Poki for Pocket is now available on Windows 8.1

After several announcements (and a delay of a couple of months) the creator of Poki has finally released a version of this application for tablets and PCs with Windows 8.1 For those who don't know it, it is an excellent unofficial client for the Pocket service, which allows us to save articles that we find on the web, and leave them in a list to _read later_ which we can consult from the web, or from applications on various platforms.

In Windows 8.1 there were already several unofficial clients for Pocket, such as Latermark or Pouch, but the truth is that Poki surpasses all of themin terms of design, functions and overall user experience.The best part is that it is free to use, although there is the option to pay for Poki Premium to obtain additional functions."

The same mobile interface, but adapted to larger screens

Those who have already used Poki on mobile will find the interface of its PC version very familiar. The visual theme is the same, except that it is scaled to make better use of space on larger screens by displaying a 3-way interface panels

One of them has shortcuts to sections such as item lists, tags, settings, etc. The second panel shows the lists of articles themselves, also providing search, filtering and ordering options for them. And finally, we have a panel on the right that shows our favorite articles in a more _visual_ or striking way.

Full integration with Windows 8.1

Adding an item to Poki from Internet Explorer

Adding items to Poki for Windows 8.1 is also a breeze, in part because the app integrates with the Share _charm_. This allows us to easily add articles from other modern applications, such as Internet Explorer, Mail, Flipboard, News, etc. Just open the charms while the item is unfolding, select Share, and then select Poki for Pocket."

"But in case we want to add a link from the desktop (where there is no such integration with charms) we can also copy the URL, go to the application, and use the add article box on the bottom-left corner."

A reading view without frills

The reading view is more minimalist Here instead of panels, the only thing that is displayed on the screen is the selected article (together to buttons for basic functions, such as sharing, or deleting), making it easier to concentrate on reading Unfortunately, the width of the reading view is not adjustable, although it is allowed to choose the font size, and switch between serif and sans serif fonts. The _premium_ version also offers 5 visual styles for reading mode.

Other features that are reserved for the premium version are background synchronization (meaning that new articles are downloaded even when the application is not open), the ability to edit multiple articles at the same time (for example, adding tags or marking them as favorites), and the ability to manage articles even when we are offline, leaving the changes in the queue to be synchronized later ."

While Poki is a universal app, the premium versions for Windows and Windows Phone can be purchased separately. Each one costs $2.99 on its own, although if we buy both at the same time we get a discount, leaving the final price at $4.99.

Conclusions

As we said at the beginning, Poki for Windows turns out to be an excellent application, but even so it has a couple of shortcomings that we hope will be corrected in future updates. One of them is the lack of a better _live tile_, which displays relevant information, such as unread article titles, and another is offering more customization options for reading view, such as being able to adjust the width, or display the text in multiple columns (like Word's reading mode).Lastly, the _text-to-speech_ function is missing (or at least it's so hidden that I couldn't find it).

We'll keep an eye out for any update that incorporates these functions, but for now Poki continues to be one of the best options out there in Windows to manage lists of articles to read. It's also free (and none of the premium features are essential), so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.