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Show HN: My first Android app - Hacker News reader
- eonwe 14y agoQuick impressions: Smoother scrolling of comments than in most of the Hacker News readers for Android that I've tried. I actually wonder why scrolling is so bad in most of the Android applications? Is it because of the misuse of the ListView or what? Could perhaps show some indication when changing between front page, ask, etc. Currently selecting another view does nothing until the results are loaded and then the page changes instantly underneath. Crashed after a few minutes of use when pressing the key for registration (I submitted the crash report). Seems like a good start, the ads are quite irritating though :).
- mikeevans 14y agoI'm not sure why scrolling tends to be bad in some applications. Perhaps they aren't recycling views properly or something. I'm working on adding that indicator, as well as logging in/replying. I wasn't sure if I should even use ads, but I could take them out. And thanks for the crash report!
- KJBweb 14y agoGreat app! Managed to make it crash though sent a report through to help you debug it. Good work though, well done :)
- miloco 14y agoAwesome, works really nicely on my Nexus 4. I'll definitely be using it from now on. The comment view looks a lot like my 'Reddit Now' app so that's probably why I like it so much! The transition between comments and the article is a nice touch too. 5* from me.
- agscala 14y agoThis looks awesome, but I'm sad that it requires android 4.x. I blame the phone manufacturer/carrier for never updating my phone (still stuck on 2.3)
- mikeevans 14y agoPart of the next release should be backporting it for 2.X, I just wanted to get something out and gather feedback. I didn't forget you!
- bjonathan 14y agoVery nice ! The app crash when i want to login or "remove the ads" (android 4.2.1 / Galaxy Nexus GSM) I am currently using this one : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glebpopov.hackernews https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glebpopov.... but yours is good enough to consider a switch :)
- jpgunter 14y agoI like the app, but shouldn't the default view of an article be the article, not the comments?
- so898 14y agoGreat App!! However, I still like my iOS application Hacker Pulse... BTW, this is really the best hacker news application I have ever used on my XT535.
- seanponeil 14y agoGreat app! An indicator when refreshing would be nice, but overall this is definitely the best HN reader out there.
- mikeevans 14y agoThanks! A loading indicator is definitely on my to-do list.
- benregn 14y agoNice app! If you are going to keep the ads (I'd rather pay something like $1), please show them on the frontpage compared to when I'm reading the article. Also it would be nice if it would not reload the frontpage every time I come back from reading an article.
- mikeevans 14y agoYou can remove the ads with an in-app purchase (although it looks like that part is crashing for some people) because I didn't want to have a Free/Pro app. Thanks for the feedback though!
- pjmlp 14y agoGreat work. Sadly I am still on 2.2 :(
- astoltzf 14y agoThe app looks excellent; the best design for an Android HN app I have seen to date. Unlike others, I haven't experienced any crashing issues. I only have one small piece of input: A night-mode (white on black) for the main menu and comments would be an excellent addition.
- vibragiel 14y ago+1 to the "night mode", which is very relevant to users with AMOLED screens.
- BrokenPipe 14y agoWhy does it need permission to read my identify? Sorry, uninstalled.
- mikeevans 14y agoDo you mean Read phone state or Access network state? Those are for the Ads and Analytics.
- BrokenPipe 14y agoIt requires two permissions: -Phone calls Read phone status and identity -Network communication Full network access I can understand the latter, in particular if in android you can't specify exactly what hosts you need to access but the former I can't understand, or better, I can't stand. I do not want to give every app my identity, not for ads, not for money.
- richardwhiuk 14y agoYou shouldn't need phone state to identify a device - see http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/identifying-app-installations.html http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/identifying...
- StavrosK 14y agoI've been wondering about this. What exactly does the "READ PHONE STATUS AND IDENTITY" permission entail, and why do developers need it? What exactly am I giving them access to when I allow it?
- BrokenPipe 14y agoApparently read your IMEI and other identifying information, which then can be sent anywhere without further permission (assuming it has network access as this app has)
- tubbzor 14y agoIs the source code available on github by chance? I've recently started delving into android and would love to study/contribute to this app if possible. Regardless, really an excellent job overall with it.
- mikeevans 14y agoNo, at least not yet. Thanks though, it's good to finally get something out there!
- jvandyke 14y agoThat's awesome, Mike. Well done!
- LVB 14y agoGood start, though the feature I've found essential in this type of application is being able to share an article via a long press on the main page. I send dozens of articles to Pocket every day that way.
- mikeevans 14y agoGood suggestion. Right now you have to go to the comment/article and there will be a share button. I can add something like that to the main page though.
- incision 14y ago>I send dozens of articles to Pocket every day that way. Exactly. A HN app with a "share to pocket" (configurable for other share targets of course) one-tap link on articles would be my new main app over night.
- veeti 14y agoTwo problems with rotation: 1) The article list scrolling position is reset. 2) On my Nexus 7, going from landscape to portrait while viewing comments closes the comments.
- RossM 14y agoRotation issues are usually to do with the activity being recreated (i.e. onCreate is called again) as the screen size has changed. There is a config to disable this however: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/runtime-changes.html http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/runtime-...
- veeti 14y agoIf you mean configChanges, I would strongly recommend against it because it is a bad practice and it probably wouldn't work in this case anyway (no activity recreation = no multi-panel layout on a 7-inch landscape screen).
- yock 14y agoIt's usually better to implement onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3542333/how-to-prevent-custom-views-from-losing-state-across-screen-orientation-changes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3542333/how-to-prevent-cu...
- veeti 14y ago
- thiderman 14y agoLooks very nice; way better than most of the other HN apps I've tried (and I've probably tried all of them by now). Unless something stops working, you'll have a purchase from me pretty soon! Good job!
- pspeter3 14y agoIf I pay to remove adds from my phone, will they be removed from my tablet and all future installs?
- rodolphoarruda 14y agoThere is a box in the page which says: "This app is not compatible with your Samsung GT-S5830C." I wonder why it isn't. I didn't know there were version specific Android apps.
- mikeevans 14y agoIt's not specifically targeting your device, it's Android 4.0+ only right now. Android 2.X support is coming soon.
- dikanggu 14y agoGreat App! How much time did you spend on writing the app?
- mikeevans 14y agoThanks! I spent a few weeks on it. It's my goal in 2013 to actually finish projects that I start :)
- gkumartvm 14y agoGood App. Are you planning to make the app open source ?
- ancanta 14y agoseems nice, too bad I don't have 4.0+ to check it. One question : How web scraping is done ?