6 ms·

Sounds good, I'd love to give it a try, but it appears to be tied to iOS. Confining what appears be minimalist text content to an app on a single platform seems

Sounds good, I'd love to give it a try, but it appears to be tied to iOS. Confining what appears be minimalist text content to an app on a single platform seems a bit silly.

rlt3 14y ago
From what I understand, it uses Newsstand. I don't use Android (so, please, correct me if I'm wrong), but I don't think Android has a single, unified Newsstand-like app to handle subscriptions and that kind of thing.
- Goronmon 14y ago
  Google Play Magazines https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.magazines https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
  - rlt3 14y ago
    Well, there you go. (I googled 'android newsstand alternative' to no avail). Yea, I guess it is weird that this doesn't exist on Android.
  - andybak 14y ago
    Unfortunately US only at the moment. Not sure what I find more irritating. US only or iOS only. Both really. It's all one big step backwards.
    - moheeb 14y ago
      I find the people that complain about 'US only' to be the most irritating. Either move to the US already or code up your own.
      - peto123 14y ago
        Cool idea. I will move to US so I can read The Magazine. ;-)
    - stephengillie 14y ago
      Lots of apps and services and programs are US only or iOS only. It's just that few of them are the talk of HN on a Thursday morning.
    - zmmmmm 14y ago
      It was released in Australia this week. I have to think other places are coming pretty soon.
  - andyjohnson0 14y ago
    Thanks for the link - just what I was looking for. Unfortunately it isn't available in the UK.
  - perishabledave 14y ago
    Isn't Google Play Magazines much different than Newstand? As I understand it Newstand is more of a folder and a framework for periodical applications, while Google Play Magazine is more akin to Google Books or Kindle in which you deliver content to them in a specific format and their application displays that content. If I'm not wrong, Newstand allows for much more control of the user experience since you build the application yourself.
runjake 14y ago
How is it silly? As he's stated numerous times before: 1. He is not an Android developer. He is an individual iOS developer. He doesn't have a fleet of freely-available Android developers at his command. 2. He doesn't have much free time, he spends a lot of time developing his iOS apps or doing his podcasts/website writing which provide him with substantial income. 3. He doesn't see an adequate business reason to support Android (profit vs skills or outsourcing vs annoyances). Within the context he's laid out, why should he support Android?
- jan_g 14y ago
  I also think along the same lines as grandparent, however I would not suggest Android (as you seem to think), but the most obvious platform for news/magazines (text and images): html5.
- smackfu 14y ago
  But: 1. He did pay to have an Instapaper Android app developed. 2. Being the editor for a magazine seems like it will take up a lot of time to me (even though he seems blase about it). Finding writers, chasing them down at deadline time, etc. 3. The parent didn't mention Android. I think a lot of people would be happy with a web option.
  - bjustin 14y ago
    He did not pay to have an Instapaper app developed for Android, the company that developed it did so on their own dime and he only gets a cut of the sale price. People keep mentioning a web option, but Marco just has to use Newsstand on iOS and not care about billing, logins or what have you. He does some of these things with Instapaper, so he would have a good idea of the time and hassle involved.
- gergles 14y ago
  You don't need to "support" any platform. It's a fucking blog that you have to pay for. HTTP Basic Auth and Recurly/Chargify/your favorite payment provider here and you "support" every platform in existence. A magazine is not an 'app' and does not need to be treated as such.
jbigelow76 14y ago
Take a page out of Marco's book then. He built Instapaper, an app for taking content out it's original repository and redisplaying it an alternate format. Somebody just needs to get a subscription to The Magazine and copy the content into an iOS5/Android/Web friendly app for republication, he should be cool with it. You could call the app InstaMarco :)
- DerekL 14y ago
  Instapaper is no different than web browsers that reformat pages according to the user's wishes by changing fonts and colors, hiding ads or saving to an archive. The Instapaper server only saves the URL, title and maybe some other metadata; it does not store the contents of pages.
  - ksherlock 14y ago
    It does store the web page content. Among other reasons, it gets around paywalls, logins, etc. by uploading the page when you click your bookmarklet.
    - DerekL 14y ago
      Okay, I didn't know that.
      - ralfd 14y ago
        I think ksherlock is wrong. Marco explained somewhere that he doesn't store for a url the content only once (like the url serves as a hash), but stores the content of a page for every account uniquely (his database is somewhat 200 GB). I also did find this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2336332 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2336332 > Instapaper honors access. If you have access to that Article it will save it, if not then you won't get it.
    - ralfd 14y ago
      But only when one has already access, doesn't it? When one hits a paywall without access and clicks the bookmarklet it would only show the login page in instapaper.
rsynnott 14y ago
In general, trying to sell content on the web is problematic. Lots of people who'll be willing to pay $1.99 a month for this by clicking a button, knowing that they can cancel the subscription trivially (and will be reminded by Apple that they have it every month), will not be so happy to pay $1.99 a month where they have to spend time filling in a credit card form, with considerable uncertainty about how they can cancel.

Sounds good, I'd love to give it a try, but it appears to be tied to iOS. Confining what appears be minimalist text content to an app on a single platform seems a bit silly.

rlt3 14y ago

From what I understand, it uses Newsstand. I don't use Android (so, please, correct me if I'm wrong), but I don't think Android has a single, unified Newsstand-like app to handle subscriptions and that kind of thing.

Goronmon 14y ago
Google Play Magazines https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.magazines https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
- rlt3 14y ago
  Well, there you go. (I googled 'android newsstand alternative' to no avail). Yea, I guess it is weird that this doesn't exist on Android.
- andybak 14y ago
  Unfortunately US only at the moment. Not sure what I find more irritating. US only or iOS only. Both really. It's all one big step backwards.
  - moheeb 14y ago
    I find the people that complain about 'US only' to be the most irritating. Either move to the US already or code up your own.
    - peto123 14y ago
      Cool idea. I will move to US so I can read The Magazine. ;-)
  - stephengillie 14y ago
    Lots of apps and services and programs are US only or iOS only. It's just that few of them are the talk of HN on a Thursday morning.
  - zmmmmm 14y ago
    It was released in Australia this week. I have to think other places are coming pretty soon.
- andyjohnson0 14y ago
  Thanks for the link - just what I was looking for. Unfortunately it isn't available in the UK.
- perishabledave 14y ago
  Isn't Google Play Magazines much different than Newstand? As I understand it Newstand is more of a folder and a framework for periodical applications, while Google Play Magazine is more akin to Google Books or Kindle in which you deliver content to them in a specific format and their application displays that content. If I'm not wrong, Newstand allows for much more control of the user experience since you build the application yourself.

runjake 14y ago

How is it silly? As he's stated numerous times before: 1. He is not an Android developer. He is an individual iOS developer. He doesn't have a fleet of freely-available Android developers at his command. 2. He doesn't have much free time, he spends a lot of time developing his iOS apps or doing his podcasts/website writing which provide him with substantial income. 3. He doesn't see an adequate business reason to support Android (profit vs skills or outsourcing vs annoyances). Within the context he's laid out, why should he support Android?

jan_g 14y ago
I also think along the same lines as grandparent, however I would not suggest Android (as you seem to think), but the most obvious platform for news/magazines (text and images): html5.
smackfu 14y ago
But: 1. He did pay to have an Instapaper Android app developed. 2. Being the editor for a magazine seems like it will take up a lot of time to me (even though he seems blase about it). Finding writers, chasing them down at deadline time, etc. 3. The parent didn't mention Android. I think a lot of people would be happy with a web option.
- bjustin 14y ago
  He did not pay to have an Instapaper app developed for Android, the company that developed it did so on their own dime and he only gets a cut of the sale price. People keep mentioning a web option, but Marco just has to use Newsstand on iOS and not care about billing, logins or what have you. He does some of these things with Instapaper, so he would have a good idea of the time and hassle involved.
gergles 14y ago
You don't need to "support" any platform. It's a fucking blog that you have to pay for. HTTP Basic Auth and Recurly/Chargify/your favorite payment provider here and you "support" every platform in existence. A magazine is not an 'app' and does not need to be treated as such.

jbigelow76 14y ago

Take a page out of Marco's book then. He built Instapaper, an app for taking content out it's original repository and redisplaying it an alternate format. Somebody just needs to get a subscription to The Magazine and copy the content into an iOS5/Android/Web friendly app for republication, he should be cool with it. You could call the app InstaMarco :)

DerekL 14y ago
Instapaper is no different than web browsers that reformat pages according to the user's wishes by changing fonts and colors, hiding ads or saving to an archive. The Instapaper server only saves the URL, title and maybe some other metadata; it does not store the contents of pages.
- ksherlock 14y ago
  It does store the web page content. Among other reasons, it gets around paywalls, logins, etc. by uploading the page when you click your bookmarklet.
  - DerekL 14y ago
    Okay, I didn't know that.
    - ralfd 14y ago
      I think ksherlock is wrong. Marco explained somewhere that he doesn't store for a url the content only once (like the url serves as a hash), but stores the content of a page for every account uniquely (his database is somewhat 200 GB). I also did find this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2336332 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2336332 > Instapaper honors access. If you have access to that Article it will save it, if not then you won't get it.
  - ralfd 14y ago
    But only when one has already access, doesn't it? When one hits a paywall without access and clicks the bookmarklet it would only show the login page in instapaper.

rsynnott 14y ago

In general, trying to sell content on the web is problematic. Lots of people who'll be willing to pay $1.99 a month for this by clicking a button, knowing that they can cancel the subscription trivially (and will be reminded by Apple that they have it every month), will not be so happy to pay $1.99 a month where they have to spend time filling in a credit card form, with considerable uncertainty about how they can cancel.