Show HN: An app that improves your vocabulary and feeds poor children | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: An app that improves your vocabulary and feeds poor children

play.google.com

26 pointsaddydev29 comments

I think it's a little deceptive that none of your screenshots show ads, when this app prominently displays ads.

So this is an app-based equivalent of the long-running http://freerice.com/ site?

Freerice is great, funny thing is I came across it a few months only but I loved the concept and had been thinking of doing something similar. Helping people improve their vocabulary 5 words a day is an idea that's years old for me. Hence the app is a combination of both.

"part of the money from sponsorship goes to donation"

Can you elaborate on what part, and to whom specifically?

Also, many of the reviews are from users without any history.

Apps are already shady, add to this a promise to donate money and you get a down right scam feel from this.

Hi there, I hope I have replied to your query with my answer above. Please don't call this a 'scam', as a self taught coder, had to work pretty hard to launch this app. Most of the reviews you see are from friends and family. They know me, trust me and know that what I am doing is not a scam. Nothing shady about it buddy.

I understand your defensiveness to his blasting, but it's feedback (although cloaked in antagonistic language). By responding you draw attention to it. I'd ignore and see if others say same thing.

I do agree with him on one thing: "feed poor children" can send a negative message. For him its scammy, for me it's "ugh another poorly thought through tom's knock off?" Because feeding poor children isn't at all connected to first world people learning new vocab.

Unless you really believe in feeding poor children and you have a good story to back it up and you can quickly communicate that, something that would make more sense is something related to literacy. "Learn new vocab and donate books to poor children" sounds a lot better.

The money goes to Akshaya Patra, they can provide food for a child for an year for just Rs.750, everyday when a visit to the app is made, 10 paise is donated. Hope that answers your query. Furthermore, we started on 22 Jan, donations will be made bimonthly, hence the first donation will be made on 23 March.

Nice idea, I like that "part of the money from sponsorship goes to donation".

But, the ads can be done better, maybe try to position them at the bottom of the screen, now they are right below the description for the word (where the descriptions vary in length).

Also be sure to have an app icon in a higher resolution. This one doesn't look good on 1080p screens.

Sure will definitely improve the app icon :). Ads hopefully will removed in all if I am able to get sponsorships. Then the page showing support us will show the sponsored message

Nice idea. I'll give it s spin once the permissions are dialed back a bit.

Seems like a nice compliment to a daily visit to Free Rice (a habit I need to get back into). Daily learning is good. Charity is good. What's not to like?

Yeah, the list of permissions asked seems a bit excessive, definitely kept me from installing the app.

The app has been updated, no more annoying permissions.

They will be removed in the next update for sure.

I'd have more faith in an app that claims it can teach me new words, if "coffee" was spelled correctly when I use it! ("...help us buy a coffe")

Apologies for that... really really silly mistake. Corrected. Thanks for pointing out.

why does it need all those permissions?

Sorry about that, will remove them in the next update for sure :)

Please, let us know when you push the update. It's terrible requiring so much permissions..

Sure, but can anybody tell me how can I inform you guys about the update? Shall I post the app again or anything else? Pretty new here.

The app has been updated. Permissions removed :)

That is a hell of a lot of permissions for what you are doing:

    Identity
    	* find accounts on the device
    
    Contacts
    	* read your contacts
    	* modify your contacts
    
    Location
    	* approximate location (network-based)
    	* precise location (GPS and network-based)
    	* access extra location provider commands
    
    Phone
    	* read call log
    	* write call log
    
    Photos / Media / Files
    	* modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
    	* read the contents of your USB storage
    
    Camera
    	* take pictures and videos
    
    Microphone
    	* record audio
    
    Device ID & call information
    	* read phone status and identity
    
    Other
    	* receive data from Internet
    	* full network access
    	* view network connections
    	* change your audio settings
    	* control vibration
    	* prevent device from sleeping

Is this a problem with Android APIs? Does the ability to show a sponsor advert require detailed location, etc?

I'm always surprised by how relatively simple apps seem to require such broad access.

Apologies, most of them are for advertisement, but a lot of them are unnecessary, update coming soon.

Ads can get location from IP.

Hey guys, the app has been updated to remove the permissions.

Is there a similar app for japanese language?

Are you looking for Japanese translations or an app that teaches you Japanese words?

App that teaches me Japanese words, but in small portions :)

If there's a staff-made course for it on Memrise, I'd recommend that. I'm using the Chinese one, and it's perfect for small chunks and avoiding being overloaded. The charity aspect is probably better dealt with by simply donating directly, ads make essentially no money in comparison to consulting or even minimum wage.

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