

Posterous (YC S08) Finally Has An iPhone App, Could Have Been Way Better - mkuhn
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/20/posterous-finally-has-an-iphone-app-could-have-been-way-better/

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jasongullickson
_"A couple of gripes though. First, when you send pictures or videos to your
Posterous blog, it’s impossible to add any kind of text or link from within
the app (something I was able to do when I simply e-mailed in photos I took
with my iPhone camera using the mail application)."_

So what you're saying is, it doesn't do something that you could already do
using something else?

I've seen this logic applied to many software projects and while there are
many justifications, I don't see the point of duplicating functionality unless
it's done in a way that is substantially better or more elegant that the
original method. I doubt that the developers at Posterous (who I have great
respect for) can justify the resources to write a better tool for assembling
multimedia messages than the one Apple provides with the iPhone, the Mail app.

There is certainly room for varying opinions on this, but given Posterous's
design philosophy so far, I think duplicating functionality would be non-
consistent with the work they have already done.

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unalone
If you're making an app, you ought to be making an entire portal to your
product. It's bad design to want users to use two separate, different-in-
intent applications if they want full functionality.

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jsonscripter
I think that's just a different mentality. You're both right.

The grandparent is thinking "Every application should do one thing really
really well, and everyone should have a bunch of applications".

You're thinking "Every application should be full featured and do everything
relating to a specific goal. You only need a single application for every task
you do."

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jasongullickson
Here here!

If this was the Facebook iPhone app, then by all means everything you can do
in Facebook should be in there, but given how Posterous goes the opposite
direction (in regard to complexity), a "do everything" app would be out of
character, don't you think?

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unalone
But their competitor, Tumblr (I think that's their closest competitor), offers
a very simple way to post audio, video, links, text, photos, and chats from
their iPhone interface. Looking at the picture of Posterous's app,
furthermore, I don't think it would be tough for them to add more
functionality without sacrificing the integrity of their app design.

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Plugawy
I don't get it - can't you just an e-mail with the attached picture (because
that's how Posterous works)? (or does Apple's TOC prohibit sending e-mails
with a picture to someone who's not a person?)

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mkuhn
you can attach more than one picture, and especially interesting, you can add
pictures to existing albums

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Plugawy
wait - you still can't send more than attachment from iPhone's mail.app?

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JMiao
i appreciate the focus. too many products try to cram too much into a mobile
context.

