

Show HN: My November(++) Project. Facebook Stream Reader for Mac - terhechte

Hey,<p>In early November there there were a couple of threads encouraging other fellow HN'ers to finish, and release a project by the end of November.<p>I decided to try to hit that goal, but in the end my meticulous attention-to-detail prevented me from finishing the app in November and it took until end of December to finish it (sadly, that required me to work through through the Christmas Holidays). So, even though it was only 2.x month, a lot of work (and lots of little-sleep-nights) went into that project.<p>Of course, I could have continued developing forever, because there's still so much that I'd like to implement - but given the 'release early and often' mantra I was already pretty late to the party.<p>But now it is ready, and even better in time for the Mac App Store opening, as it is a Mac App.<p>The name is: Clarity<p>http://www.clarity-app.com<p>Clarity is a Facebook desktop client for the Mac that aims at simplifying your friends' news streams. Facebook offers with its News Streams a feature that is very similar to Twitter but oftentimes succeeds where Twitter fails as more of your close friends are probably on Facebook and so it is easier to feel connected.<p>However, even though there are a couple of very good desktop Twitter clients (Tweetie, Echofon, Kiwi, etc), there are far less desktop Facebook Stream clients. My idea was to develop a Facebook Stream client, that would run on my desktop and inform me of the newest events in my friends‘ lives.<p>An important objective behind Clarity was to support very good desktop integration of the Facebook News Stream and to clear it up so that it looks and feels more streamlined and less cluttered. This means Clarity is first and foremost a Facebook News Stream Reader. It sorts your news stream, clears it up, and offers enhanced filtering options.<p>I also added enhanced security features, so that one can only write status updates to certain friends groups or only read from certain friends.<p>- - - - - - - -<p>I'd love your opinion. Do you think this targets a viable market? I build this in my spare time, so I hope that will turn out to be a worthwhile investment (however then again, the learning experience that I had so far already almost made it worthwhile).
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esteth
First off, the website looks like a 2005 web hosting provider's website,
complete with glossy gradients and a huge horizontal banner, which put me off.

Also, my eye isn't drawn to anything on the page that says "THIS IS FACEBOOK
FOR MAC", perhaps you need to remove some of the explanation text and make the
title at the very top more obvious? I'm not a designer though, so ymmv.

Finally, I can't for the life of me find a download link, so I'll go from the
screenshot: It doesn't feel very "mac-ish" or polished. It looks like a
thrown-together website inside a single-site browser, if I'm honest.

Now for the good: I'd be very willing to pay up to £5 pounds for a reasonably-
featured facebook for desktop client, especially if it included basic twitter
functionality as well, and felt at home on my mac. The idea is good,
especially with the App Store coming out soon, and the influx of "gotta have
an app for everything" users it might bring.

PS: Those screenshots should be taken with opt-shift-4 space click instead of
opt-shift-3. I don't want to see your desktop, and it just makes the picture
of the app become shrunken even at reasonable sizes of browser window.

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terhechte
Thanks for the insight!

The screenshots are the same as on the App Store right now, where Apple
demands 1280x800 screenshots. But I'll follow your thinking and remove the
status bar in those screenshots so it is only the app on a small part of the
desktop.

I thought that the site was looking well, same goes for the looks of the app.
I also got pretty good beta tester feedback for that. Could you pinpoint your
criticism by providing some links to sites you like? That would be great!

Again, thanks for your criticism! :)

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terhechte
Oh, and I almost forgot: How much would you be willing to pay for such an app?

