App Recommendation: Pocket
I’ve been using this app for years, and I think that it’s probably one of my favourites. Pocket is an application that stores a list of articles you add from across the web. It keeps a list of stories you ‘pocket’, to keep them for when you have time to read them. Say if you’re scrolling down a page and see something you’d like to read, but either don’t have the time or you haven’t finished the current thing you’re reading, then you can simply save it for later.
My ‘pocket’ contains around 90 articles currently, and I’ll often get through an average of six each day, while the amount I add varies a lot. Once you’ve read an article you can archive it, so you can search to find it again if you need to. I love Pocket because I can always save items I want to read, and it also sends me an email of recommended articles from across the web around three times a week; you can change the frequency if you wish. It’s great for learning new and exciting things, exploring different viewpoints, and helps you realise how much there is to learn in the world.
It also provides a pleasant reading mode when you do get round to reading the articles in your pocket, making the text clear and legible, removing annoying ads or pop-ups, and providing a ‘dark-mode’ for reading white text on a black background — great for OLED screens with deep black colours, straining your eyes less and reducing battery usage on mobile devices.
In general, it’s an excellent app for anyone who reads articles online and wants to become a better person. It provides me with so many new and thought-provoking ideas, as well as letting me store all the things I want to read in the future. If you think that a brain-training app will make you smarter than this app will, then I believe you’re probably mistaken. There is research that indicates that brain-training apps do little to improve your performance outside on tasks outside the app itself. However, reading about different things is a great way to expand your mind and improve your thinking.
Pocket has an addon for most browsers and a mobile app for iOS and Android. Check it out at getpocket.com.