TidyRead Brings Readable Text Conversion To Smartphones
“Readable” bookmarklets are all the rage right now (amongst browser nerds, at least), and TidyRead is an intriguing multi-platform variation. It streamlines and simplifies text from any browser with a bookmarklet or Firefox extension.
“Readable” bookmarklets are becoming a crowded field, with customisable JavaScript tools like the previously mentioned Readability and Readable App already offering a stripped-down, text-mostly view of any news article, blog post, or other sites you’d actually want to, you know, read.
TidyRead’s text view isn’t quite as option-loaded, but its Firefox extension and iPhone/iPod touch/Android-friendly bookmarklet might just win over those who are serious about no-clutter reading. The Firefox extension can auto-detect, and auto-convert, any text on a page it determines is an actual article of some depth, or work as a click-to-convert button. The smartphone bookmarklet delivers basically the same TidyRead view as on a full-size browser, but with all the sizes and alignment lined up for the smaller screen.
TidyRead is a free service to use, works on any browser with its bookmarklet, or on Firefox through its extension.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Hmmm, dont really have any use for this on my home pc, but I think I will give this to my mom next time I'm at her computer, seems great for old people. I don't have a phone that could use this, but seems like it could be very handy for that too.
I just tried this on my iPhone and it works well. You can use the bookmarklet as soon as the page in question begins to render. I'm not sure if it really saves any time unless the page is very heavy, but it would be good for reading a long article or if the layout is unfriendly to the mobile Safari zoom.
Scytale
@orbitus: Yeah, pretty much my experience too - plus there's no mention of Android anywhere on TidyRead's site...
Not sure if I would say Android friendly. didn't work on my G1 and i was under the impression Android didn't support bookmarklets yet.
orbitus
I've been using instapaper bookmarklet (with the iPod touch app) for a while and it's actually changed the way I read stuff online.
joebadmo
@vmlinuz: Likewise. I was disappointed, as I thought this would be a great addition to my mobile browsing. Steel (which I prefer to the default Android browser) does a pretty good job of formatting for the narrow screen, but I was interested in how TidyRead might improve the experience.
Dan Butcher
@joebadmo:
Agreed, it's an awesome app.
Cripesonfriday
tidyread does optimize for Android display, see http://www.tidyread.com/mobile.php and test those examples. But currently the gPhone doesn't allow bookmarklet, so you need to type "http://www.tidyread.com/mobile.php?u=" before the page you are currently reading. Hope Android will have bookmarklet soon.
MurrayPorkchop
TidyRead has a list of options that you can customize style, font, font size and margin at the top. You can customize site by site since it keeps the customization info inside the site based cookie.
OakleyTrigeminus
@orbitus: LH, as well as tinyread, need to edit their pages where both suggest there are android capabilities.
i searched the tinyread site, found nothing and emailed them.
this is the reply,
"currently there is no way to setup bookmarklet for android, but you can insert "http://tidyread.com/mobile.php?u=" before the current reading url to test out. We are researching on how to make that work
automatically."
close reading of their site actually suggests "TidyRead is setting to change" the difficulty of reading things on the internet but not that it has!
hey ho- a mission statement (and publicity) instead of an actual working app. we shall see
ffolliet