Instapaper

I highly value aesthetics, and I do not enjoy those unsightly ads flanking webpages that I read. Blech. How do I get rid of them? With Instapaper!

It's so easy to use and a great idea.

1. Make an account at Instapaper.com.  It's completely free.
2. Add the 'Read Later' bookmarklet to your browser's Bookmarks Bar.

3. Any time you're on a page that you want to read later (or just read without the ugly ads), you click on the bookmarklet.

4. When you go to instapaper.com (I also added this to my Bookmarks Bar for easy access), you'll see a list of all your articles.

5. When you click on the 'Text' button next to the article of interest, Instapaper loads the page without the ads. Below, you can compare what the pages look like without and with instapaper.

In your normal browser, without Instapaper...

In your browser, with Instapaper!

6. While I use it mainly to read my articles in a clutter-free environment, you can also use Instapaper to save articles for reading at a later time. Instapaper is a simple and easy way to collect bookmarks. An Instapaper account can be accessed from any computer or mobile device (a $4.99 purchase in the Apple App store gets you access to both Instapaper for both the iPhone and the iPad. I believe though, that you can just access instapaper.com for free using your mobile device's browser), so you can read your bookmarked pages anytime and anywhere (...where there's WiFi or 3G).

Of note: The 'text only' feature really is text only. Actually, it should really be called 'text and pictures only' because images do show up. However, videos will not appear when you click on the 'text only' feature.