Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghshephard | Hacker News Reader

Interesting EULA clause for the Adobe AIR component - don't even think of trying to read your NYT on a Tablet PC unless you are running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition...

"...you may not use an Adobe Runtime on any (a) mobile device, set top box (STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet and Tablet PC (other than with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), game console, TV, DVD player, media center (other than with Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors), electronic billboard or other digital signage, Internet appliance or other Internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other consumer electronics device,"

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I just spent 30 minutes with this App - It's a winner. I've subscribed to the $3.45/week subscription.

I've been a NYT reader for the last seven years - it's basically my home page - but for whatever reason, the web edition obscures my sense of what the entire paper is offering. Keep in mind I read the NYT.com web page 3-5 times a day for about two hours, and, seven years later, I _still_ feel like I'm missing out from the "Paper" experience.

The NYT reader has the following features that I love:

o Flawless Article-Map. I've got my sections on the left, the article number on the bottom, and the page number on the bottom right (Though, with a 30" monitor it almost 100% of the time will fit an article onto a single page).

o Great navigation - Cursor Right/Left changes articles. Cursor Up/Down changes Page. Command Up/Down changes Section.

o It's the NYT Paper edition, delivered electronically Sometimes, having that authoritative "We commit this to history" version of the NYT is reassuring, for all its faults.

o Great resizing - Text, Graphics all relocate themselves very well - much better than the nyt.com page. This app works just as cleanly on a 30" monitor as it does a 15" monitor - which is rare for Newspaper readers.

o Much less advertising - I expect that will change, but it's nice to have a pristine page without having to load up your system with ad-blockers - just a single banner at the bottom right now.

o News in Video - All of the video news in a single section. (Great Video Article on West Point Cyber Warfare today, BTW)

o News in Pictures - Nice roundup of all the NYT pictures of the day.

o Latest News - A nice addition - gives you the dynamic element of nyt.com in addition to the authoritative version.

We'll see if I'm as hyper-enthusiastic a couple months from now, but, this is where I'm going for my NYT news. Need to see if WSJ (which has better charts/graphics than the NYT, particularly on the financial side) has a reader as nice as the NYT.

[Added:] Back in 1999/2000 or thereabouts, there was an earlier version of the NYT reader that I did _not_ like very much. It wasn't as nimble as the existing one, and , incredibly, didn't come out until quite late in the morning. There were several occasions when the -paper- edition was available before the electronic, and the web site was always more complete. Fail.

I'm happy to see the following note when I subscribed:

"Getting it first So fast, you get delivery while our presses are still running "

We'll see.

Thanks for the mini-review, sounds like they do deliver a better experience than the Web counterpart. What about links? say to comment on an article from a blog post, or following a link from another site to the NYT? I guess you still need the Web/HTML version for that.

Any reason why it can't be the same experience over a Web browser? Nothing wrong to try and sell subscriptions based on an enhanced experience, just that personally the NYT isn't worth $150+/yr.

Links: The NYT is pretty schizophrenic about links - most of the time they'll link to their own information on a link (ala Wikipedia, but nowhere near as useful), sometimes they'll link to an external resource (Marketwatch for companies), sometimes they'll actually link to the site under review (wolfram alpha) - all of them, of course, require internet access + your browser.

The good news is that all of these links are somehow maintained in the "Time Reader" version of the article - I have no idea how they accomplish that. Makes me think that the paper version is now a _derivative_ of some primary electronic version. Interesting.

Re: Same Experience in Web Browser - After I used Google Maps, I realized that Javascript can do pretty much anything, so I have to believe if someone really, really wanted to, they could create an application that would simulate the "Times Reader" in a browser. I'm guessing that the design team that did this for the NYT probably looked at the toolsets that were available, and that they knew, and just decided that AIR would be the fastest, easiest, and provide the best user experience. I'm guessing here.

First Major Flaw in Times Reader: Almost all figures, diagrams, and charts are missing. These are present in the Paper, Electronic Edition, and nyt.com. In some cases you barely notice the missing diagram, but in others, such as the Lincoln Center Remodel article, in which _the entire diagram showing the remodeled Lincoln Center - including colored elements showing what has been completed, and what is under construction_ - it's a gaping hole.

Particularly painful are the missing graphs/charts for business articles. WSJ is typically better than NYT, but eliminating them altogether seriously devalues the Times Reader.

How would a company enforce that? Is the NYT going to start suing customers? Cutting off their access?

How is any EULA enforced? I think the goal is not so much to "prevent" as it is to clearly indicate that it isn't "approved."

[EDIT] I'm guessing they put that "No Tablet" option to ensure they get a licensing chunk from vendors who might want to sell inexpensive tablet that run on the AIR platform.

Edit: On further reading everything I speculated below is pretty much wrong and inapplicable.

That, and now that people are paying for subscriptions they (pragmatically, if not strictly legally) have to guarantee a particular level of user experience.

Even though AIR is cross platform (write-once look almost same almost anywhere) having only a single platform that's legal to use helps cut down on customer support headaches.

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