
Show HN: A Hacker News Reader App with Tabs - aswinmohanme
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan.hacknews
======
aswinmohanme
Since Ads are universally hated, I have made a decision.

The free version will not have ads no more and the Premium version will have a
beautiful dark theme.

What do you guys think ?

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scarface74
I disagree. You should get paid for your work - either through ads or an in
app purchase to remove the ads. If someone is not willing to pay you money or
look at ads, they aren't your customer.

Developers - especially mobile developers - have to stop devaluing themselves.

~~~
lrvick
Honestly this idea that you can still pump out fairly simple add-
supported/paid apps as a path to paying your bills is crazy unless you are
making the next flappy bird.

By making it open source you could have a much easier time getting interviews
at companies that will gladly pay a salary that far exceeds what you could
make on one non-unicorn app.

~~~
scarface74
I would have a private Git repo on VSTS (free), put a link to the app on my
resume and let them know that I would be more than willing to go through both
my code and my project plan.

It doesn't have to pay all of your bills but if at least made some beer money,
it's better than nothing. Part of being a developer should be learning how to
monetize.

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maxyme
This isn't a bad start but I'm not a fan of the UI. I use
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.premii.hn](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.premii.hn)
which you can sort of demo at [http://hn.premii.com](http://hn.premii.com) and
it has a few bugs/quirks because it isn't super actively maintained but the
design is just really solid. Gestures work well (Swype left from an article to
go back), colors are great (and user choosable), dark mode included, fonts
customizable...

I think you have some steep competition, that's all. It's a great start to get
something out there though!

~~~
ZeroCool2u
Also what I use. Definitely isn't ideal, but checks the most boxes right now.

~~~
PenguinCoder
I echo your comment. I use it and I like it just barely more than the other HN
readers out there. It's the only website based APP I actually have installed,
for the most part I hate dedicated apps for existing website. But, the
swiftness and usability of this one make it worth using; for now.

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qrbLPHiKpiux
As I said on the other thread here, I like the desktop interface, using pinch
and zoom on my mobile device. Reddit is forcing me into the mobile app, and
mobile interface, I constantly have to request desktop site, and it's starting
to irritate me, pushing me away!

~~~
Normal_gaussian
[https://ud.reddit.com](https://ud.reddit.com)

Its the only way I can stand to use reddit now. Wrote an extension for my
desktop that changed any links into reddit to the ud form for me as well

~~~
PenguinCoder
Care to share the extension? Ever since the 'redesign' I have had non stop
"Sorry something went wrong! Try refreshing!" issues. It really is driving me
away from Reddit (which in itself may be a good thing), and I'm constantly
rewriting URLs to the 'old.reddit.com' format.

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Unfortunately its a catch all extension that doesn't just do that; all you
need to do is grab an example extension and make the script do a search for
all href and conditionally replace content. I've got a mutation observer on as
well but I don't know if it was ever useful

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miguelrochefort
I think this is a very poor design:

\- Nested tabs are a poor use of space, scrolling tabs would be better

\- The spacing around posts is too large

\- The spacing within posts is too large

\- The notch extends beyond the status bar

\- The captions on screenshots are cringey

\- The screenshots don't show the comments page

\- The icon looks weird with both a border and bounds with different corner
radius

\- The '.' separator is sometimes bold

\- Capitalization is inconsistent ("3 Comments", "3 minutes")

\- The title bar of the comments page is empty

\- The navigation architecture with each tab having its own stack is weird

\- Padding is different in every type of page (posts, post, about)

\- Line breaks in comments are ignored

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thosakwe
Even though there are ads, respect to you for putting this out there. The
grind is real.

Unfortunately, I don’t think mobile development is such a good way for
independents to generate revenue, unless you happen to make a wildly viral
game.

~~~
aswinmohanme
Thanks

I don't want to generate revenue to live on(yet).

I just want to show that I'm not wasting time. And social media followers
don't count. So this was like the only way

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bitmapbrother
The UI needs some work as I find it barren of essential features. You have no
settings screen and no ability to change the font size or the font used.

I currently use Materialistic and it's probably the best HN client I've used
on either platform. It has a tablet mode, a variety of themes, including
several dark themes, adjustable font sizes, offline mode, readability mode
when visiting websites, blocks ads in websites, does not contain ads and best
of all it's open source and free.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.hidr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.hidroh.materialistic)

Here's the GitHub repo:

[https://github.com/hidroh/materialistic](https://github.com/hidroh/materialistic)

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aswinmohanme
For all who are disgusted by Ads, there is an Ad Free Premium version.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan.hacknewspro)

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firic
Why do you need access to the phone's id, phone number, and files?

~~~
aswinmohanme
Not me, Ask AdMob Native Wrapper

~~~
scarface74
I replied earlier that you should have ads because you should monetize, but
that's not a good answer. If you are forced to use a binary blob that needs
those permissions, it's not a good choice.

But then again, Androids permission is system is still crap...

~~~
TheForumTroll
Yes, it is far from perfect but unless you go for a Purism phone there isn't
anything better. On Android you can at least get very close to some privacy
unlike in iOS.

~~~
scarface74
Really? iOS's permission system is a lot better thought out when it comes to
privacy.

Third party keyboards don't by default have any network permission and the
keyboard automatically changes to the default keyboard for passwords.

The content blocking framework doesn't allow the content blocking app to know
your web browsing habits.

You don't need phone access to stop audio from playing within your app like
you do on Android.

Google's next generation messaging app doesn't even have end to end
encryption.

------
forlorn
Why would I need a separate (+fremium) app for a free website that works
pretty well on my mobile browser?

~~~
baldfat
Personally I really like the Reddit Apps like baconreader on mobile more. I
also like how I am always signed in and getting notifications when someone
replies to my comment.

All HakerNews apps fail on several ways for me.

1) COMMENTING - I really don't need to sign in or do anything if all I get are
links to websites and other comments I can respond to

2) Reading links - Normally it is a rough transition. Once again baconreader
is my favorite app for reading sites like HackerNews and Reddit. It has it's
own simple reader built in. he official Reddit app also has great tabs and
opens links inside the app

3) Notifications - No notifications on direct replies always seems weird to me

~~~
forlorn
Bacon Reader is hands down the best Reddit client out there. This is one of
the few exceptions when you would prefer an app.

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brudgers
Why ads?

~~~
caleblloyd
I don't want to touch it if it had ads. Hacker News is a community I like
because its users generally promote the "Hacker Ethic" [1]. As far as I can
tell this app has no infrastructure costs because it just uses the HN API. In
putting ads on it, the app author is monetizing a free service they like to
use. That is the opposite of the Hacker Ethic.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic)

~~~
aswinmohanme
I'm a student from India. Here parents are really strict about Computer time.
The only way I can convince them isnto show them that this thing can generate
some money.

That's why I put ads, you know how hard I felt to put ads on something that
you spend hours perfecting.

My previous App was tet, it has no ads, but I really need to make some revenue
to show them.

You want to know what those Ads are, ther'e justification that I won't go
broke if I pursue code.

~~~
SquareWheel
Perhaps offering a one-time IAP to remove ads would satisfy all parties?

~~~
Fnoord
The latest trend is subscriptions; pay X a year to remove ads. And, while I
hate them (cause who needs more monthly expenses?) they're fair for the
developer because one-time IAP isn't sustainable on the long term compared to
sustainable income. That is of course assuming there is constant improvement
on the app/data. Another trend is disabling ads via sub but still having
tracking. At least GDPR attempts to fix it.

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SuperNinKenDo
Proprietary or free?

~~~
aswinmohanme
Free with Ads

~~~
drdaeman
I believe when asking for " _proprietary or_ free?" it's usually about end-
user freedoms, not monetary cost. "Free" as in "free speech", not as in "free
beer".

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anotheryou
I'm sold for anything that has a "mark all read and hide them" option like the
HNMarkAllRead chrome extention (which I actually use on FF, even on mobile).

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dustinmr
Been playing with this on a Pixel C. Can't see a way to collapse threads?

Really like the tabbed interface though.

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orschiro
Related: how do you consume hacker news? Using a dedicated Android or iOS app
or directly opening the website in your mobile browser?

~~~
chirau
I've tried a number of apps, but I always end up coming back to the site
itself.

~~~
j0hnml
It’s also so nice how quickly the site loads — that and the simplicity of HN’s
mobile site makes for a very pleasant experience.

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SeriousM
A read marker is missing. Just show the title a bit opaque

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blakespot
Looks very nice. I wish there were an iOS version.

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defoze
Hopefully you have an iOS one out soon!

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iddan
This is un-material designed

~~~
aswinmohanme
I Know,and I'm proud of It :D

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oneplane
Doesn't work on iOS.

~~~
aswinmohanme
I'm currently working on it

