HN iPhone App Live (free; unofficial but very functional) | Hacker News Reader

HN iPhone App Live (free; unofficial but very functional)

danielodio.com

13 pointsdrodio25 comments

Would love the HN community's feedback on what else you'd like to see in the app.

We're just moving our company to SF, so this is a housewarming gift of sorts, from AppMakr, the tool used to create the app.

Open articleView on HN

All I really want is a Hacker News app that allows you to vote, view/reply to comments, and formats all content on news.ycombinator.com into a mobile-friendly format. Is there an app that does that?

Yeah would love to put the voting functionality into the app. Would need PG's involvement to do that.

Is that because you're digesting the data through RSS? Scraping would get you the data you need to provide full functionality.

Yes correct re: digesting via RSS.

Mine does all that. :-)

http://michaelgrinich.com/hackernews/

Looks like a glorified RSS reader...I thought Apple was going to stop accepting apps like this?

Fletchowns, AppMakr started with RSS because most sites spin it off, . If by "glorified" you mean:

1) app uses location for parsing Geo data 2) app has push notifications 3) app has a media photo gallery 4) app can store content offline, i.e., in subway

... then the answer's yes. But while AppMakr uses RSS as a data transport mechanism, the view layer has gotten pretty sophisticated.

I'd say the app is pretty useful - but give it a go and tell me what you think.

All things that can be done in the browser, except for push notifications, which are completely unnecessary for a site like HN.

Have you tried reading HN on the iPhone? The fact that HN links to each article means you have to wait for each story you want to read to load... downloading it all for quick / offline reading is a huge plus

Disclaimer: I'm the brother of the poster, so I'm biased.

This is actually pretty cool since you can read the stories inline (instead of pulling up the iPhone's browser interface). That said, it would be nice to have the option to pull up a browser in case I wanted to navigate around on the source site.

Oh, and bro, you have to tell Isaac and Sean to stop spamming your posts with upvotes and comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1118734. They're cramping your style.

Edit: Thanks Sean for removing your comment on this post.

So it robs the content provider of any ad revenue?

Hmmm an interesting question. Seems that the culture around RSS isn't set like other mediums are. For example, when you put an RSS feed on your site - a feed that a content site owner made available - you're keeping the user off the original content owner's site too. Interestingly, the RSS feed that I pulled to put content into the app (http://andrewtrusty.com/2009/06/29/readable-feeds/ by Andrew Trusty) has 578,925 "hits" (don't know if he means subscribers).

So I guess in a round about way I'm asking, is taking that existing (awesome) and publicly available feed and putting it into a mobile app for consumption on the go what bothers you, or just the fact that the feed exists in the first place? - DROdio

Hey bro, yes you can actually do that today. Here's how:

Just hit the little arrow button on the top right of a story, and you can view in browser, share in email & Twitter, or, of course, share in Facebook. Wouldn’t want to forget that one ;)

Screenshots on how to do this at http://go.DanielOdio.com/HNapp

Nice, I wonder if you will squish the guy whose app I already bought for this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news/id339408916?mt=8

Andrew, how does this app compare to the one you bought?

Dunno, someday I might download your app, but right now it seems like an advertisement for your app makr platform, and I'm kind of busy and happy with what I have.

I'm actually quite a fan of that little app - it works quite well. Possibly overpriced (should probably be free or 59p) but, importantly, it's simple and gets the job done.

This seems like it has a lot of features I would never need or use. Things like needing my current location and sending out push notifications seem a little gratuitous too, but maybe that's just me.

Elliot, thx; tell me what you think about it if you end up downloading both, i.e., the photo galleries, Twitter feeds, Meetup info, etc.

€2.40 too much? Seriously? I have paid more than that for 100g of chocolate.

I paid the money - so evidently I think its an acceptable amount to pay.

But we're talking about something that is competing with a free application.

I don't get why every website needs an iPhone app..

Try using this app on the go and see what you think - I've found that I read HN 2x as often by having this app - and it's fast, i.e., I don't have to wait for a web page to load, which makes it so I end up reading more. - DROdio

Considering my iPhone 3G safari is so slow I only use it in emergencies, I will take your advice.

Great & please let me know if there are other HN related feeds or content you'd like to see in the app. I can publish changes pretty quickly.

I'll try to remember to do that. Thanks!

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