Combinator v1.1 - A simple Hacker News client for Windows Phone. | Hacker News Reader

Combinator v1.1 - A simple Hacker News client for Windows Phone.

windowsphone.com

49 pointsmiguelos27 comments

I don't own a windows phone and don't use any of these kind of apps, but doesn't the own existence of web site related apps represents a failure of said website to provide a decent web interface to mobile platforms?

I'm not referring in particular to hacker news or to this app, but websites in general that "need" a mobile app to properly or easily use it.

The HN layout is not really optimized for mobile. The text is quite small, and upvoting is a pain.

So, in summary, yes, yes it does :)

http://ihackernews.com/ is an excellent Hacker News mobile website. It also provides the third-party Hacker News API used by Combinator.

The problem is that Windows Phone doesn't allow users to pin website icons to their start screen (you can pin a static web page preview but it doesn't look very good). Fortunately, http://www.web2tile.com solves this issue, but not enough people are aware it exists. I may try to build a native app for it, but I'm not sure Microsoft would allow it.

I own a Windows Phone and I use ihackernews daily for browsing. web2tile looks interesting, though I seem to have a preference of not pinning websites (I just bookmark them).

Hi Miguel, you beat me to it :-).

I just released my app today: http://www.windowsphone.com/nl-NL/apps/c7c617bb-689b-476d-a3...

Working on comments....

I just had a look at it, going back from a page to the listings gives a full second of a lag/black screen while the Top article screen is being recreated.

You truncate all the article titles. Don't do that, it means I can't read them.

I tried to create the app as closely as the mail app which does exactly the same with truncating, it is part of the Metro style. If you click on an item you will see the full item title.

I'll look into the animation between the item page and main page.

Damn, your app looks great (and very similar to Combinator v1.0).

Comments are tricky, I'm also working on them.

To be honest, I think I prefer your app to my app :P Just move the about section somewhere else (and link to it from the application bar menu). You should also sync the details animations.

Where do you get your data from? Do you use data scraping?

Very sexy. Wish I could get this for Android.

Yeah, it is so hard to edit and type from Android. The best times to read and comment are when I would be unproductive like riding a metro or train or sitting at an airport, but it is so hard to type and edit.

Shameless plug: here's my (free) Hacker News app for Android. I've tried my hardest to make it sexy. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.airlocksoftware.ha...

Sweet! I was wondering if someone would point one out for me.

This is nice. Would love to see a webOS version =)

I usually use iCombinator but it seems that it times out quite a bit and the formatting is iffy (width)

Looks nice, really very nice, but it has the same fundamental problem as other HN apps - too few items per page. I really want 20-30 headlines in teenie-tiny, but legible font. Content density is the main visual property of the original site and no mobile client has reproduced it faithfully yet. Still waiting... ;)

20-30 headlines on a phone? On my 1400x900 laptop screen, I only see 23.

App looks very nice. Just one issue: How can I see comments? This is a major point for me and a better interface would help, it's impossible to read comments on a small screen via the web interface.

The scrollbar could also use more visibility.

I agree. The app works well enough but the main reason I want to use it is for comment support.

For the moment, you can read posts using iHackerNews (that's the quick solution I came out with). I'm working on native comments but it will take some time (don't expect it this month, I'm too busy).

Thanks for the feedback.

How was your experience with Caliburn Micro?

Not so good. MVVM is fairly new to me and I find hard not to just use code-behind.

I think I prefer MVVM Light, mostly because of design-time data.

Very nice! I have been looking for a nice app for WP. thx

Awesome! Now I want a good one for the iPad, please!

Thanks dude. I like this.

very cool fonts and typography in general, great work.

sweet

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