I still use links pretty regularly. Not to the exclusion of modern browsers of course, but sometimes it's nice to read longer articles as actual text without all the fluff, and to be able to stop reading and then continue a session on another computer (w/ tmux). The only thing I find mildly annoying is that HN comment threads get flattened.
1] strips out all the extraneous cruft from an article, keeping only the text (in a typeface and font size of your choosing) and any included photos/videos;
2] acts as a centralized archive of articles, which can be tagged and favourited at will (so you don't need to bookmark articles in the browser for later reading); and
3] is available across multiple devices (phones, tablets, PCs) for a single account, including offline access.
It's an awesome experience to simply right-click-save interesting articles in your desktop browser during a work break, knowing that you'll be able to read them whenever and however you like, for example on your tablet in bed in the evening.
