Google Reader + Instapaper = Killer Combo for Productivity
I am reading quite a number of RSS feeds, and I am spending some hours offline every week when I am on a plane. With Google Reader and the Byline iPhone application I have found a way of utilizing this offline time with reading. I can download up to 200 articles to be read while offline, the read/unread state of my iPhone reader is synchronized with Google Reader when I come back online and continue to read it on the web version of Google Reader (enhanced by Helvetireader ). Articles that are interesting for me or require further action (like forwarding, or writing a blog post) will be starred (keyboard shortcut: S) in either Byline or Google Reader. With this I created my stack of "to-read" articles.
The problem is: I have actually two stacks of online content that needs to be read: one are the starred items in Google Reader, the other is my Instapaper account that I can fill while browsing the web using the Instapaper bookmarklet (keyboard shortcut: command+1). On my iPhone I am using the Instapaper Pro application that allows me to synchronize articles and read them while offline, on the plane or in a Swiss railway tunnel. This is really helpful, but does not solve my problem of having two different stacks of items that I want to read and that require some action from my side.
With the recently released Instapaper 2.0 Pro I have found a better way of consolidating my to-read lists. Instapaper supports subscribing to an RSS or ATOM feed as a reading list, and will add everything in this feed to a dedicated folder that can be read on the iPhone. To feed my starred items from Google Reader into Instapaper, I did following:
- Go to the Google Reader Settings page
- Switch to the "Folders and Tags" tab
- Check the item "Your starred items" and select Public in the "Change sharing..." drop-down-box.
- A link labeled "view public page" appears. Follow this link
- Now your shared items are readable. You will notice the RSS feed icon in the address bar of your browser
- Now copy the URL of this page and shorten it using bit.ly, because you will have to type this URL into your iPhone
- Launch the Instapaper Pro application on your iPhone (there is no web interface for this feature, yet)
- Click the Plus button
- In the section labeled "A website's feed", select the "Go to a specific site" button
- Enter the shortened URL from bit.ly
- Instapaper will download the shared items page, discover the feed link
- Click the "Add Folder" button to add this folder
- Now your starred items from Google Reader will show up in Instapaper - both on the iPhone and on the website.
