of them might very well be Instapaper, Marco Arment's frequently praised "read later" app for iOS. The developer released an update on Wednesday night that dramatically improves the speed of page turns and adds a number of other welcome features.
Marco Arment has released Instapaper 4.2, a slick update to the $4.99 "read later" app that allows users to save articles from any website -- and a long list of companion apps -- for later reading in a clean, uncluttered UI. While competition has been heating up in the "read later" space with the release of Readability and the rebranding of Read It Later to Pocket, Instapaper continues to add new features and improvements.
The big story with Instapaper 4.2 is an all-new Fast Pagination mode, which significantly improves the accuracy and speed of page turns thanks to a complete rewrite of the pagination code. The result is near immediate page turning, but that's not all. Users now have the option to choose an optional iBooks-style page turning animation, complete with gestures.
The update also allows the "Twilight Sepia" color tint to be selected at any time, along with subtle but welcome changes such as a new draggable dot bar, which replaces the scroll bar while in pagination mode. Users can now swipe with two fingers to close an article, and full-screen mode adds an Auto mode, which kicks in after a few seconds.
The 4.2 release notes also close with a personal message from the developer, who recently added a new member to his family. "On a personal note, my wife and I just had a baby," Arment writes. "You, my awesome customers, let me work at home and spend as much time with my family as possible during this great time. Thank you so much."
Instapaper 4.2 is now available from the App Store; the 11.3MB download is free for existing users and $4.99 for everyone else, and the universal app now requires a device running iOS 5.0 or later.
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