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I always thought that phones powerful enough to have apps are also powerful enough to have browsers. How is this app better than just using a browser?

by csense 14y ago

cowsaysoink 14y ago
The iphone doesn't zoom like the android browser and makes hacker news more difficult to use in portrait mode. (Tiny text and tiny buttons)
- k3n 14y ago
  Even with the default Android browser, or Chrome mobile, I have the same issues. I have to zoom 5x's just to click an up arrow (or many of the other links), and some of the text is just as bad.
- leephillips 14y ago
  The tiny text problem, at least, can be solved with a bookmarklet for increasing the font size. In fact, having such a thing around is almost essential when using mobile Safari, at least if you're over a certain age.
  - k3n 14y ago
    You don't find it a problem (read: annoying) that you need to run a bookmarklet on every single page load?
    - leephillips 14y ago
      Yes, yes I do. It would be far better if mobile Safari had a configuration for a minimum font size.
      - leephillips 14y ago
        And even better if people stopped writing stylesheets that created unreadable pages on small screens. It's not that hard to write CSS that makes your site readable on any size screen. A page with no CSS works fine. If your text gets too small on a phone, you've added CSS that breaks it.
lucaspiller 14y ago
I use http://cheeaun.github.com/hnmobile/landing/ http://cheeaun.github.com/hnmobile/landing/ which does the job for me.
- bas 14y ago
  Same here. It works perfectly.
clarky07 14y ago
See the comment I made above - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4815266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4815266 I don't even like HN on a computer browser. I use the Hacker News OnePage plugin on chrome.
k3n 14y ago
Practically any alternative interface is going to be better than the default site. Great site, but it adheres to minimalist principles to a fault. Browsing with a desktop browser is annoying, while browsing with a mobile browser is infuriating.

I always thought that phones powerful enough to have apps are also powerful enough to have browsers. How is this app better than just using a browser?

by csense 14y ago

I always thought that phones powerful enough to have apps are also powerful enough to have browsers. How is this app better than just using a browser?

cowsaysoink 14y ago

The iphone doesn't zoom like the android browser and makes hacker news more difficult to use in portrait mode. (Tiny text and tiny buttons)

k3n 14y ago
Even with the default Android browser, or Chrome mobile, I have the same issues. I have to zoom 5x's just to click an up arrow (or many of the other links), and some of the text is just as bad.
leephillips 14y ago
The tiny text problem, at least, can be solved with a bookmarklet for increasing the font size. In fact, having such a thing around is almost essential when using mobile Safari, at least if you're over a certain age.
- k3n 14y ago
  You don't find it a problem (read: annoying) that you need to run a bookmarklet on every single page load?
  - leephillips 14y ago
    Yes, yes I do. It would be far better if mobile Safari had a configuration for a minimum font size.
    - leephillips 14y ago
      And even better if people stopped writing stylesheets that created unreadable pages on small screens. It's not that hard to write CSS that makes your site readable on any size screen. A page with no CSS works fine. If your text gets too small on a phone, you've added CSS that breaks it.

lucaspiller 14y ago

I use http://cheeaun.github.com/hnmobile/landing/ http://cheeaun.github.com/hnmobile/landing/ which does the job for me.

bas 14y ago
Same here. It works perfectly.

clarky07 14y ago

See the comment I made above - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4815266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4815266 I don't even like HN on a computer browser. I use the Hacker News OnePage plugin on chrome.

k3n 14y ago

Practically any alternative interface is going to be better than the default site. Great site, but it adheres to minimalist principles to a fault. Browsing with a desktop browser is annoying, while browsing with a mobile browser is infuriating.