5 ms·

A free Hacker News app for Android

33 points by ctrager 17y ago

It's in the Market. It's my first Android app, so I'd be grateful for feedback.

dejb 17y ago
Where is the App? How do I get it? One of those barcode things would be nice.
- georgecmu 17y ago
  as the article says, "Just search for Hacker News". There's a search bar in the Android Market app -- type it in there and press enter. edit: I think it may only be available for Android 2.x systems, so if you have a G1 like me, you're out of luck
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
  - dmix 17y ago
    I tried clicking that with my G1 and it doesn't download anything.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - ctrager 17y ago
      Try again for G1. I just republished.
  - ctrager 17y ago
    Try this link instead. Don't ask me to explain, but I had to rename the file here .zip instead of .apk, so rename it after you download it: http://ifdefined.com/HackerNewsReader.zip http://ifdefined.com/HackerNewsReader.zip
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - vetinari 17y ago
    When building the binary, set target/use SDK for Android 1.5 (or even 1.1, if you can). The older handsets will be able to run it too. Android 2.1 is currently running only on Nexus One, 2.0 is Motorola Milestone/Droid, HTC G1 and HTC Magic are 1.6, HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy are 1.5.
spuz 17y ago
Looks very nice, but where are the vote counts / buttons?
- ctrager 17y ago
  Voting would require allowing you to login, a whole 'nother degree of difficulty, especially given the architecture of going thru the proxy at heroku. If enough people seem to care, I might attempt supporting logging in. And charge 99 cents for it....
  - grinich 17y ago
    This should be in the iPhone app soon.
    - ctrager 17y ago
      I saw your app before I started working on mine. You did a nice job. You set the bar pretty high!
johnwatson11218 17y ago
Hacker News is one of the best looking sites on my G1. For some reason I have never been able to post comments from the phone. I have to go pull up a full browser to post. Any ideas why? Is it just me?
- joezydeco 17y ago
  Logging in from a G1 is broken, I've seen the same thing.
  - nuclear_eclipse 17y ago
    I can log in and post from both my G1 and my Nexus, but I run Cyanogen on my G1, if that makes any difference.
archon810 17y ago
An offtopic here, but I just wanted to say I was pleasantly surprised with how blazing fast your blog is (including leaving comments). I was even more surprised when I saw what it was running on: http://www.dotnetblogengine.net http://www.dotnetblogengine.net (because I'd never heard of it and not because it's .NET - the speed actually makes sense now).
gcb 17y ago
Why? my not-as-smart nokia running opera mobile reads hacker news and I can even vote via ajax (sans page reload). That said. Your app looks good.
- notauser 17y ago
  The real question is not why, but why not? (I've been meaning to do this for a while but I'm still awaiting delivery of my round tuit, so thank you to the submitter.)
- ctrager 17y ago
  On Android too, if you use the browser on Android, you can interact with Hacker News same as usual, login, vote, etc. But you'll find yourself zooming and panning a lot. The rest of this comment is off topic: Speaking of voting, here are two people asking about voting at Hacker News, but yesterday was an election in Illinois with Obama's old senate seat at stake, and not one of about two dozen co-workers I talked to bothered to vote. There's more interest in voting for a Hacker News article than for a US Senator?
portman 17y ago
Fantastic! HN does not scale well at all to the Droid/Nexus resolutions. Thanks for doing this. Maybe I'm the only one, but I much prefer reading black text on a white background. The inverted color scheme is hard on my eyes.
- ctrager 17y ago
  According to the following the white-on-black display uses less power. Also, I found that once I altered a little bit of the default color scheme I had to alter ALL of it somehow, like changing the background and text color would mess up the border and highlighting color. It's an area where I need to do some more learning. http://blog.javia.org/nexus-one-display-and-subpixel-pattern/ http://blog.javia.org/nexus-one-display-and-subpixel-pattern...
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
TobiasCassell 17y ago
A misleading title, a shameful tease. Not available for HTC G1. I believe most Android phones out there in the wild are 1st generation, be sure to let us know when you release a version for us early adopter-types.. (Edit) I didn't intend to sound so snarky here, I just really wanted your app, its very beautiful.. Thank you for building it.
- ctrager 17y ago
  Ok. Maybe even tonight.
  - TobiasCassell 17y ago
    Thank you, you are speedy.. I bookmarked your homepage and I'll keep checking.
    - ctrager 17y ago
      I just republished, for Android 1.6 (G1)
      - TobiasCassell 17y ago
        Wow! This is great, in the time it took me to go see 'Avatar' in Imax3D you iterated your way right into taking up permanent real estate on my G1's homescreen! Thank you very much Mr Trager, I like what you did. I have been using another Icombinator IPhone/Android App but yours is more pleasing to the eye. One concern, it seems I have a choice of running the Op's links or the comments? But not both at the same time? In this respect the other Fella's mobile App seems like a better UI.. Thanks again..
        ctrager 17y ago
        Is there a way you could send me a screenshot that illustrated what you mean?
Calamitous 17y ago
Oh good. There was still a little time left in my day that wasn't being sucked away by Hacker News. That takes care of that!
ctrager 17y ago
I just uploaded a newer version to the market that should work with Android 1.6 (G1). However, I couldn't compile for 1.1 and 1.5. The compiler complained about my "res" folder. If folks want to point me in the right direction, how to learn more about this stuff, how to handle versioning with Android and the Market, I'm open.
ecaron 17y ago
Note to all Android app makers: Please include a QR code. If the Weather Channel is hip enough to show their QR code on-air (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/weather-channel-distributes-android-app-via-on-screen-qr-code/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/weather-channel-distribut...), you can put your own on your website.

33 points by ctrager 17y ago

It's in the Market. It's my first Android app, so I'd be grateful for feedback.

dejb 17y ago

Where is the App? How do I get it? One of those barcode things would be nice.

georgecmu 17y ago
as the article says, "Just search for Hacker News". There's a search bar in the Android Market app -- type it in there and press enter. edit: I think it may only be available for Android 2.x systems, so if you have a G1 like me, you're out of luck
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- dmix 17y ago
  I tried clicking that with my G1 and it doesn't download anything.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - ctrager 17y ago
    Try again for G1. I just republished.
- ctrager 17y ago
  Try this link instead. Don't ask me to explain, but I had to rename the file here .zip instead of .apk, so rename it after you download it: http://ifdefined.com/HackerNewsReader.zip http://ifdefined.com/HackerNewsReader.zip
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- vetinari 17y ago
  When building the binary, set target/use SDK for Android 1.5 (or even 1.1, if you can). The older handsets will be able to run it too. Android 2.1 is currently running only on Nexus One, 2.0 is Motorola Milestone/Droid, HTC G1 and HTC Magic are 1.6, HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy are 1.5.

spuz 17y ago

Looks very nice, but where are the vote counts / buttons?

ctrager 17y ago
Voting would require allowing you to login, a whole 'nother degree of difficulty, especially given the architecture of going thru the proxy at heroku. If enough people seem to care, I might attempt supporting logging in. And charge 99 cents for it....
- grinich 17y ago
  This should be in the iPhone app soon.
  - ctrager 17y ago
    I saw your app before I started working on mine. You did a nice job. You set the bar pretty high!

johnwatson11218 17y ago

Hacker News is one of the best looking sites on my G1. For some reason I have never been able to post comments from the phone. I have to go pull up a full browser to post. Any ideas why? Is it just me?

joezydeco 17y ago
Logging in from a G1 is broken, I've seen the same thing.
- nuclear_eclipse 17y ago
  I can log in and post from both my G1 and my Nexus, but I run Cyanogen on my G1, if that makes any difference.

archon810 17y ago

An offtopic here, but I just wanted to say I was pleasantly surprised with how blazing fast your blog is (including leaving comments). I was even more surprised when I saw what it was running on: http://www.dotnetblogengine.net http://www.dotnetblogengine.net (because I'd never heard of it and not because it's .NET - the speed actually makes sense now).

gcb 17y ago

Why? my not-as-smart nokia running opera mobile reads hacker news and I can even vote via ajax (sans page reload). That said. Your app looks good.

notauser 17y ago
The real question is not why, but why not? (I've been meaning to do this for a while but I'm still awaiting delivery of my round tuit, so thank you to the submitter.)
ctrager 17y ago
On Android too, if you use the browser on Android, you can interact with Hacker News same as usual, login, vote, etc. But you'll find yourself zooming and panning a lot. The rest of this comment is off topic: Speaking of voting, here are two people asking about voting at Hacker News, but yesterday was an election in Illinois with Obama's old senate seat at stake, and not one of about two dozen co-workers I talked to bothered to vote. There's more interest in voting for a Hacker News article than for a US Senator?

portman 17y ago

Fantastic! HN does not scale well at all to the Droid/Nexus resolutions. Thanks for doing this. Maybe I'm the only one, but I much prefer reading black text on a white background. The inverted color scheme is hard on my eyes.

ctrager 17y ago
According to the following the white-on-black display uses less power. Also, I found that once I altered a little bit of the default color scheme I had to alter ALL of it somehow, like changing the background and text color would mess up the border and highlighting color. It's an area where I need to do some more learning. http://blog.javia.org/nexus-one-display-and-subpixel-pattern/ http://blog.javia.org/nexus-one-display-and-subpixel-pattern...

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

TobiasCassell 17y ago

A misleading title, a shameful tease. Not available for HTC G1. I believe most Android phones out there in the wild are 1st generation, be sure to let us know when you release a version for us early adopter-types.. (Edit) I didn't intend to sound so snarky here, I just really wanted your app, its very beautiful.. Thank you for building it.

ctrager 17y ago
Ok. Maybe even tonight.
- TobiasCassell 17y ago
  Thank you, you are speedy.. I bookmarked your homepage and I'll keep checking.
  - ctrager 17y ago
    I just republished, for Android 1.6 (G1)
    - TobiasCassell 17y ago
      Wow! This is great, in the time it took me to go see 'Avatar' in Imax3D you iterated your way right into taking up permanent real estate on my G1's homescreen! Thank you very much Mr Trager, I like what you did. I have been using another Icombinator IPhone/Android App but yours is more pleasing to the eye. One concern, it seems I have a choice of running the Op's links or the comments? But not both at the same time? In this respect the other Fella's mobile App seems like a better UI.. Thanks again..
      - ctrager 17y ago
        Is there a way you could send me a screenshot that illustrated what you mean?

Calamitous 17y ago

Oh good. There was still a little time left in my day that wasn't being sucked away by Hacker News. That takes care of that!

ctrager 17y ago

I just uploaded a newer version to the market that should work with Android 1.6 (G1). However, I couldn't compile for 1.1 and 1.5. The compiler complained about my "res" folder. If folks want to point me in the right direction, how to learn more about this stuff, how to handle versioning with Android and the Market, I'm open.

ecaron 17y ago

Note to all Android app makers: Please include a QR code. If the Weather Channel is hip enough to show their QR code on-air (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/weather-channel-distributes-android-app-via-on-screen-qr-code/ http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/weather-channel-distribut...), you can put your own on your website.