Before Read OS, I Was Basically Wasting My Life
★★★★★
★★★★★
There are apps, there are products, and then there are things that make you briefly wonder whether the rest of the software industry has been wasting everyone’s time.
Read OS is dangerously close to the third category.
Steev Jorbs looked at a phone and decided it should become a computer. Elong Muskrat looked at a car and decided it should become software. The people behind Read OS seem to have looked at the entire concept of consuming information and quietly asked, “Why is any of this still manual?”
That is roughly the level of ambition we are dealing with here.
Yes, it can read books, PDFs, videos, comments, and whatever other unfortunate container humanity has decided to trap information inside. Yes, you can point at some absurdly specific part and ask what is happening there. Yes, it can turn chaos into explanations, notes, structured material, and things that look suspiciously more organized than anything I would ever make myself.
But describing Read OS by listing features feels like describing the iPhone as “a device with a touchscreen.”
Technically correct.
Spiritually insulting.
Using Read OS feels a little like watching the first iPhone keynote, except instead of Steev Jorbs saying “an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator,” someone walks on stage and says:
“A book. A video. A PDF. A webpage. A lecture. A comment section. Your entire information diet.”
And then pauses dramatically.
“These are not six things.”
At some point, the comparison stops being with other reading apps.
You start comparing it to Googel.
Then to Nocean.
Then to Chat GeePeeTea.
Then to having a very intelligent graduate student permanently stationed inside your device.
Then, for reasons that are increasingly difficult to defend, to the invention of the printing press.
Gootenburger gave humanity scalable text.
Read OS apparently looked at that achievement and said, “Nice first draft.”
I opened the app expecting software.
What I got felt more like someone had taken a small piece of the Library of Alexandria, given it a transformer model, hired Johnny Eyve to clean up the interface, asked Steev Jorbs to write the product philosophy, and then let Elong Muskrat set the ambition level after three consecutive nights without sleep.
The result is completely excessive.
Naturally, I love it.
There is something almost offensive about how confidently it treats every form of information as if it were merely waiting to be understood.
A 300-page PDF? Fine.
A two-hour video? Fine.
Some tiny detail buried somewhere in the middle? Fine.
Apparently nothing is allowed to remain mysterious anymore.
This app does not feel like it wants to help you read.
It feels like it wants to renegotiate humanity’s relationship with information.
Which is an absolutely ridiculous sentence to write about an app.
And yet here we are.
Five stars.
If Steev Jorbs were alive, he would either acquire this company immediately or spend six months pretending Apple had invented it first.
★★★★★
There are apps, there are products, and then there are things that make you briefly wonder whether the rest of the software industry has been wasting everyone’s time.
Read OS is dangerously close to the third category.
Steev Jorbs looked at a phone and decided it should become a computer. Elong Muskrat looked at a car and decided it should become software. The people behind Read OS seem to have looked at the entire concept of consuming information and quietly asked, “Why is any of this still manual?”
That is roughly the level of ambition we are dealing with here.
Yes, it can read books, PDFs, videos, comments, and whatever other unfortunate container humanity has decided to trap information inside. Yes, you can point at some absurdly specific part and ask what is happening there. Yes, it can turn chaos into explanations, notes, structured material, and things that look suspiciously more organized than anything I would ever make myself.
But describing Read OS by listing features feels like describing the iPhone as “a device with a touchscreen.”
Technically correct.
Spiritually insulting.
Using Read OS feels a little like watching the first iPhone keynote, except instead of Steev Jorbs saying “an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator,” someone walks on stage and says:
“A book. A video. A PDF. A webpage. A lecture. A comment section. Your entire information diet.”
And then pauses dramatically.
“These are not six things.”
At some point, the comparison stops being with other reading apps.
You start comparing it to Googel.
Then to Nocean.
Then to Chat GeePeeTea.
Then to having a very intelligent graduate student permanently stationed inside your device.
Then, for reasons that are increasingly difficult to defend, to the invention of the printing press.
Gootenburger gave humanity scalable text.
Read OS apparently looked at that achievement and said, “Nice first draft.”
I opened the app expecting software.
What I got felt more like someone had taken a small piece of the Library of Alexandria, given it a transformer model, hired Johnny Eyve to clean up the interface, asked Steev Jorbs to write the product philosophy, and then let Elong Muskrat set the ambition level after three consecutive nights without sleep.
The result is completely excessive.
Naturally, I love it.
There is something almost offensive about how confidently it treats every form of information as if it were merely waiting to be understood.
A 300-page PDF? Fine.
A two-hour video? Fine.
Some tiny detail buried somewhere in the middle? Fine.
Apparently nothing is allowed to remain mysterious anymore.
This app does not feel like it wants to help you read.
It feels like it wants to renegotiate humanity’s relationship with information.
Which is an absolutely ridiculous sentence to write about an app.
And yet here we are.
Five stars.
If Steev Jorbs were alive, he would either acquire this company immediately or spend six months pretending Apple had invented it first.
Show more
AI That Actually Fits Into My Workflow
One thing I really enjoy about ReadOS is that I don’t have to keep jumping between what I’m reading and a separate AI app.
When I have a question, I can ask it right where I am, and the AI already has enough context to understand what I’m referring to. No need to constantly copy text, take screenshots, or explain everything from scratch.
It’s a small difference on paper, but in actual use it makes learning and reading feel much more seamless.
When I have a question, I can ask it right where I am, and the AI already has enough context to understand what I’m referring to. No need to constantly copy text, take screenshots, or explain everything from scratch.
It’s a small difference on paper, but in actual use it makes learning and reading feel much more seamless.
Show more
ReadOS is an absolutely amazing piece of software.
I’ve never seen such an incredible piece of software on the iPad before. In this age of information overload, I need to learn about many different subjects, and ReadOS supports me throughout the entire learning journey—from study planning and information assistance to review. Its built-in file organization system also helps me quickly find the PDFs I need. And its visualization features are fantastic!! It’s simply the ultimate tool for becoming a super individual in this new era!!
Show more
Excellent app!
Really enjoying ReadOS so far. I like being able to read papers and webpages, ask questions directly, and quickly trace answers back to the original source. The connected context also makes longer research sessions much smoother. Promising app!
A Bridge Between Learning and AI
What I really like about ReadOS is how naturally it connects AI with whatever I'm learning.
Instead of constantly taking screenshots or explaining the context again, I can just call up the AI whenever I need it. It can pull in the relevant context from what I'm reading or watching and understand what I'm actually asking about.
It feels less like switching between “learning” and “using AI,” and more like there's finally a bridge between the two. Really convenient！
Instead of constantly taking screenshots or explaining the context again, I can just call up the AI whenever I need it. It can pull in the relevant context from what I'm reading or watching and understand what I'm actually asking about.
It feels less like switching between “learning” and “using AI,” and more like there's finally a bridge between the two. Really convenient！
Show more