Spool, a popular DVR-like service for online video content, disappeared off the web without much notice earlier this week. Fortunately, registered users were emailed their bookmarks for safekeeping before the service shutdown, but users were left scrambling to figure out another way to get their videos in a system to watch later.
There is another alternative. Pocket, also formerly known as Read It Later, allows users to import their bookmarks into the service. While Pocket isn’t an identical replacement for Spool, it will allow you to sync your saved content to your iOS device for later viewing. Oh, and did we mention it’s free?
Read on and we'll show you how to get thost beloved Spool features with Pocket.
>> Spool bookmarks file (You'll see it labeled as bookmarks.html)
>> Pocket account
>> Pocket for iOS
>> Pocket bookmark button
When the Spool service announced it would be shutting down, users were emailed their bookmarks in an email. The file is titled bookmarks.html and was sent to you in the email that Spool sent out.
After you have a Pocket account, you can easily import these bookmarks into your account by using the Spool importer tool. Following the instructions, you will be able to upload the bookmarks.html file and import all of your saved Spool items.
There are a few different ways to save items (videos, articles, etc) to Pocket while browsing on your computer. First, you can use the web browser bookmark button found here. Once clicked in your bookmarks bar, the currently loaded page will be saved to your Pocket account, ready for you to read (or view) later.
You can also add content to Pocket by emailing it to add@getpocket.com from the email account linked to your Pocket account. The link that you email will automatically be saved to your account and become viewable on your mobile devices.
The main reason to save links with Pocket is that you can view the content whenever and wherever you’re at. That includes viewing the content from your mobile devices using the Pocket app, which is available on iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.
Once launched and signed in, you will see all of the content you’ve added to your Pocket account. Here, you can tap on any of the items to instantly view them.
If the content is a video (say, YouTube), then a player window will pop up so that you can instantly start viewing the video. The only downside is that the videos are not available for offline viewing like they were with Spool.
Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.
