
Show HN: Morning, a minimal dashboard app for iPad - jeffd
http://tamper.io/morning/
======
aaronbrethorst
Nice app! Can't wait for the iPhone version :)

It looks like you're using Paperfold
([https://www.cocoacontrols.com/controls/paperfold](https://www.cocoacontrols.com/controls/paperfold)).
Mind adding it to the list of apps that use it on Cocoa Controls?

Also, I'd love to know if you use any other OSS components. I'm always looking
for apps to highlight as my 'app of the week'.

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epoxyhockey
How have I not heard about cocoacontrols.com until now? Many thanks for
excellent site!

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aaronbrethorst
Thanks, and you're welcome :)

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ruswick
Am I the only one who sees a linguistic significance between "buy in the app
store" and "download in the app store?" I've always felt as though the latter
implied that the product was free. The act of downloading doesn't necessitate
relinquishing money, so I tend to think that "purchasing" is a more
appropriate verb when linking to paid apps.

"Downloading" is a fairly specific verb that generally doesn't involve money,
which is why it feels so jarring when I see it used in relation to making a
purchase.

Does anyone else feel as though "purchase" would be a more appropriate verb
for their copy?

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sevenproxies
I hate not having any other comment to make but I think you would benefit from
trying to optimise the size of the main banner image [1]. It's currently
clocking in at just under 800KB, and loading it was like downloading an image
on dial-up on my very reasonable 30Mbps. Even after reloading a few times it
took me 16.8 seconds to download.

Good luck with your app and congratulations on shipping.

[1]
[http://images.tamper.io/morning/img/largebg.png](http://images.tamper.io/morning/img/largebg.png)

~~~
chrismasterson
I've fixed that now! Sorry about the slow load times.

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oneeyedpigeon
"Requires iOS 6.0 or later" \- one of my least favourite phrases. I'm curious
- what specific features _require_ iOS 6? Why is so much iOS software
backwards-incompatible?

~~~
conradev
Developers writing new apps see two things:

\- High adoption rate of iOS6

\- Cool iOS6 APIs (Autolayout, UIKit attributed text, indexed subscripting,
etc)

and they decide to write for iOS6 only. They _could_ support iOS 5, but the
work is not worth the reward with the adoption rate of iOS6 being as high as
it is.

For developers with existing customers, it is a different story.

~~~
interpol_p
Indexed subscripting is available down to iOS 4.x I think — definitely
available on iOS 5. It's a compiler technology, not related to the SDK.

~~~
conradev
No, _declaring_ literals is a compiler technology that works with any SDK.

Subscripting requires runtime support in the form of `-[NSDictionary
objectForKeyedSubscript:]` and pals , available only in iOS6 and above:

[http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/cocoa/r...](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/cocoa/reference/foundation/Classes/NSDictionary_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/occ/instm/NSDictionary/objectForKeyedSubscript):

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interpol_p
Thank you for the correction — I was thinking of ARC and weak references when
I made that comment.

~~~
conradev
Actually, I stand corrected, indexed subscripting works back to iOS 5:

[https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/Object...](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#releasenotes/ObjectiveC/ObjCAvailabilityIndex/index.html)

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romeonova
Did you guys have trouble getting the app approved via app store? I read that
Apple sometimes reject dashboard type apps.

~~~
jeffd
I was very worried too, but we had no trouble getting approved.

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shade
I really like the idea and I will be checking this out, particularly since I
have a long-ish commute to the office.

I will say, though, that I think for the way my morning routine tends to go,
it would be more useful to me as a Mac app. I almost always look at my MBP in
the mornings before leaving for work, but rarely make a point of checking my
iPad, so I could see this being really useful for me as a full-screen Mac app,
where I can just leave it running on a space. Any plans in that direction? :)

~~~
jeffd
I've thought about a Mac app version of it, just haven't had the time to mock
it up and prototype it. I can you keep you posted on that front, but the next
thing on the list is iPhone support.

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dpcx
I'd be interested in a Mac app as well. I just signed up for the iPhone
mailing list :)

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zende
Nice!

I wake up every day around 5:30am and try to get up and going as quickly as I
can.

You nailed some of the key things I already do in the morning: \- check the
weather \- figure out what meetings I have for the day

The other thing I look for is if there was anything interesting for me that
happened while I was sleeping. The best example is how I check to see if there
are emails from specific people or internal monitoring services.

I could give you about 10 email addresses that I care about and get a digest
of emails just from those email address.

~~~
jeffd
Interesting idea. Are you thinking something along the lines of Mail.app's VIP
feature where certain e-mails are propagated to the top or are you just
talking about the content of mailing lists you subscribe to?

~~~
zende
Similar to how the VIP feature works but in the consolidated view that you've
created. I want to see everything in one place.

It's too easy to get distracted by other emails once I open Mail.app or, in my
case, Mailbox.

~~~
jeffd
Alright cool. I'll add it to the list of things to look into doing. :-)

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kposehn
Very nice.

I would love to have an API I could push information to. If I could have our
systems send dashboard updates it could alert me to system issues. That would
/own/.

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ddedden
This looks pretty sweet!

Just one question:

Was there any particular reason for the limiting of color schemes? Why not
just show the user a color wheel and let them choose whatever they want?

~~~
jeffd
No particular reason. Mostly just time, I want to get a color picker like that
in there someday.

~~~
ddedden
Ah, got it. Looks great! Looking forward to the next version update.

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hnriot
Traffic doesn't seem to be enabled for me. It's very sparse on information.
I'd like to be able to configure other "feeds"

~~~
jeffd
Tap on a panel and select the right circle. It'll give you more panels to
choose from.

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wj
I was just discussing personal dashboards last Friday specifically I was
looking for something to run on a Pi. Probably a web dashboard. I didn't
really find anything (Kipfolio seems to be the business one) so I ended up
registerding some domains. I was thinking of exploring it as my Startup
Engineering project.

Best of luck with Morning!

~~~
rcsorensen
I had some fantastic luck setting up custom dashboards with Dashing from
Shopify.

[http://shopify.github.io/dashing/](http://shopify.github.io/dashing/)

~~~
wj
Great link. Thanks!

Gonna need to start learning ruby.

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ZanderEarth32
Love the look.

Without having a chance to download it yet, how does the to-do list part work?
Is it pulling a to-do list from one of my current to-do list apps, or do I
need to create another one for this?

Any future chance for support for a Twitter feed or possibly an RSS feed?

Am I the only one that wished this is what the iOS 7 lock screen looks like?

~~~
jeffd
The to-do part is pulling them in from iOS' built in Reminders app. That means
you don't have to have yet another to-do app and it syncs via iCloud to your
Mac and other devices.

The same goes for the events/calendar panel. They are both using Apple's
EventKit API.

The news panel supports RSS feeds and Twitter is a possible option in the
future, I'll look into doing it.

~~~
buza
It would be great if the ycombinator RSS feed worked.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/rss](https://news.ycombinator.com/rss)

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Angostura
Can I ask who your weather forecast provider is? The only one I bother using
in the UK is the BBC or Met Office

~~~
jeffd
Forecast.io, They are awesome!

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mickcartwright
Hi - would be useful if I could have two instance of the weather app and be
able to specify locations. Add to that a tile with flight status - ideally
tied in to flightstats/flightaware/triptracker, or even better, my airlines
based on frequent flyer logins

~~~
jeffd
Multiple weather panels will be available in an update. We had it enabled in
beta versions, but it could get confusing so we only allowed one for 1.0.

The flight tracker idea is a good one, I'll look into it. Thanks!

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sycren
Looks nice and I really like the site design! Anyone know of a similar blog
design template?

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oellegaard
Would be great if commute could be either public transport or by bike - I
don't have a car, which in Denmark isn't very uncommon for city people.
Otherwise great app - now I just need a way for it to be on my TV when i eat
breakfast :D

~~~
jeffd
I live in a city too and don't have a car. I plan on adding public transit
support soon, because I really want it too.

~~~
DannoHung
Walking estimates too? Actually... I mean, I know how long it takes me to walk
to work, but it'd be good to just be able to punch a number in. (Maybe
automatically multiply by 1.1 or 1.2 when it's raining).

~~~
jeffd
I guess there are a lot of things you could factor in for walking, but an
average speed would probably get a close estimate in most cases.

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mickcartwright
Initial comments...I'd like to be able to add the weather app twice, and
specify locations not just 'my location' (I commute NY/Chicago

Next, stocks app gives no indication of time of change... 1 day?

Great idea, had high hopes but so far, not quite there

~~~
jeffd
Multiple weather panels will be allowed in a future update. We removed them
for the launch. Stocks will also get better.

Sorry that it's not there yet, but hopefully we'll do a better job with a few
more iterations and refinements.

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joeblau
This reminds me a lot of windows live tiles, but in an app. I think the
concept is great, but it would be better if this could somehow integrated into
the lock screen.

~~~
bhauer
I'm not an iOS user, but I agree. This reminded me of the sort of one-screen
dashboard I get from my Windows Phone home and Surface start menu.

It looks really clean and professionally designed. Bravo to the OP for a job
very well done.

Not being an iOS user, I'm not sure how readily you can extend the lock
screen, but I agree with joeblau. It's really handy to have a subset of these
data points on the lock-screen. I'd like to have TSLA right there before I
even swipe the lock screen away. :) That's not possible (to my knowledge) on
Windows.

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fourstar
What a great idea. Nice looking app

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TsiCClawOfLight
Do you happen to work on an android version, or is that simply too much work?

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samstokes
For something similar on Android, the Google Now home screen widget has some
of the same functionality and (presumably) philosophy, albeit with a more
minimal design.

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marknutter
I remember seeing a mockup of this on Dribbble a while back. Is the result?

~~~
jeffd
Yes it is! Chris and I have been working on this for the past few months since
that Dribbble post.
[http://dribbble.com/shots/780188-Morning](http://dribbble.com/shots/780188-Morning)

~~~
marknutter
Awesome, great work. I was hoping this would become a reality.

~~~
chrismasterson
Thanks! Happy to hear people like it.

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adamalix
Great work guys! Have a timeline for iPhone support?

~~~
jeffd
We plan to make it a universal app sometime in the near future. We just wanted
to focus on making it great on the iPad first, where we thought the concept
worked best.

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coolsank
Very nice!

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shank8
so basically they are trying to copy the flat design of Windows 8

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hxw
Nice!

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kenhaggerty
Nice.

