Nilai has quickly morphed from being a simple list of links to many lists of links each with their own purpose. Using Smart Labels, which are getting smarter with each release, members of Nilai can save links into these lists with a single click.

Sometimes the purpose of saving these links is to watch a video, listen to a bit of audio, or save a link to do something with at a later time. Starting today it is easier than ever to accomplish some of these tasks without ever having to leave Nilai. Previews make it simple to preview links to video, audio, photos, products, or even code. By simply saving a bookmark to the more than 12 supported services Nilai will automatically identify what the link is to and prepare a preview for you.

Let me give you some examples. The most obvious example is video. If you’re like me you don’t have time during your work day to watch YouTube videos that are being circulated throughout the web via Twitter or from my friends via instant messages. So I save these bookmarks to Nilai to watch later. Now, with Previews, Nilai will let me watch the video on my iPad, iPhone, or my Mac without needing to open the YouTube application or website. It looks like this.

For me audio works much the same way. Sometimes I have time to listen to a bit of audio – like on my 90-mile drive to work. For those occasions I prefer to subscribe to a podcast powered by Huffduffer. But, what if I want to listen to a bit of audio in a few hours on my computer or perhaps on my iPad at night in bed? Using Previews Nilai makes it possible to listen to audio from services like Huffduffer and others without needing to subscribe to a podcast or sync with iTunes. Quick, simple.

Video, audio, and photos is just the beginning. Here is a list of the services that Previews supports today: YouTube, Viddler, Flickr, Vimeo, Speaker Deck, Dribbble, Instagram, Twitpic, Skitch, Github’s Gists, Huffduffer. With many, many more on the way. In fact, I’ll tell you straight away that all of the popular recipe sites are next.

I hope you enjoy the new site and Previews.

The biggest two changes are the six awesome new reading fonts and the distraction-free, full-screen reading interface.

I just updated Instapaper for my iPad and iPhone. For free. Marco puts a lot of thought and care into this application and it only costs a few dollars. If you’d like to mark things to read later I suggest grabbing Instapaper.

Side note: I’m hoping to integrate the brand-new-not-even-finished-yet Nilai with Instapaper in a future update. I do not foresee Nilai supporting any other read later services.

Marco Arment has now confirmed and previewed Instapaper for the iPad. In the post he says “an iPad without native Instapaper Pro is not a device I want to own.” I agree. Instapaper on the iPad is like the drugs+.

However, having purchased a new Macbook Pro just a little over 8 months ago I will not be getting an iPad for some time. I see an iPad, as I’m sure many do, as a secondary device to a main desktop computer. Not as a secondary device to a laptop. It just doesn’t seem practical. Of course, I could buy an iPad for no other reason than because I want one but that’d be frivolous and I’m generally not a frivolous person. At least I try not to be. I presume that at some point in the future when I need to replace my Macbook Pro (my last Macbook lasted over 3 years) I will purchase both a new desktop computer (some flavor of iMac perhaps?) and an iPad. I’ll let you know in a few years.

After ditching it for a month or so, but leaving the bookmarklets, applications, etc. installed on my Macbook Pro I finally had an epiphany one morning over coffee; I had a problem. I was storing a “read later” list on my computer a few different ways and not even realizing it. On my desktop I had a “Shortcuts” directory full of .webloc files (for the unaware, these are files that if you click on them they open that location on the Web in your browser). In Google Reader I had a fairly extensive “starred” list of blog posts that I either wanted to read later, wanted to write about or link to, or wanted to “watch” later if they were video.

With Instapaper, I can combine all of these lists and have them accessible from any device.

So I had now found my problem and now I needed to make Instapaper my solution. It didn’t take long, maybe a day or two, and I had all of my .webloc files, all of my starred items, and a few other URLs stored in Instapaper. Then I changed my workflow a bit to fit my needs and poof; I’m an Instapaper addict.

I figure Instapaper is sort of like drugs. Your friend offers you some crack and immediately you turn it down thinking that you don’t need crack. He says he’ll just leave the crack right here, on the table, in case you want to give it a try. For weeks the crack sits on the table and every so often you look over at it wondering what it is like. Then, one day you get home from a long day and you feel like you just need to escape all of this mess… and there it is. The crack. Before you know it; addict.

So, new slogan for Instapaper; The drugs, no side-effects.

This morning I’ve installed the bookmarklet from the site, installed the free version of the iPhone application, created a Fluid SSB with this really nice Userstyle by Florian Holstein, and I think I’m all set up to begin using Instapaper.

Stay tuned for how it goes.