

Hacker News reader for iPhone (new native app) - grinich
http://michaelgrinich.com/hackernews/

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ironkeith
I don't know about this; it doesn't appear to support authentication, or allow
me to upvote/downvote (I get that it probably _can't_ ). My only gripe with
using HN in Mobile Safari is that sometimes when I go to upvote/downvote I
press the wrong one (my thumb lacks precision). This doesn't solve that
problem for me, so I can't really see myself spending $2 for increased
padding.

~~~
grinich
Login, voting, and commenting was planned from the start and is coming within
the next couple weeks. (ie: after my exams) Most of it is already built-out
and just needs some polish.

Here's what it looks like now: <https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4595/hn-vote.png>

~~~
dkokelley
That's what I'm waiting for before buying a hacker news app.

Suggestion: For UI consistency, I would put the upvote for stories on the left
of the title, in the same spot it is for comment upvotes. It might just be a
personal taste thing, but I could see myself downvoting something on accident,
by pressing the button where the submission upvote usually goes. I like that
the up/downvote buttons are on opposite sides of the comment. It should keep
fat fingers from miss-voting.

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larrykubin
Thanks, great job. I often load up the icombinator.net site when lying around
the house, but it crashes frequently. One thing I do like about that site is
the instapaper link that quickly lets me save a bunch of articles for later.
It'd be a nice addition to your app.

Are there other HN readers I should be aware of? Anything that makes it easy
to browse comment threads on a small screen without a lot of zooming and
panning is great.

~~~
grinich
Support for Instapaper is something I'm hearing a lot. It's definitely on the
list, and something I'd like myself.

~~~
wallflower
Nice job. What are using to parse the source HTML?

I like how you got the initial version out there. No commenting, etc. but the
start of a decent HN client. Comments are now easy to read (though I would
round the borders just a little for a less sharp look)

On my scope creep list, I would like a landscape orientation with lock (might
be private API though there is a news reader called News Feed Elite that does
it). And a way to bookmark/"watch" certain comments.

~~~
sacrilicious
I would doubt that's a private API if the Kindle app is utilizing it(a little
lock icon appears in the bottom right corner.)

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jbrun
Please add a feature to Read it Later via Instapaper, very key for me (just
bought the app).

~~~
jparise
Definitely. That's one of my favorite features of
<http://www.icombinator.net/>.

~~~
sacrilicious
You'll pardon me if I'm noticing the coincidence between the current down
status of icombinator and this submission, I wonder if it's the same developer
behind both?

~~~
grinich
Nope. Unrelated.

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mitchellh
Sorry for the slightly off topic, but I can't watch the video for this app due
to the following. Its probably an issue with Vimeo but I figured I'd just post
it here.

My flash debug player through this off for the video player, seems that vimeo
is missing a crossdomain.xml on their assets server? Or I have a finicky flash
player.

    
    
      SecurityError: Error #2123: Security sandbox violation: Loader.content: http://bitcast.vimeo.com/vimeo/swf/moogaloop_np.swf?clip%5Fid=8131906&server=vimeo%2Ecom&show%5Ftitle=0&show%5Fbyline=0&show%5Fportrait=1&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=1&embed%5Flocation=http%253A%252F%252Fmichaelgrinich%2Ecom%252Fhackernews%252F&moogaloop%5Ftype=moogaloop cannot access http://assets.vimeo.com/portraits/defaults/d.75.jpg. No policy files granted access.
    	at flash.display::Loader/get content()
    	at com.as3.moogaloop4::ClipInfo/onPortraitComplete()
    	at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    	at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    	at com.as3.classes.loader::MassLoader/onComplete()
    	at com.as3.classes.loader::MassLoader/onFileComplete()
    	at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    	at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    	at com.as3.classes.loader.items::ImageItem/onComplete()

~~~
grinich
Hmm. I'll check it out. What's your browser/os?

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bensummers
Could you do something like Readability on the article text? One of the most
painful things about reading HN on the iPhone is waiting for the stuff around
the article to load. Even having an option to only load images on demand would
be a good start.

<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>

~~~
danh
One way to achieve almost the same effect is through Google's mobile
reformatting thingy:

<http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=news.ycombinator.com>

Fast, simple and ugly as hell...

~~~
jeremyw
Whoa, my eyes are bleeding, but surfing just got 10x faster.

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alttab
You sir, win my money.

I'm willing to invest $2 to see where this could go.

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richardburton
Awesome work. Well worth £1.19.

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mlLK
I pretty ignorant when it comes to mobile apps, so please excuse me for
asking, why is developing another interface for web-site X such a common
phenomena? It seems redundant and unnecessary to create this extra interface
and call it an application when a browser would do just fine.

~~~
roryokane
I don't have a smartphone, so this is a guess. I think that people on mobile
devices might find some aspects of the normal interface of a site hard to use
on their device, such as accidentally pressing upvote when you meant downvote
because they are so close. If there is a mobile version of the site on the
web, this can be solved, but usually, the makers of the site don't want to
bother making another version. Therefore, it's up to the users of the site to
write an app that essentially translates the normal site into the app writer's
idea of a mobile version. I suppose this could also be implemented as a
website that acts as a proxy for the original site and changes the page before
serving it, instead of an app.

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socmoth
I use the one that is already in the app store, and has been for weeks. Made
by someone in the YC community.

Otherwise, looks nice.

~~~
aristoxenus
grinich is actually a pretty well-regarded member of the HN community:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grinich>

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michaelneale
Thanks for this. I really need to have auth/voting though. Will upgrade be
free for that ? (as if so, I should buy it to support it).

~~~
grinich
Yes, it will be a free upgrade.

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j_baker
_Another_ HN reader? The market seems a bit overcrowded for how many people
there are browsing the site.

~~~
axod
Also the website in safari works pretty well :/

~~~
jws
Until you try to open a comment thread and catch the next article down, or
heaven help you try to poke the up/down arrows.

Still, most of that could be handled with just a little white space between
articles on the front page.

~~~
axod
I'm pretty used to browsing websites on the iphone. Zoom works fine for little
buttons. It's pretty usable IMHO

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norswap
Paid ? Seriously.

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PhilChristensen
Great, another glorified RSS reader for $2

~~~
josefresco
Behold the power of an open market (assuming Apple is okay with it) where you-
too can create an app with basic functionality and charge money for it. I have
no issue with these types of apps as I know many people who will pay for
simple, effective apps.

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EvilTrout
Is this the App that spammed me on Twitter because I mentioned Hacker News? No
thanks!

