We take it for granted every day, but my feeble mind still finds it hard to process that you can actually access the Internet on a mobile phone.
Let’s put it in some kind of perspective. When I was growing up there was really no such thing as the Internet. When I was growing up, people didn’t really have computers at home. Certainly, no one had mobile phones.
Now, a loss of reception for just a few minutes is a matter of anxiety and irritation.
We have come such a long way that apps have even been developed for those moments when we are unable to connect with the ‘information superhighway’. Remember that phrase?
So, in celebration of the progress we have made, and to help mitigate against those cruel occasions when you have no reception on your phone, here’s our pick of the best offline reading apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia.
TimeToRead, FREE
This app is a Windows Phone client for Pocket (formerly known as Read It Later), which is a service that allows you to save web pages and online articles that you can then read later, even without an active Internet or data connection.
This client, which is free so beware that it does have adverts, allows you to login and sync your saved articles to your Lumia device. Once they have been synced with an active connection, they will be stored for offline reading.
Other features of this client allow you to mark an article as ‘read’ and to post a tweet about an article.
Alternative Pocket clients: Burn After Reading for £1.49, MetroPaper, £2.49 and Phone Reader, £0.99p (all these apps have free, ad-supported or limited versions).
Doppler, FREE
Doppler is a RSS reader that for those of you with Google Reader accounts and also gives you offline access to articles after synchronisation.
It also offers support for Pocket accounts and can stream podcasts.
Readalicious! is an alternative Google Reader client but costs £0.79p.
InstaFetch, £0.79p
Another ‘save-for-later’ service is InstaFetch and this is the app for it.
A nice function of InstaFetch is that you can actually save articles from your mobile browser. Go to Menu > More > Share page > Add to InstaFetch.
A link to the page will then be saved to your InstaFetch account and then the next time you sync the app, the page will be downloaded to your phone for offline reading.
You can also use InstaFetch to save articles to Evernote.
HTML to PDF, £0.79p
This is a useful tool that doubles up as an offline reader. As its name suggests, HTML to PDF saves web pages into a PDF for local storage and viewing at your leisure.
You type or paste the URL into the app and the web page is then converted into a PDF. At the same time, a short link is also created that you can share or email.
Stacks for Instapaper, £2.29
If you have paid subscription with Instapaper, then this is the app you will need to save web pages for reading later on your Nokia Lumia.
This app lets you change fonts, type sizes and share articles on email and social networks.
Offline Browser, £2.29
If you don’t have an account with Pocket, Google Reader, InstaFetch nor Instapaper, then this could be the app for you!
This is fairly expensive (for an app) but it also claims to be the only Windows Phone browser that lets you save complete web pages, including images, to local storage.
Naturally, these saved web pages can then be viewed later when there is no data connection. Even the links between downloaded pages will work when you are offline.
Offline Browser can also be set to automatically download RSS Feeds.
Have we missed any out? Let us know your favourite offline reading apps.
Image credit: gadl