4 ms·

(deleted useful feedback but ultimately neggy comment -- sorry, these guys are launching an app, I don't want to shit on that in a top comment where it's the re

by _wmd 8y ago

(deleted useful feedback but ultimately neggy comment -- sorry, these guys are launching an app, I don't want to shit on that in a top comment where it's the reader's first experience).

jxcl 8y ago
> - Opens in App Store, which gets stuck (as always) asking me for billing info. > - Rustle around for PayPal password. Why not just provide a .dmg? > - +4 minutes, finally get App Store working. Download. This seems to be more a complaint about your operating system than the app.
- apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
  No, it's a complaint about the availability of the app itself. You're not forced to use the App Store and most freeware is offered both in and out of it. I gave Winds 2.0 a look last week and had the same experience. It took like 5 minutes just to get a download link and it takes me to the App Store where I have to sign-in (after signing in to LastPass and pulling out my phone for 2FA). Then I finally get it installed and immediately get asked to register for yet another account. It's a pretty app, but the install process was terrible and it's honestly not a great RSS reader. It's a worse version of Flipboard with somehow less control over the content you see.
  - jxcl 8y ago
    > You're not forced to use the App Store Is this true if you're a developer? I've stayed away from macs because you need xcode to get any sort of dev tools and xcode is only available on the App store (at least this was the case the last time I tried to develop on a mac).
    - apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
      I meant for providing your apps to users. Apple's software is only available via the App Store, but you can put your app up for download anywhere you want. As an example, Slack can be downloaded from both their site or via the App Store. [1] [1]: https://slack.com/downloads/osx https://slack.com/downloads/osx
    - Groxx 8y ago
      XCode is through the app store AFAIK, but CLI tools are available without it, and have been so for at least a couple years now. Also there are a few other IDEs that do their own thing, it's objective-c and that's a language with multiple implementations (though one overwhelmingly popular one, obv). E.g. AppCode has been around for a while: https://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ https://www.jetbrains.com/objc/
      - cerberusss 8y ago
        Xcode doesn't need to come from the App Store, it can also be downloaded from the Apple website: https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
wyclif 8y ago
I'd like to know why I should download and install this when I can use Feedly. Maybe it's uncool to like Feedly nowadays, but it does everything I want it to do. Before that I used Google Reader until it was retired.
- apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
  Both Feedly and Flipboard seemed far better in my brief usage of Winds last week.
- jordonwii 8y ago
  > Maybe it's uncool to like Feedly nowadays Argh, when did this happen? I've been a big Feedly fan since the death of G Reader.
  - roryisok 8y ago
    Who cares? I like feedly because it filled the hole left by Google reader and it does what I need. I've never been cool.
- _wmd 8y ago
  I hate Feedly's UI. Sorry
  - spacemonkey92 8y ago
    I had the same opinion. So few months back I made an iOS app to read all my favourite sites in one place https://7web.co https://7web.co
  - wyclif 8y ago
    What is it that you don't like about the UI?
tschellenbach 8y ago
The DMG is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/winds-2.0-releases/releases/Winds-2.0.211.dmg https://s3.amazonaws.com/winds-2.0-releases/releases/Winds-2... We'll start to link this on the download page. Other users had the same experience. I like the idea of auto updates on the app store. But yeah... Thanks for the feedback on the onboarding flow. We're changing that to make it optional. RSS parsing is done on the server to allow for future mobile releases. There is no monetization planned for Winds. It started out as an example app for getstream.io and gradually became more popular, which is kinda cool. Again, we don't intend to make money on Winds. As long as it doesn't get too crazy we'll even keep on allowing free new signups on the hosted version.
- Groxx 8y ago
  Yeah, I'd strongly recommend considering the app store as a high-complexity and high-cost alternate channel. Can be useful for exposure and trust, but the infinite company blog posts about the difficulties of dealing with it / the inflexibility on pricing structures / etc really haven't changed since it was introduced. And sandboxing / IPC limitations / etc get added with OS updates, and that causes a new round of breakages in any app doing anything even remotely non-standard (could be in a lib!). An important alternate, but probably not a good idea to make it the sole channel.
Groxx 8y ago
... to upvote for "thanks for thinking about this!" but that encourages it to stay at the top, or to ignore and hope it falls, or.... you're making life difficult. stop being reasonable.

by _wmd 8y ago

(deleted useful feedback but ultimately neggy comment -- sorry, these guys are launching an app, I don't want to shit on that in a top comment where it's the reader's first experience).

jxcl 8y ago

> - Opens in App Store, which gets stuck (as always) asking me for billing info. > - Rustle around for PayPal password. Why not just provide a .dmg? > - +4 minutes, finally get App Store working. Download. This seems to be more a complaint about your operating system than the app.

apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
No, it's a complaint about the availability of the app itself. You're not forced to use the App Store and most freeware is offered both in and out of it. I gave Winds 2.0 a look last week and had the same experience. It took like 5 minutes just to get a download link and it takes me to the App Store where I have to sign-in (after signing in to LastPass and pulling out my phone for 2FA). Then I finally get it installed and immediately get asked to register for yet another account. It's a pretty app, but the install process was terrible and it's honestly not a great RSS reader. It's a worse version of Flipboard with somehow less control over the content you see.
- jxcl 8y ago
  > You're not forced to use the App Store Is this true if you're a developer? I've stayed away from macs because you need xcode to get any sort of dev tools and xcode is only available on the App store (at least this was the case the last time I tried to develop on a mac).
  - apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
    I meant for providing your apps to users. Apple's software is only available via the App Store, but you can put your app up for download anywhere you want. As an example, Slack can be downloaded from both their site or via the App Store. [1] [1]: https://slack.com/downloads/osx https://slack.com/downloads/osx
  - Groxx 8y ago
    XCode is through the app store AFAIK, but CLI tools are available without it, and have been so for at least a couple years now. Also there are a few other IDEs that do their own thing, it's objective-c and that's a language with multiple implementations (though one overwhelmingly popular one, obv). E.g. AppCode has been around for a while: https://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ https://www.jetbrains.com/objc/
    - cerberusss 8y ago
      Xcode doesn't need to come from the App Store, it can also be downloaded from the Apple website: https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

wyclif 8y ago

I'd like to know why I should download and install this when I can use Feedly. Maybe it's uncool to like Feedly nowadays, but it does everything I want it to do. Before that I used Google Reader until it was retired.

apocalyptic0n3 8y ago
Both Feedly and Flipboard seemed far better in my brief usage of Winds last week.
jordonwii 8y ago
> Maybe it's uncool to like Feedly nowadays Argh, when did this happen? I've been a big Feedly fan since the death of G Reader.
- roryisok 8y ago
  Who cares? I like feedly because it filled the hole left by Google reader and it does what I need. I've never been cool.
_wmd 8y ago
I hate Feedly's UI. Sorry
- spacemonkey92 8y ago
  I had the same opinion. So few months back I made an iOS app to read all my favourite sites in one place https://7web.co https://7web.co
- wyclif 8y ago
  What is it that you don't like about the UI?

tschellenbach 8y ago

The DMG is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/winds-2.0-releases/releases/Winds-2.0.211.dmg https://s3.amazonaws.com/winds-2.0-releases/releases/Winds-2... We'll start to link this on the download page. Other users had the same experience. I like the idea of auto updates on the app store. But yeah... Thanks for the feedback on the onboarding flow. We're changing that to make it optional. RSS parsing is done on the server to allow for future mobile releases. There is no monetization planned for Winds. It started out as an example app for getstream.io and gradually became more popular, which is kinda cool. Again, we don't intend to make money on Winds. As long as it doesn't get too crazy we'll even keep on allowing free new signups on the hosted version.

Groxx 8y ago
Yeah, I'd strongly recommend considering the app store as a high-complexity and high-cost alternate channel. Can be useful for exposure and trust, but the infinite company blog posts about the difficulties of dealing with it / the inflexibility on pricing structures / etc really haven't changed since it was introduced. And sandboxing / IPC limitations / etc get added with OS updates, and that causes a new round of breakages in any app doing anything even remotely non-standard (could be in a lib!). An important alternate, but probably not a good idea to make it the sole channel.

Groxx 8y ago

... to upvote for "thanks for thinking about this!" but that encourages it to stay at the top, or to ignore and hope it falls, or.... you're making life difficult. stop being reasonable.