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Hacker News app for Android (with login, voting, and commenting)

140 points by jazzychad 16y ago

unicornporn 16y ago
i'm in sweden, i can not access it via the market.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  send me an email, i'll send you a direct link.
PStamatiou 16y ago
Haha I love how my cofounder and I have different side projects on HN at the same time: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2139690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2139690
yatsyk 16y ago
FYI, there are three other android clients: http://hnresources.com/apps/ http://hnresources.com/apps/ and your already added to the list
- ldayley 16y ago
  I haven't used any from the HN resources page, but this one is pretty good so far. Thanks!
- jazzychad 16y ago
  Cool, thanks. Yes I know there are other android clients, but the ones I found on the Market had lots of reviews saying that login, voting, and commenting were missing (and I wanted a layout more similar to the website). So I wrote my own client as an exercise and decided to publish it.
rudd 16y ago
Cool, I'm using it to write this. Seems to work well enough. I wish there was a light theme, as I'm not really a fan of the light grey on black. Also,the voting doesn't seem to work correctly. I voted up this story, then quit the app and re-launched it, and it said I hadn't voted. Trying to vote it up again though failed, as the vote had indeed gone through.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  That's correct... I'm using the ihackernews.com API at the moment, so your votes aren't reflected in the data I get from there if you reload the app/page. If/when I use an html parser to fetch all the data directly from new.ycombinator this bug will be fixed. For now, if the number of points changes after you vote, it means the vote went through successfully.
  - rudd 16y ago
    Maybe keep a list of my votes in the application cache and check against that as well as the ihackernews API? Same with my comments, too. I would really enjoy if it appeared to have read-your-writes consistency.
    - jazzychad 16y ago
      Yes, that's probably what I'll do in the interim. I'll have to figure out how to do these checks efficiently. Scrolling lists in Android is already clunky due to the way rows are rendered, so I'll need to make sure to not make it worse by checking the entire 'already-voted-list' for each row.
      - kefs 16y ago
        Check out the following video from io2010 regarding optimizing your listviews.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBM6wVEO70 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBM6wVEO70
- guelo 16y ago
  It obviously needs a HN colored theme including respecting your topcolor choice.
Onyma 16y ago
Liking the UI updates from the previous version. Would be nice to be able to change the default tap action.
- gavinbaker 16y ago
  I'd prefer it lighter as well
rmc 16y ago
The download on Android devices is 404ing for me.
- herdrick 16y ago
  Same for me.
danshapiro 16y ago
Feature request: offline operation and background sync, so I can read HN offline. Presumably voting/commenting wouldn't work while offline. Of course, if you're going down that rabbit hole, you also want to prefetch and cache the content of the links.
- Reclix 16y ago
  This was going to be my comment - I often do my on-phone reading on the subway/elevator - would be great to have an app that worked when I don't have cell phone service.
chopsueyar 16y ago
Good work. I like the spartan utilitarianism.
quattrofan 16y ago
Nice, but it needs the option to move to SD card.
- zmmmmm 16y ago
  At least it is small. Reddit is Fun is ~2MB with no Move to SD support (not to mention broken in many various ways).
grannyg00se 16y ago
Fun project. But what's the advantage over a browser bookmark that links to news.ycombinator.com ? One of the great things about Hacker News is the simple web interface that is easy for most handheld browsers to deal with.
kroc 16y ago
Why. Why are we doing this? Why do people go and write this stuff when there is already the web. That doesn’t require an app store. It can use the same code as the actual website (imagine that). Why are we running so fast in the wrong direction?
- pshapiro 16y ago
  One reason is that if you load the web page, you have to download the UI every single page load. With an app, the downloaded data should be quite a bit more stripped down... but to be honest I couldn't say how the app gets its data. It might be scraping downloaded pages. In that case, I'd tend to agree with you about an HN app as it doesn't contain anything that requires a fluid interface.
  - kroc 16y ago
    No. Any well written web page can cache itself for offline use, and use AJAX to load all data after the first page. This is how iUI works, and therefore most iPhone-specific web apps.
    - pshapiro 16y ago
      You're basically right except I don't think HN does this at present. Good luck convincing PG within the next year... :)
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    "download the UI every single page load" - Client side XSLT resolves this. I'll admit that client side XSLT has other problems though. Compare these two urls: https://grepular.com/ https://grepular.com/ https://grepular.com/?response_type=xml https://grepular.com/?response_type=xml Then look at the source code of each
    - pshapiro 16y ago
      Cool, thanks.
fakelvis 16y ago
Very nice. My favourite of the apps so far and a first use makes me think I'll keep this for more than a day (unlike many of the others). Particularly: the positioning of the voting buttons and the simple main screen that is easy to intuit. I was actually unlikely to grab my phone and try this but the huge QR code at the top of your page made it too easy to miss. A nice little touch that I wish every app maker would use.
mshafrir 16y ago
Can you add an option to autoload via viewtext.org when a post is clicked?
auxbuss 16y ago
QR code fails here in UK: "Not Found: The requested item could not be found." Downloaded from the Market but I can't find the login! The new menu gives me Post x2, Comments x2, Refresh, and About. There's no version number in About, so can't provide any info.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  ah, that is a different app by the same name... try searching the market for "com.jazzychad.hn"
  - auxbuss 16y ago
    No matches :( QRs have always worked for me. Any idea why yours isn't? I tried the links on your page on the phone too, same result 404 and a Not Found.
oldstrangers 16y ago
I've been using HNDroid for months with no complaints. Checking this one out now.
mickael1 16y ago
Very clean interface. Are there any plans to have an ajustable font size in a future release?
btipling 16y ago
Doesn't fit the Galaxy Tab Dimensions. Did you hardcode the max height and width values?
quinndupont 16y ago
Any know about an iOS Hacker News app? That would be swell.
Osiris 16y ago
Unfortunately, my HN account uses OpenID to login, so I can't login with this app as it only allows for standard username/password accounts. Is there any way to assign a regular password to my account?

140 points by jazzychad 16y ago

unicornporn 16y ago

i'm in sweden, i can not access it via the market.

jazzychad 16y ago
send me an email, i'll send you a direct link.

PStamatiou 16y ago

Haha I love how my cofounder and I have different side projects on HN at the same time: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2139690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2139690

yatsyk 16y ago

FYI, there are three other android clients: http://hnresources.com/apps/ http://hnresources.com/apps/ and your already added to the list

ldayley 16y ago
I haven't used any from the HN resources page, but this one is pretty good so far. Thanks!
jazzychad 16y ago
Cool, thanks. Yes I know there are other android clients, but the ones I found on the Market had lots of reviews saying that login, voting, and commenting were missing (and I wanted a layout more similar to the website). So I wrote my own client as an exercise and decided to publish it.

rudd 16y ago

Cool, I'm using it to write this. Seems to work well enough. I wish there was a light theme, as I'm not really a fan of the light grey on black. Also,the voting doesn't seem to work correctly. I voted up this story, then quit the app and re-launched it, and it said I hadn't voted. Trying to vote it up again though failed, as the vote had indeed gone through.

jazzychad 16y ago
That's correct... I'm using the ihackernews.com API at the moment, so your votes aren't reflected in the data I get from there if you reload the app/page. If/when I use an html parser to fetch all the data directly from new.ycombinator this bug will be fixed. For now, if the number of points changes after you vote, it means the vote went through successfully.
- rudd 16y ago
  Maybe keep a list of my votes in the application cache and check against that as well as the ihackernews API? Same with my comments, too. I would really enjoy if it appeared to have read-your-writes consistency.
  - jazzychad 16y ago
    Yes, that's probably what I'll do in the interim. I'll have to figure out how to do these checks efficiently. Scrolling lists in Android is already clunky due to the way rows are rendered, so I'll need to make sure to not make it worse by checking the entire 'already-voted-list' for each row.
    - kefs 16y ago
      Check out the following video from io2010 regarding optimizing your listviews.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBM6wVEO70 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBM6wVEO70
guelo 16y ago
It obviously needs a HN colored theme including respecting your topcolor choice.

Onyma 16y ago

Liking the UI updates from the previous version. Would be nice to be able to change the default tap action.

gavinbaker 16y ago
I'd prefer it lighter as well

rmc 16y ago

The download on Android devices is 404ing for me.

herdrick 16y ago
Same for me.

danshapiro 16y ago

Feature request: offline operation and background sync, so I can read HN offline. Presumably voting/commenting wouldn't work while offline. Of course, if you're going down that rabbit hole, you also want to prefetch and cache the content of the links.

Reclix 16y ago
This was going to be my comment - I often do my on-phone reading on the subway/elevator - would be great to have an app that worked when I don't have cell phone service.

chopsueyar 16y ago

Good work. I like the spartan utilitarianism.

quattrofan 16y ago

Nice, but it needs the option to move to SD card.

zmmmmm 16y ago
At least it is small. Reddit is Fun is ~2MB with no Move to SD support (not to mention broken in many various ways).

grannyg00se 16y ago

Fun project. But what's the advantage over a browser bookmark that links to news.ycombinator.com ? One of the great things about Hacker News is the simple web interface that is easy for most handheld browsers to deal with.

kroc 16y ago

Why. Why are we doing this? Why do people go and write this stuff when there is already the web. That doesn’t require an app store. It can use the same code as the actual website (imagine that). Why are we running so fast in the wrong direction?

pshapiro 16y ago
One reason is that if you load the web page, you have to download the UI every single page load. With an app, the downloaded data should be quite a bit more stripped down... but to be honest I couldn't say how the app gets its data. It might be scraping downloaded pages. In that case, I'd tend to agree with you about an HN app as it doesn't contain anything that requires a fluid interface.
- kroc 16y ago
  No. Any well written web page can cache itself for offline use, and use AJAX to load all data after the first page. This is how iUI works, and therefore most iPhone-specific web apps.
  - pshapiro 16y ago
    You're basically right except I don't think HN does this at present. Good luck convincing PG within the next year... :)
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  "download the UI every single page load" - Client side XSLT resolves this. I'll admit that client side XSLT has other problems though. Compare these two urls: https://grepular.com/ https://grepular.com/ https://grepular.com/?response_type=xml https://grepular.com/?response_type=xml Then look at the source code of each
  - pshapiro 16y ago
    Cool, thanks.

fakelvis 16y ago

Very nice. My favourite of the apps so far and a first use makes me think I'll keep this for more than a day (unlike many of the others). Particularly: the positioning of the voting buttons and the simple main screen that is easy to intuit. I was actually unlikely to grab my phone and try this but the huge QR code at the top of your page made it too easy to miss. A nice little touch that I wish every app maker would use.

mshafrir 16y ago

Can you add an option to autoload via viewtext.org when a post is clicked?

auxbuss 16y ago

QR code fails here in UK: "Not Found: The requested item could not be found." Downloaded from the Market but I can't find the login! The new menu gives me Post x2, Comments x2, Refresh, and About. There's no version number in About, so can't provide any info.

jazzychad 16y ago
ah, that is a different app by the same name... try searching the market for "com.jazzychad.hn"
- auxbuss 16y ago
  No matches :( QRs have always worked for me. Any idea why yours isn't? I tried the links on your page on the phone too, same result 404 and a Not Found.

oldstrangers 16y ago

I've been using HNDroid for months with no complaints. Checking this one out now.

mickael1 16y ago

Very clean interface. Are there any plans to have an ajustable font size in a future release?

btipling 16y ago

Doesn't fit the Galaxy Tab Dimensions. Did you hardcode the max height and width values?

quinndupont 16y ago

Any know about an iOS Hacker News app? That would be swell.

Osiris 16y ago

Unfortunately, my HN account uses OpenID to login, so I can't login with this app as it only allows for standard username/password accounts. Is there any way to assign a regular password to my account?