Forget apps, OnSwipe is the future of publishing. | Hacker News Reader

Forget apps, OnSwipe is the future of publishing.

thenextweb.com

If the future of publishing is an ipad friendly Wordpress theme the industry is in more trouble than I could conceive. This kind of absurd hyperbole makes it hard to take small but interesting ideas seriously.

You're sincerely mistaken if you think that's the end game for us or that the smart people involved would bet on something that small.

Of course there's got to be more to it - but he could be forgiven, given the content of the article you posted.

So, tell us more.

Smart people are involved. What more do you need to know?

Everything.

I think he was being sarcastic. At least I hope so.

If I am mistaken it is indeed sincere as there is nothing in that article to even hint at anything more.

So one thing I notice on HN a lot (here and in the Qwiki thread) is that people have a tendency to belittle projects without enough information. "That's just X, and X isn't very hard" or whatever.

It's sickening, and the people that do this are vigorously indicating they have at best shallow reasoning facilities.

Some really great companies have much lower profiles than you might expect. Try not to draw conclusions on limited data, or at least understand the quality of said conclusions.

These companies should wait until they actually have something cool before making statements like "Forget apps, OnSwipe is the future of publishing."

'Apps are bullshit for content,' says Baptiste who refers to native apps as 'PDF readers'' and equates them to a Ponzi scheme for publishers.'

I really don't understand that quote. I didn't watch the video so perhaps there is some context I am missing...How are apps a Ponzi scheme?

I think he's talking about this: http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/post/2731809145/submitted-by-serget...

Basically, everyone wants to make their own branded apps, but few people are actually going to bother to buy them. The publishers are the victims, not the guys at the top of the pyramid, it's the app makers who're going to profit.

It's not a Ponzi scheme though, is it?

It might be a scam, but for it to be a Ponzi scheme, the developers would need to use the money they get from the first publishers to, say, buy the apps they've developed to show it gets great returns to get new publishers to pay... (or something like that)

Yeah, I'm not sure the analogy is a great one.

The article is a little breathless in its style... hard to see how there is any sort of barrier to entry being raised for another competitor to do the same thing.

http://www.ridesurfboard.com was posted on here the other day in an ask hn. Seems like this "niche" is starting to already get crowded by a bunch of people scrambling to get a piece of the Flipboard pie.

So how does this make money? Is it also an ad network, or am I just paying for a platform that allows me to sell ipad ads effectively?

Red Bull sponsorship? :-)

Looks neat but not revolutionary at all. I don't think each content provider needs their own app but what's the problem with using a mobile friendly format and letting RSS readers do the extra work?

Pulse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...

I should really really clarify: the demo shown in the video is of PadPressed, the precursor to OnSwipe. Think of padpressed as the equivalent of our "university research project". OnSwipe is a much much larger evolution from that and encompasses a lot more.

I don't really get this. Do publishers use Wordpress? Why are they so proud that it is not an app? Why is this better?

Many many publishers use Wordpress, especially their VIP program. Wordpress powers 10% of the web (Tony Conrad, partner at true ventures tweeted this, will post as reference).

We're working with more than WP as a CMS, but it's a huge install base.

Things real people dont say about reading publications: "We need more engaging advertising".

Fuck everything, we're doing a Wordpress theme!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com