
Ask HN: HN on the iPhone? - nixy
I apologize if this topic has already been discussed, but I am curious to know how you iPhone users read HN from your phone.<p>I read HN many times a day using my iPhone, I follow links and I read comments. However, the design of the HN front page and comment threads is not really optimized for reading on a small device. I've experimented with browsing the RSS feed from HN, but it isn't really that much better. I get a bit better readability on the front page, but I can't find anything else than the top 30 posts. The comments are not included in the RSS, there is just a pointer to, well, this page.<p>So, I'm wondering if anyone has done any thought experiments on, or maybe even implemented, an iPhone-friendly wrapper for HN?<p>I'm thinking a site styled for the iPhone which takes HN data and presents it in a more readable format. Perhaps users could customize the CSS to make it fit their needs and their mobile devices (not just the iPhone). Sort of like a GreaseMonkey-on-a-server.<p>Has this been discussed or done? What would you guys want to improve when reading HN on your mobile devices?
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mrduncan
<http://www.icombinator.net/>

Disclaimer - I don't have an iPhone so I've never actually used it though.

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ianbishop
iCombinator is great. However, there has a been a lot of downtime lately and
you cannot comment or log-in.

An actual iPhone application would be great if pg would agree to let someone
do it.

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pclark
apparently 280 North are working on one...

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ianbishop
I believe that has been in the works for.. quite awhile. A status update would
be nice.

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mseebach
Slightly related, except not -- I use HN on an Android device, and while I
don't particularly mind the layout, I can't seem to login. I can enter my
username/password, but it doesn't go anywhere. If I use a wrong password, I
get an error message.

Anyone know what's wrong?

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sunkencity
maybe you have cookies off

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jamesbritt
I have the same problem, and have never set cookies one way or another for any
site. Other sites (e.g. Reddit) that require authentication seem to work fine.

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DrJokepu
On the G1 (Android) which is pretty much the same as the iPhone in this
respect, my main annoyance is the combination of small vote icons and the
inability to undo votes. I have accidentally downvotes comments on a number of
occasions from my phone in the past (sorry for that to everyone involved)

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jeremyw
I posted some very simple amendments made to HN HTML that would make life much
happier for iPhone users, as a quick (if temporary) remedy. But I think the
train got lost after that discussion.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=470863>

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warp
I regularly read HN on a Nokia e71 (using the default browser shipped by
Nokia) and on a PSP. I only have two issues:

1) comments nested 5+ levels deep get a really narrow column for the text.

2) the 'mouse' cursor positioning on the e71 is just a little too coarse
making impossible to click on some of the upvote arrows next to a comment.

Other than that I have no issues with reading HN on a small screen. On the e71
replying is also no problem, the textarea fits on the screen.

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aerique
I use iCab Mobile as my default browser on the iPhone since it supports
loading pages in background tabs and that has been sufficient for me.

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jamesbritt
I've been reading HN on my G1, and it's pretty much fine for reading, but I
cannot get my sign-in to stick.

I can enter my name and password, and it kinda sorta acts as though I've been
signed in, but it never shows my user name or allows me to post of vote. But
it never tells me there was a problem signing in either.

Has anyone else seen this?

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nirmal
<http://mobilehackernews.appspot.com/#_home>

This is my version. It proxies the articles and applies the Readability JS
from arc90 to make articles easier to read on the iPhone.

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alanthonyc
I put the phone in landscape mode and just read away. I haven't noticed any
major usability issues, aside from when entering comments.

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jsz0
The default site works fine for me on the iPhone. The text is a bit small on
comments but it's readable.

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geuis
I am currently working on a native iPhone reader for HN. The biggest pain
point is the lack of data api's, so much of the work has been around building
a service layer to provide interactions with all HN features. I will be
supporting all HN features, so it's not just an rss reader. When I get it to a
point for release, I'll post again on HN.

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pclark
please do! and if you need a beta tester ... :)

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alaskamiller
We're working on something cool with Hacker News, iPhones, and SearchYC.com
that we're going to launch real soon.

