Reading List in other browsers?

Question

Is there a Reading List extension for Chrome? I have a deep, dark hatred of Safari, but Reading List seems more convenient than Pocket of Readability. Or, is there a way to access it by any non-safari means at all?

Answer 1

All reading list is a simple wrapper around bookmarks, that allows you quick access to both add and remove entries. It's usefulness stops there really, and the matter of convenience boils down to what you want to use the stored pages for, and how you wish to access them. If you are just using the same computer and will always have a net connection, then yes it's very convenient, but if you want to have them stored offline and synced to multiple devices, then it's not so useful.

I don't use Chrome, but I would probably look to get an extension for either Pocket/Readability/Instapaper to mimic the reading list feature, by making your recently stored pages available from a toolbar button rather than having to login to the respective sites. This gives you all the added benefits of using a proper 'service', with the instant nature of a quick bookmark system. A quick search for "instapaper" yielded 50 results on the Chrome extension store thing

Answer 2

On a Mac the reading list is stored in /Users/notjonathan/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist so potentially there is a tool out there to read them automatically. The actual syncing is done by Safari. It doesn't just watch the file for changes and upload the changes. You actually have to make the changes from within Safari.

So what you're "stuck" with using services like Pocket, which although slightly less convenient in iOS safari, is imo better. Especailly as other apps, e.g. Tweetbot can integrate with Pocket, but not Safari Reading List.

There is bookmarklet for Pocket available, which you can use in iOS Safari to quickly add pages, with just a few more presses than pressing Add To Reading List.

Answer 3

You can add things with AppleScript according to this: http://jga.me/blog/2011/10/18/applescript-readinglist

So it should be easy to cook up a Firefox extension to call that bit of AppleScript, you can call it form the shell like:

osascript -e 'tell application "Safari" to add reading list item "http://totl.net/"'

Which will cause Safari to generate the preview and send it to iCloud, or wherever it goes to.