

Show HN: Cyberspace - my new web browser for iOS - quanganhdo
http://cyberspaceapp.com

======
RBr
This looks like an interesting app. However, the features that you have
integrated are not unique or interesting enough for this app to gain a lot of
attention.

If your intention is to create a niche app that solves a few problems, you've
done a great job of that. The users who like your app will like it a lot.

If you are still in active development and would like to increase the number
of people using your app, here are some things that might help:

1) Re-conceive both your self-hosted product page and the Apple App Store
description. In short, you need to answer this question quickly and
accurately: what makes your browser 100x better than any other browser out
there? Currently, your "discover, read, share" sections are not compelling.
Your App Store description is a little better with your quick point form
feature list.

2) Your integration of Social Bookmarking is very interesting. I recently
reviewed Delibar (<http://robisit.com/gl>). It is an app that saves bookmarks
to Delicious or Pinboard. I concluded that the major flaw in this software was
that it was limited to these two social bookmarking services. I think that you
should integrate every single bookmarking and sharing service into your
browser somehow. This is a powerful feature that is not currently being used
in iOS apps properly.

3) I realize it's early - but listing real testimonials sells apps. Plain and
simple, quotes such as, "I love this app, it changed my life" help people
spend $2 on an App.

Without downloading your browser and testing it, it looks like you have an
interesting product. The way that you have collected useful browsing add-ons
and components into one iOS package might be useful. On the surface, your
sales text isn't compelling and presents the biggest problem.

~~~
quanganhdo
You're correct - I intended to create a niche app and tried to integrate
useful components into the users' workflow. Those who wish to use Cyberspace
to replace his main browser might be disappointed by the lack of features
compared to other alternate browsers.

1) It's interesting that you find the App Store description better, since the
text are the same - on my product page, I just reorder them and put into
different sections.

Cyberspace is a collection of tiny little features that add to the users'
browsing experience, and indeed, I find it difficult to put them into words,
trying to sell to the users.

2) I would love to hear about other social bookmarking services. I am only
aware of Pinboard/Delicious and wish to add more to Cyberspace. Currently
they're in the simple form of each site's mobile version, which I find
suitable for a small screen/popover. In future version, I will add the ability
to add your own service to Cyberspace.

3) That's a great idea.

I wonder if you want to give Cyberspace a spin. I'll send you a promo code
right away.

------
scrrr
Btw. this reminds me of an idea me and a friend had over lunch on how to take
down Google, Facebook etc. An evil hacker could theoretically write a virus,
that only does one thing: Block Ads. Or install an Ad-Blocker.

This could SERIOUSLY disrupt online business as we know it. Same thing would
happen if the Cyberspace browser became the market leader. The creator would
probably be bought out for whatever money he wants just so that ads get re-
enabled for that browser.

~~~
quanganhdo
Haha, I for one would be more than happy to be infected with that 'virus'.

I'm not totally against advertising though. I think it's the execution that
fails — I really love those ads by The Deck and Fusion Ads. If only the web is
without ugly ad banners, Flash ads and the like.

------
glymor
Just got it. I like the focus on working though a bunch of links. Currently
for a site like hacker news I open a lot of tabs but I always have to switch
back on opening the tab and it uses up a lot of memory loading them when I not
actually going to read them yet.

iCab solves the first problem as it can auto background tab any links to a
different domain. This is a actually smoother than the flow here: tap-hold-
selecting is a slow operation I don't want to have to do it for every link on
a page.

Instead I'd love a toggle that turns on add to queue as the default operation
for the duration of that page. (This would be an improvement on the iCab
option as the background loading is easy to forget about and then immediately
becomes confusing.) The toggle should be a main button like the plus and would
cease to apply if you navigate anywhere else or start going though your queue.

Another option would be certain pages always open in auto add to queue mode
(eg set on the the bookmark). And some people might prefer add to instapaper
as the default action etc.

EDIT: I actually really like this. Feels very smooth.

~~~
quanganhdo
Great idea. iCab Mobile is an amazing web browser, and I've learnt a lot from
Alexander's blog (<http://icab.de/blog>)

I'll be sure to tweak the Reading queue feature to speed up the process. Stay
tuned.

------
scrrr
Ha, great. Ad-Blocking enabled by default and DuckDuckGo used for search. Good
choices and good idea to differentiate your product from competition like
that.

~~~
quanganhdo
Thanks. I'm not trying to compete with browsers like iCab (icab.de) in terms
of feature sets - I just can't keep up with them. Cyberspace is my attempt to
be an 'opinionated' web browser that integrates well with the user's work
flow.

It may never replace your main web browser of choice, but it's really good at
some frequent tasks - like checking out your Tumblr dashboard, Hacker News,
etc.

~~~
lylejohnson
> It may never replace your main web browser of choice, but it's really good
> at some frequent tasks - like checking out your Tumblr dashboard, Hacker
> News, etc.

That sounds like a niche that a lot of folks (including me) would like to see
addressed. I like what I saw in the YT video and am planning on getting
Cyberspace ASAP.

------
mcgraw
Good job on this one.

A few points. Some which have been hit already by prior posts, but I'd like to
reiterate. Right now you're in marketing mode. So:

1\. The website really needs the focus right now. My first point of confusion
was the image. Naturally, our eyes are going to navigate to that, but it
doesn't tell me anything. I'm confused looking at it. What is this? Do I
really have to read the blocks below it to figure out what it is? I've skimmed
the titles, but I'm not interested in reading all that right now... (That's my
train of thought)

I would throw in a simple script to cycle through some images. Include some
text explaining some of the core features.

2\. What does this do that the other browsers don't? Some of this will be
explained once point 1 is resolved. Past that, I would add more images + text
below it.

Don't just tell me, show me. I might not have the time to read through a block
of text. If you can describe epic in a picture, do it.

3\. The Icon. There are people who will simply refuse to buy an app because of
the icon. Sad, but true. This is how people discover you. They will see a list
of icons in their search and find the prettiest one to tap.

You need something simple, slick and polished. Right now I feel like it
belongs on a childrens e-book.

4\. "You must be at least 17 years old" -- Really?

5\. Consistancy. Pet-peeve of mine, but why is your skin different between the
iPhone/iPad version? The iPad skin is solid. I'd subclass those iPhone
components and give it the same look-and-feel.

6\. I would definitely milk the social networking bit. I can't count how many
times I've shared links and images from a page.

7\. 'firmware 3.2' should just probably be 'iOS 3.2 or later.'

All opinions of course. Take what you will. All in all, great work. I'm not
sold primarily because the core browser does a good enough job, but I can be
convinced.

~~~
quanganhdo
1) 2) 6) 7) Thanks. You're right on most points — the website, the copy, and
the screenshots definitely need works. I'll have a screencast replace the
current image asap.

3) The icon. Some people really like it, some hate it with a passion. I'll
come up with a new (hopefully) better one.

4) That's Apple's requirements. All apps that pull data from the internet have
to specify a 17-year-old age restriction. There's nothing I can do about that

5) I'm not sure about that. Both the iPad/iPhone version use default OS' skins
(gray on iPad & blue on iPhone)

------
quanganhdo
My new app Cyberspace has just been approved today - iTunes link:
<http://bit.ly/getcyberspaceapp>. In one sentence, it is optimized
specifically for the purpose of reading, discovering, and sharing. And it's
pretty good at them.

Feature list: reading queue, access to Pinboard/Delicious bookmarks,
DuckDuckGo as default search engine, ad blocking, Readability bookmarklet,
text mode powered by Instapaper Mobilizer, share to different services,
Pastebot & OmniFocus support, scratchpad with TextExpander support, etc.

~~~
petewailes
Hope you don't mind -> just forwarded this to Mr Jobs. Will update as/when I
hear back.

~~~
quanganhdo
Of course I don't mind. Let me know if he gets back to you ;-)

------
hrabago
My favorite tool for offline reading on the iPhone is actually another
browser. Before I go on a flight, I load up HN, open up links to stories and
comment pages I want in iCabMobile, which then saves them for offline reading.
I've found it be more effective than Instapaper because I only need to load it
once, and I end up reading a copy of the webpage itself, with all formatting,
images, layout, etc.

If Cyberspace can support a similar feature, I would gladly purchase it,
because iCabMobile's offline support isn't as well supported on the iPad.

~~~
quanganhdo
While I can't promise when to add offline support to Cyberspace, I can
definitely say that it's on the roadmap I envisioned.

Edit: Have you tried Wikipanion? It's only for Wikipedia browsing, but its
feature set is amazing. The offline support is very robust, too.

------
msy
It's a nice app but please, please hire a real icon designer, it looks like a
joke.

~~~
thushan
Agreed. Also, the screenshot on your homepage doesn't tell me much about your
app (and the screen is out of date).

Granted most of the users that would find this app useful are power users, the
teaser text on the site is probably more technical than it should be.
Sentences like "There's no need to get out of your current context to check
out a random link - just queue it to visit after you finish your current
article" come to mind when I say that.

If you're interested I'd be more than happy to send you a couple other
copyedit/text edits to that landing page. Just email me.

~~~
quanganhdo
Thanks, email's on the way.

------
sz
Apple, pay attention. This thing rocks.

I love the integration with Readability and Instapaper.

~~~
petewailes
Steve's now been informed. Will update if required.

