Something did change maybe about year and a half ago about rendering articles. It felt like less and less of them were rendering in article mode, and I needed wifi access to read articles in the original format. Before that practically everything rendered in article mode, afterwards I would say it was about 50%.
Also, Pocket couldn't create reader views for many websites (like hacker news discussions), which means the TTS was useless.
Oh and the TTS required an internet connection.
It was hard enough going from Pocket to something else, I didn't want to do that again.
I actually have a Supernote now, and side-loaded the Omnivore App onto it - so I use my Kobo less (though still somewhat at night due to the backlight.)
I never really paid any attention to Pocket and never used it but 100% of the comments I ever saw were about how it was some invasion of privacy tool that was evidence of corruption in Mozilla selling your data to 3rd parties or something.
Now it's dead and ... everyone here is mourning its passing. Guess I was a successful mark for anti-Mozilla FUD tactics.
I used it long before Mozilla purchased it and continued to use it for years after, but jumped ship because years went by without any updates to the product. IIRC it hasn't received a single update between approximately 2019 and 2021. It felt abandoned long before today.
I used it until their dreadful redesign in 2023.
I got a _lot_ of use out of Pocket.
The biggest problem for me was that they just completely gave up on paywalls, at a time when viable workarounds finally became widely available (e.g. iOS share sheet extensions being able to inject JavaScript into Safari to collect the content, which is what many alternatives do). Completely useless for reading paid news.
> If you don't want to bother with self-hosting, there are some hosted options available: https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem...
I already try to prevent the Kobo from upgrading due to unwanted changes to my Kobo patch configuration, so I'm crossing my fingers here.
I'm actually working on an open-source alternative at https://curi.ooo if you're interested in checking it out. It's a work in progress, but I'm building it primarily for my own use because I'm frustrated with all these services shutting down.
The Kobo integration you have is interesting too, wonder how I could support that use case...
- email newsletters, especially with offline mails (no remote images) since theya can go easily through workplace gateyways for those of us who work in secure areas. Didn't see yet if yours were.
- sync and integrate with everything, e-readers, nextcloud, browsers...
- PWA
Good luck!
One personal use case that I'd love to see supported (when you get your mobile apps implemented) is the ability to add articles via the 'share' shortcuts. I get mailing lists with links, and I don't want to stop to read an article while clearing out my inbox. So if a link looks interesting, I use the 'share' feature to add it to Pocket, and then I'll go back to it later -- without opening my browser.
Because Curio saves client-side, it opens the app and renders the page briefly though. Not sure yet if there's a better way to do it.
> If you don't want to bother with self-hosting, there are some hosted options available: https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag/wiki/wallabag-ecosystem...
I also bought a Kobo E-Reader specifically to use Pocket with it. In short order I found an open-source alternative - Omnivore - and spent my time hacking away at my Kobo to get it to pull from there instead. https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter
I think Pocket was amazing. I think the idea worked amazingly for someone like me, who is an enjoyer of reading, but had a hard time finding a moment to sit down and do it.
I am upset that Pocket is going. I am upset that Omnivore shut down. I am upset that my Kobo will probably remove that integration and thus ruin my Self-Hosted Omnivore's integration with it.
I think it could have been a lot, lot more.