
HTML-based weather app - simurai
http://pattern.dk/sun
======
nickpresta
✓ Claims to be an HTML5 app

✓ Requires iOS for no apparent reason

✓ You must install to homescreen first, even if you are on iOS

What does this do and why did you make the above decisions?

 _EDIT:_ To get around this, open up your JS console, put a breakpoint on line
509 inside sunny.js and set `window.navigator.standalone = true;`. Things
should be fine from that point on if you have "emulate touch events" turned
on.

~~~
simurai
If you would use Phonegap and put it up on the App Store, nobody would
complain having to "install" it.

I can't talk for the creator, but I guess this app is meant to be stand-alone,
launched straight from the homescreen (without address bar) and not as a
regular website that you have bookmarked.

~~~
windsurfer
I've been using phonegap for a while... and that is honestly so easy to do
it's not even funny.

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sachleen
It's HTML 5 but requires iOS? Why. I spoofed the user agent in Chrome and it
wants me to add it to my iOS home screen before I can try it out. Why not just
show me the app when I go to the page? And if I want to add it to my home
screen, I will.

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pan69
For the love of God, if this is HTML then why is it only working on iOS
devices? Is the iPhone/iPad the new Internet Explorer?

~~~
elliottkember
If this is HTML, then why not take the source and make a cross-browser
version? I guess I don't see the harm in just making an HTML iPhone app.

Personally, for instance, I wouldn't be happy if I shipped something as
"cross-browser" that looked just awful in most browsers no matter what I
tried.

~~~
zevyoura
>If this is HTML, then why not take the source and make a cross-browser
version?

Given that there's no apparent license agreement, this would presumably be
copyright infringement.

~~~
elliottkember
True. Well, it just seems ungrateful. It's an iPhone app, built with HTML5.
They've built something really nice, for free, and yet people feel entitled to
more.

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suhailpatel
Great design but not sure why this needs to be iOS only and why it needs to be
installed to the homescreen.

I still don't think it's better than a native app because it took 30 seconds
to actually show anything from a black screen and then a minute or so to load
the data on stable fast WiFi (bet it'd be worse over 3G).

A native app has UI code and fancy animations on board and if this was an
initial impression of something I wasn't really interested in observing, i'd
uninstall it straight away. Granted it does load faster on subsequent launches
(caching maybe?) but it's the initial launch which matters to me.

~~~
nilliams
Is the initial launch not simply comparable to downloading a native app from
the app-store?

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nilliams
Beautiful and the nav is impressively slick. Shame the desktop landing page
(though pretty) doesn't show off just how nice the rest of the UI is when
visited from iOS. (There are a few pics on the author's Dribbble for the
curious [1]).

Would love to read a good illustrated blog post on the making of this. It'd be
interesting to know what frameworks (if any) were used.

[1] <http://dribbble.com/jalifax>

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hayksaakian
Not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. I don't suppose that a nice
picture of an iPhone == weather app.

<http://www.imgur.com/djVjc.png>

~~~
pan69
What app you use to make screenshots with?

~~~
roryokane
Since that’s Android 4, he’s probably using the built-in screenshot function.
Just hold down the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time. You can
then access the screenshot from the resulting notification or in the Gallery.
More info: [http://www.howtogeek.com/121133/how-to-take-screenshots-
on-a...](http://www.howtogeek.com/121133/how-to-take-screenshots-on-android-
devices-since-4.0/)

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fideloper
The design is beautiful!

This would make a great native app - Which I only say because HTML5 on iOS
seems a bit choppy for such nice animations.

It's unfortunate to find such snark for something which I'll bet took a lot of
effort to do. It makes sense for an HTML app to be friendly to all devices,
and probably that is something to aim for.

Obviously has room for improvement, but I think we (myself included) can all
do better at delivering feedback.

~~~
cnp
Yeah totally. I think he did a fantastic job. All of the transitions and
functionality and design is gorgeous. Agreed, it was a little confusing with
the home screen issue in the beginning, but I totally get why he did it, and
after a few seconds everything was working like it should.

Really great work.

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coley
This is a nice example of how html5 has come a long way. Thanks for sharing.

I did come across one bug, however. After changing the color scheme, Sun
reloads, flashes "changing colors...", and then hangs on the loading
indicator.

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timesachangin
Looks lovely. Really swish animation. Brilliant showcase of HTML5 based apps.
Shame it locked my entire phone up!?

~~~
ekryski
Totally agree on all accounts. My phone locked as well.

~~~
cheeaun
Oh wow, it locked my iPhone (4S) too just now. Home and Sleep/Wake buttons
stopped working and I have to force reboot the whole thing. The first time I
add it to the homescreen, the page sort of borks. Second time I launch it,
everything works but that's when the phone locks itself :(

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arms
Slick presentation, but simply takes too long to display data and seems buggy
- caused my phone to freeze.

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Nux
"Sun is a web app designed for the iPhone and iPad." - why bother make it a
"web" app then? Waste of time.

~~~
ewang1
perhaps b/c it's much faster to make it in html5 than in Obj-C?

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taf2
installed it on my phone, but i just see a spinning wheel and a pink
background... the 3d effect when flipping to the other locations looks nice,
but perhaps the location api times out or there's a service call that's timing
out because it looks to be frozen, for my location.

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chacha102
Ever since the iPhone weather app, I get really annoyed when weather apps
display the weather to be 'sunny' at night.

Its not sunny.

PS: Yes, its not a huge deal. If there was a 'feature' list, it wouldn't be
listed. But trying to tell me San Diego will be 'sunny' at midnight is just
wrong. </rant>

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sktrdie
Wonderful! I love these beautiful minimalist UX experiments. Especially when
using open technology such as HTML5. Any info on how you built all the really
nifty animations? Used any tool to get it just right?

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flixic
The most amazing feature of this, that I have seen NONE other app do, is the
changing icon.

Install the app, and change the colors. Then, close the app. Its _icon's_
colors have changed to reflect the color theme change.

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simurai
Don't forget to pinch out (kinda hard to discover), once you're on a location
and you get a details view like this <http://drbl.in/glDK>

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hnriot
I installed it and all I see is a pink screen with my location and temp.
Completely boring "app" google weather is far superior (in HTML and works on
more than just my iPad)

~~~
dangrossman
Pinch and swipe, as it says.

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mserdarsanli
There is not a single good comment about this, yet it is on front-page. WhyHN?

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yock
An honest question. Is there any technical reason this is limited to iOS?

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jakozaur
Great design, but a few things could be improved:

\- no preview on desktop

\- landscape mode is broken

\- no client-side caching

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quasimo
I shared this long time ago: <http://blog.linz.im/2012/webapp-sun.html>

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benguild
This is great!

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artursapek
Shit, it's 3° in Redmond? I better stay inside.

~~~
ewang1
It defaults to Celsius, so you'll have to change it to Fahrenheit.

