Article of Faith
by Gary Woods

Now that we're all cruising around the Internet on our iPhones there are times when we'd like to bookmark an article so we could read it later. To make this bookmarking possible there's a little program called Instapaper http://www.instapaper.com/iphone . There are two versions, the free one which saves web pages, has offline reading, and provides a text view. And the pay version ($9.99) remembers your positions, has tilt scrolling, allows you to email any link, and provides adjustable text sizes and multiple text-view fonts. I just got a raise here at Casa Magazine so I went for the big money version.

To get the program going you simply install the Instapaper app and download your unread articles when you have Wi-Fi, EDGE, or 3G coverage. The cool part is Instapaper saves two versions of each page whenever possible: the Web view and the Text view. Web view is the graphical page with nearly all of its elements intact except the Flash content is removed which the devices can't display anyway. There's also no Javascript which removes most ads and Blog comments are removed and images are compressed, saving up to 80% of the space with little noticeable quality loss.

The Text view also downloads a text-optimized version of each page which uses ideal fonts and text formatting for maximum readability in either orientation on the iPhone and iPod touch. It also removes the need to zoom or horizontally pan.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at gandlwoods@earthlink.net or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910