Hi Robin! Good question. I’ve tinkered with the Reading List feature on iPhone and iPad pretty regularly since its debut about two years ago, and I’ll just be frank: I’m not a fan.

The Reading List, for those of you not familiar with it, is a list of articles within the Safari web browser that you’ve saved from the web.

Whenever you find a web page you want to read later, you just tap the Share button (it’s the square one with the upward arrow) and tap the Add to Reading List button. To open your Reading List, tap the Bookmarks button (the one that looks like an open book), then tap the Reading List tab (look for the eyeglasses).

Once you add a story to your Reading List, it will (or should, at least) sync automatically with the Reading Lists on your other iOS devices and Safari on your Mac via iCloud.

I’m not a fan of Reading List, but I love Instapaper’s consistent syncing and page-flipping mode.

Also, articles on your Reading List will (er, should) save themselves to your iPhone’s or iPad’s internal storage, meaning you should be able to browse your Reading List picks even when you’re offline.

My complaint about Reading List, though, is that it’s incredibly glitchy—or at least, it is for me. Half the time I save or delete a story on my Reading List, my changes don’t sync to my other iOS gadgets.

And it drives me nuts whenever I pull up Reading List while on an underground subway platform, only to be informed that for whatever reason, my articles weren’t saved for offline reading. (Naturally, Reading List worked perfectly when I tested it just now, but I still don’t trust it.)

Even if Reading List does work perfectly for you, there’s no way (and this is to your point, Robin) to categorize, tag, or otherwise sort the stories you’ve saved. And nope, there’s no folders, either.

For these reasons, I really don’t use Reading List all that much; for me, it’s just too unreliable.

Instead, I’ve turned to third-party reading apps. Many are available in the App Store, but there are two in particular that I use all the time: Instapaper (the original and perhaps best iOS reading app) and Pocket.

The free Pocket app lets you tag stories you’ve saved from the web.

Both apps are free, and both let you save articles from the web to your iPhone’s or iPad’s memory for reading later, whether you’re online or not. They’ll also remember where you left off in a given story and save your place on all your synced devices (including Android phones and tablets, if you have them).

Personally, I think Instapaper does a better job of formatting lengthy articles in a book-like format, complete with easy-to-read fonts and pages that you can flip with a swipe.

Meanwhile, Pocket does a better job with pictures and video, and I like the image thumbnails on Pocket’s article index page. I use Pocket whenever I find a shorter article I want to save.

Best of all (and finally an answer for you, Robin!), Instapaper lets you organize your saved articles into folders, while Pocket lets you tag your saved stories.

The downside to using Instapaper and Pocket on your iPhone or iPad is that there’s no super-easy way to save articles directly from the Safari browser. That said, you can always copy the URL for an article (tap the Share button, then tap Copy) and then open either Instapaper or Pocket; when you do, you’ll be prompted to save the article at the web address you just copied.

Long story short: Nope, you can’t organize the articles on the iOS Reading List, but Instapaper and Pocket (among other iOS reading apps) will do the trick.

Hope that helps, Robin. Still have questions? Let me know!

Note: Having trouble saving the tips on the mobile version of here’s the thing? Try our desktop site instead. On a phone, tap the little handle in the top-left corner of the screen, then tap Desktop Version. On a tablet, tap the Desktop Site button in the top-right corner of the home page.

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Well, there’s a better way to save web links for later than, say, simply pasting them into your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) Notes app.

The trick: using Apple’s “Reading List” feature, which saves links from Mail, Safari, and other iPhone apps and (once you’ve got a data connection again) downloads full web pages to your iOS device’s memory.

Prefer using a third-party “read it later” app like Instapaper ($3.99) or Pocket (free)? We’ll cover them, too.

Let’s get started…

You can access saved web links from the Reading List in your iPhone’s or iPad’s Safari bookmarks.

Using Reading List

• So, you just found a web link you wanted to open on your iPhone or iPad, but there’s no cell connection—or you’re just short on time. First, tap and hold the link you want to open.
• A series of buttons will slide (or pop up, on the iPad) into view: “Open,” “Add to Reading List,” and “Copy.” Tap “Add to Reading List”—and yes, this option will work even if your iOS device doesn’t have a data connection.
• Once you’ve got time or a cell connection again, open Safari, tap the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen, then tap Reading List. (You may have to tap the Back button at the top of the screen a few times to get to the main Bookmarks directory; Reading List sits at the top.)
• Now you’ll see the list of links saved in your Reading List, and the link you just saved should be at the top of the list—and if you were offline when you saved the link, your iPhone/iPad will save the page to your handset’s memory once it gets a data connection back.

You can save links to reading apps like Instapaper and Pocket even if your iPhone/iPad doesn’t have a data connection.

Using Instapaper or Pocket

• Once again, tap and hold the link you want to save—but this time, tap the “Copy” button instead of “Reading List.”
• Next, open the app with which you’d like to save your link—either Instapaper or Pocket. When you do, a prompt will ask if you’d like to add the copied URL to the app’s list of saved links. Tap OK (or “Read Later,” in the case of Instapaper).
• Trying to save a link without a data connection? No problem. When you’re back in cellular or Wi-Fi range, open the app again, and app will automatically download the web page for the link you saved.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Click here, or click here for help with your iPad.

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Turns out we can—and indeed, you can set Instapaper to wirelessly send your Kindle a daily digest of your latest saved stories. Here’s how to do it.

First, a little background on Instapaper, a free online service that’s a must-have for bookworns.

The site itself is simple: just sign up for an account, and add a “Read Later” bookmark to your favorite web browser. Whenever you happen upon a long online article (from, say, a newspaper or magazine website) that you’d like to curl up with for a leisurely read, just select your new “Read Later” bookmark to send it to your Instapaper reading list.

Your can then peruse your saved articles online in an easy-to-read format, stripped of all ads, sidebars, and other distracting elements. Instapaper also offers a $5 app that saves articles to your iPhone or iPad—perfect for reading even when, say, you’re on a plane, in a subway, or otherwise without an Internet connection.

But what about the Kindle, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite ways to read e-books? Well, Instapaper makes it easy to send your most recent saved stories to your Kindle—no wires required.

There’s one catch: While you can receive e-mail on your Kindle over Wi-Fi for free, Amazon will charge you a small fee for transmitting articles over the Kindle’s 3G receiver. The charge is 15 cents a megabyte if you’re receiving stories in the U.S., or 99 cents/MB overseas. Just so you know, I sent a batch of 20, rather lengthy Instapaper stories to my Kindle, and the file was barely half a MB (the fee is rounded up to the nearest MB); still, those charges can add up, especially for globetrotters.

So, let’s get started!

1. If you haven’t already, head to Instapaper, set up an account, install the “Read Later” bookmark in your browser, and start saving some stories.
2. Since Instapaper will be sending articles to your Kindle via email, you’ll need to make sure your Kindle is ready to accept email. Visit this page, go to the “E-Mail Settings” section, make sure the “Auto Deliver” setting is set to “Enabled.” Also, make note of your Kindle’s email address (yes, your Kindle has its own email address); it should be your Amazon.com user name with “@Kindle.com” tacked on at the end.
3. Next, find the section on the page that reads “Approved Personal Document E-mail List,” click the “Add a new approved e-mail address” link at the bottom, and add this email address: [email protected]. (That’s the email account from which Instapaper will be sending stories to your Kindle.)
4. Now, let’s head back to the Instapaper.com site. Visit this page, and click the checkbox next to “Send my Unread articles to my Kindle automatically.
5. Take your Kindle’s email address and plug it into the field that reads (appropriately enough) “My Kindle’s email address.”
6. If you have an older Kindle or you want to receive Instapaper articles over 3G or Wi-Fi, select “kindle.com” from the pull-down menu—but again, keep in mind that Amazon will charge you for 3G article transfers. To receive stories only via Wi-Fi, select “free.kindle.com” from the pull-down. (Unfortunately, Wi-Fi isn’t an option for owners of the original or second-generation Kindle, which only has a 3G receiver.)
7. You can configure how often you’d like Instapaper to send bundles of stories to your Kindle—either daily or once a week. You can also set Instapaper so it will only send an email after you’ve saved a certain number of articles to your Instapaper account.
8. Click the “Save changes” button, then go ahead and click the “Send now” button to make sure everything’s working properly.

Bonus tip: If you’re only receiving Instapaper stories on your Kindle over Wi-Fi, make sure to sync your Kindle before you head off to the airport or the pool.

Looking for more Kindle tips and news? Click here!

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