5 ms·

Hacker news reader for iPhone

27 points by arh 17y ago

nikohl 17y ago
I highly doubt the developer did this for money. At best he'll make $1000. I'm guessing he developed the app for himself and just decided to release it. Why not comment about how it could be better? My suggestion has already been voiced: Need upvote capability.
nirmal 17y ago
See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=809181 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=809181 for a discussion about other HN on the iPhone solutions. My version is at http://mobilehackernews.appspot.com/ http://mobilehackernews.appspot.com/ It uses iUI for the list and if you click on a story link it uses arc90's Readability to make the site you visit easier to read. The Readability script also puts a button in the top left corner of the page to revert to the original version. http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
- ique 17y ago
  That actually seemed awesome until i started getting this on pretty much every page: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 507, in __call__ handler.get(*groups) File "/base/data/home/apps/mobilehackernews /1.336829969607358575/main.py", line 137, in get html.head.append(cssCode) AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'append'
  - nirmal 17y ago
    Odd, I saw that few times just now. But I can't reproduce it. The error suggests that when BeautifulSoup parsed to the contents of the posted article, it found a page with no head node in the HTML.
mildweed 17y ago
If I were to pay money for my HN, I'd want at least some of it to go to the actual HN team.
- Torn 17y ago
  Yeah, £1.19 seems a bit too steep when I can instantly fire up Safari on my iPhone and view the full hn for free.
  - peterbe 17y ago
    How many sips of beer is that? 1.5?
- shabda 17y ago
  I find it funny that a community of people who make their living off selling software are so averse to paying for it. How much of your hourly rate is the cost of buying this? How much time do you spend on HN daily? How much percent better does reading HN does this app need to make, for you to be ROI positive in a week?
  - javery 17y ago
    It's not the problem of spending $2, it's the question of if that $2 is going to the right people.
    - mildweed 17y ago
      Indeed. This is the crux of our news organizations' current crisis. They create and organize the content, yet everybody else is using the content for profit. I choose to reward those who create and organize the content. The delivery of content is extremely easy, especially for me since I'm a developer myself.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
      - 17y ago
jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
I think it's a bit high, but I bought it to give it a run. From the screenshots, it seemed decently full featured. The only thing I wish it had was AT least the upvote capabilities. I never really comment from the iphone, since I know ill limit my comments. Give me a few days of waiting on line with nothing to do and checking HN via my iPhone to give it a final verdict. .99 seems like a better price than 1.99
- phil 17y ago
  > a bit high Seriously? It must have taken at least a couple weeks of work to write and polish up this app. Then there's ongoing marketing, support, more dev if he adds the features people are asking for here, etc. If the app sells 1000 copies its first month (which would be pretty good!), the economics barely make sense at $1.99. At $0.99 it's basically a community service project. Games can be priced at a dollar because the audience is everyone with an iPhone. For apps that are carefully tailored to the needs of a small group, you must expect to pay more.
rbanffy 17y ago
You know... Not everybody has iTunes on the computer... Or even a computer where iTunes is willing to run.
- brk 17y ago
  In that case then, this app probably isn't targeted at you.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    I do, however, have an iPod and an iMac. I just happen to use Linux for work.
    - brk 17y ago
      Seriously, I'm not sure what the point of your comments are. Based on the devices you stated and your presence here, it would seem you are astute enough to recognize that not every app is going to be applicable for all people. This app especially seems to target a niche of a niche (iPhone users reading HN), and is not even 100% necessary within that niche. Most people would recognize that certain criteria must be met to be able to download and use an App from iTunes. I don't mean to be harsh, your comments just sort of seemed like statements of the obvious.
      - chitchcock 17y ago
        I'm guessing he would have rather had a link to the website about the app instead of the iTunes link.
      - stjarnljuset 17y ago
        I'm not an iPhone user, but I clicked on this (the comments, not the iTunes link) because I wanted to know about the app, how it looks, what features it provides, how a fellow HN reader envisioned a piece of software, despite the fact that I would never use it. I would have appreciated a link to a website with this information, but the comments here are just as good :D
pclark 17y ago
none of your screenshots actually show a story. does that mean it just shows the webkit view?
- vibhavs 17y ago
  Also, I couldn't tell from the screenshots if the app allowed users to view comments on a submission. As we all know, the discussions can be as good as, if not better, than the articles.
  - gcv 17y ago
    Indeed. I'd buy this instantly if it provided an iPhone-friendly interface for reading the discussion, but I can't tell from the screenshots. Also, if there is a story view --- reasonably sized up-down voting arrows alone would make it worth paying for.
    - bvttf 17y ago
      It doesn't even seem to have a way to log in, getting to comments is awkward, and threads are flattened to an iPhone list.
Oompa 17y ago
http://www.icombinator.net/ http://www.icombinator.net/ works great for me, and costs nothing. Also has nifty instapaper functionality which I've grown to live on.
- towndrunk 17y ago
  Very cool. Thanks for the link!
- SamAtt 17y ago
  I agree. I just bought the app and it offers an inferior experience to icombinator from what I can see. This app doesn't have threading in the comments (you can't see who replied to what), it doesn't have the instapaper functionality, etc... I expected an app to at least allow me to log in and post comments but it doesn't even do that. Which makes me ask what the point of having a native app even was.
peterbe 17y ago
Installed!
- mdemare 17y ago
  Me too! Thanks, much more readable than in Safari.
smokey_the_bear 17y ago
I bought it and it looks good. Though I mostly bought it because I noticed that the author used to be my project manager. :) Best of luck with the app, Kevin!
jwr 17y ago
"The item you've requested is not currently available in the Polish Store" Did the developers place geographical restrictions or is this a bug in the iTunes store? Dear developers, please make sure the app is available everywhere.
davidivins 17y ago
i installed it. i think it's pretty nice but still needs some work. for example, i don't like that it opens the links in safari. i'd rather stay within the application (like the reddit app). if i'm going to end up in safari every time i want to read something, i'll probably just use http://www.icombinator.net/ http://www.icombinator.net/ instead:(
rbanffy 17y ago
For those without iTunes: http://www.kevintom.com/ http://www.kevintom.com/ http://www.kevintom.com/ycnews http://www.kevintom.com/ycnews didn't render properly in Safari or Firefox...
grinich 17y ago
Kevin, you should probably check this stuff too. Not because PG&Co will sue you, but just to be a good dude. http://ycombinator.com/legal.html http://ycombinator.com/legal.html
icefox 17y ago
<sarcasm>Man I am glad I have this app now! HackerNews is a website with MB's of flash and images that make browsing it _really_ slow. I mean it doesn't even have rss!</sarcasm>

27 points by arh 17y ago

I highly doubt the developer did this for money. At best he'll make $1000. I'm guessing he developed the app for himself and just decided to release it. Why not comment about how it could be better? My suggestion has already been voiced: Need upvote capability.

nirmal 17y ago

See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=809181 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=809181 for a discussion about other HN on the iPhone solutions. My version is at http://mobilehackernews.appspot.com/ http://mobilehackernews.appspot.com/ It uses iUI for the list and if you click on a story link it uses arc90's Readability to make the site you visit easier to read. The Readability script also puts a button in the top left corner of the page to revert to the original version. http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

ique 17y ago
That actually seemed awesome until i started getting this on pretty much every page: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 507, in __call__ handler.get(*groups) File "/base/data/home/apps/mobilehackernews /1.336829969607358575/main.py", line 137, in get html.head.append(cssCode) AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'append'
- nirmal 17y ago
  Odd, I saw that few times just now. But I can't reproduce it. The error suggests that when BeautifulSoup parsed to the contents of the posted article, it found a page with no head node in the HTML.

mildweed 17y ago

If I were to pay money for my HN, I'd want at least some of it to go to the actual HN team.

Torn 17y ago
Yeah, £1.19 seems a bit too steep when I can instantly fire up Safari on my iPhone and view the full hn for free.
- peterbe 17y ago
  How many sips of beer is that? 1.5?
shabda 17y ago
I find it funny that a community of people who make their living off selling software are so averse to paying for it. How much of your hourly rate is the cost of buying this? How much time do you spend on HN daily? How much percent better does reading HN does this app need to make, for you to be ROI positive in a week?
- javery 17y ago
  It's not the problem of spending $2, it's the question of if that $2 is going to the right people.
  - mildweed 17y ago
    Indeed. This is the crux of our news organizations' current crisis. They create and organize the content, yet everybody else is using the content for profit. I choose to reward those who create and organize the content. The delivery of content is extremely easy, especially for me since I'm a developer myself.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - 17y ago

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

I think it's a bit high, but I bought it to give it a run. From the screenshots, it seemed decently full featured. The only thing I wish it had was AT least the upvote capabilities. I never really comment from the iphone, since I know ill limit my comments. Give me a few days of waiting on line with nothing to do and checking HN via my iPhone to give it a final verdict. .99 seems like a better price than 1.99

phil 17y ago
> a bit high Seriously? It must have taken at least a couple weeks of work to write and polish up this app. Then there's ongoing marketing, support, more dev if he adds the features people are asking for here, etc. If the app sells 1000 copies its first month (which would be pretty good!), the economics barely make sense at $1.99. At $0.99 it's basically a community service project. Games can be priced at a dollar because the audience is everyone with an iPhone. For apps that are carefully tailored to the needs of a small group, you must expect to pay more.

rbanffy 17y ago

You know... Not everybody has iTunes on the computer... Or even a computer where iTunes is willing to run.

brk 17y ago
In that case then, this app probably isn't targeted at you.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  I do, however, have an iPod and an iMac. I just happen to use Linux for work.
  - brk 17y ago
    Seriously, I'm not sure what the point of your comments are. Based on the devices you stated and your presence here, it would seem you are astute enough to recognize that not every app is going to be applicable for all people. This app especially seems to target a niche of a niche (iPhone users reading HN), and is not even 100% necessary within that niche. Most people would recognize that certain criteria must be met to be able to download and use an App from iTunes. I don't mean to be harsh, your comments just sort of seemed like statements of the obvious.
    - chitchcock 17y ago
      I'm guessing he would have rather had a link to the website about the app instead of the iTunes link.
    - stjarnljuset 17y ago
      I'm not an iPhone user, but I clicked on this (the comments, not the iTunes link) because I wanted to know about the app, how it looks, what features it provides, how a fellow HN reader envisioned a piece of software, despite the fact that I would never use it. I would have appreciated a link to a website with this information, but the comments here are just as good :D

pclark 17y ago

none of your screenshots actually show a story. does that mean it just shows the webkit view?

vibhavs 17y ago
Also, I couldn't tell from the screenshots if the app allowed users to view comments on a submission. As we all know, the discussions can be as good as, if not better, than the articles.
- gcv 17y ago
  Indeed. I'd buy this instantly if it provided an iPhone-friendly interface for reading the discussion, but I can't tell from the screenshots. Also, if there is a story view --- reasonably sized up-down voting arrows alone would make it worth paying for.
  - bvttf 17y ago
    It doesn't even seem to have a way to log in, getting to comments is awkward, and threads are flattened to an iPhone list.

Oompa 17y ago

http://www.icombinator.net/ http://www.icombinator.net/ works great for me, and costs nothing. Also has nifty instapaper functionality which I've grown to live on.

towndrunk 17y ago
Very cool. Thanks for the link!
SamAtt 17y ago
I agree. I just bought the app and it offers an inferior experience to icombinator from what I can see. This app doesn't have threading in the comments (you can't see who replied to what), it doesn't have the instapaper functionality, etc... I expected an app to at least allow me to log in and post comments but it doesn't even do that. Which makes me ask what the point of having a native app even was.

peterbe 17y ago

Installed!

mdemare 17y ago
Me too! Thanks, much more readable than in Safari.

smokey_the_bear 17y ago

I bought it and it looks good. Though I mostly bought it because I noticed that the author used to be my project manager. :) Best of luck with the app, Kevin!

jwr 17y ago

"The item you've requested is not currently available in the Polish Store" Did the developers place geographical restrictions or is this a bug in the iTunes store? Dear developers, please make sure the app is available everywhere.

davidivins 17y ago

i installed it. i think it's pretty nice but still needs some work. for example, i don't like that it opens the links in safari. i'd rather stay within the application (like the reddit app). if i'm going to end up in safari every time i want to read something, i'll probably just use http://www.icombinator.net/ http://www.icombinator.net/ instead:(

rbanffy 17y ago

For those without iTunes: http://www.kevintom.com/ http://www.kevintom.com/ http://www.kevintom.com/ycnews http://www.kevintom.com/ycnews didn't render properly in Safari or Firefox...

grinich 17y ago

Kevin, you should probably check this stuff too. Not because PG&Co will sue you, but just to be a good dude. http://ycombinator.com/legal.html http://ycombinator.com/legal.html

icefox 17y ago

<sarcasm>Man I am glad I have this app now! HackerNews is a website with MB's of flash and images that make browsing it _really_ slow. I mean it doesn't even have rss!</sarcasm>