nicw

I'm interested in knowing how they came to these conclusion? Focus groups? User testing? They mention Google Analytics but that won't tell you that users are overwhelmed by the amount of text on your page.

Complaining about bitcoin articles on HN is like complaining about Ron Paul articles on Digg.

I thought this was an Onion article at first.

They aren't competing with their customers - you cannot book a flight on the site. You have to take the booking information ITA provides and call the airline yourself.

A lot of people. "Bruce Almighty" used a real number and it caused a lot of hassle for the owner. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/27/entertainment/main...

Don't think they'll find anyone willing to contribute design effort. No graphic designer would want to add this page to their Design Portfolio.

Whether or not this experience works for everyone, I have found that Apple laptops/desktops hold their value much longer than their PC counterparts. I'm not sure if its because Apple tends to spec their machines more on the mid to high-end of capabilities that allow them to be used longer in a changing market.

This is a real stretch.

Well written. There are so many little things that serial entrepreneurs have learned that each successive company moves faster. The point about first-time entrepreneurs having trouble with the company side is true, and groups like YC are geared to assist in that aspect so the founder can focus on the product.

But take someone who is building a great product, and who has the experience for building the company around the product, and you've got a better combination than just a first-timer with a product.

There are lots of areas that non-programmers can flesh out, especially for a startup. Be honest with yourself - just because "you should do everything" doesn't mean that you are great at everything. While you're focusing on what you are great at (programming), a non-programmer can be talking up potential clients, creating the marketing pages, working out the go-to-market strategy. This other person could be a kickass designer and they could be building all your collateral.

Comparative advantage is huge here. Yes, you could probably fill out all the business incorporation paperwork, write all the copy,etc,etc - but having another person do that work lets you focus on your primary skill.

Biggest thing for me working w/non-programmers? They keep me focused on building features that are useful to users. They still applaud the non-noticeable things like a sweet Hadoop cluster I built but the overall focus on product is key.

like a boss.

Grad school can be like that, moreso if others outside of grad school appear to be moving faster. I'm near the end of my program and I know I've spent most of those 3 years battling my decision whenever I get inspired by someone else's work and want to start my own thing. The good thing though is you can turn that energy into planning your steps, and when you're done with your program you've got a more coherent concept of what you want to leap into.

I like it! Tried it on a couple non mainstream sites and it parsed everything pretty well. I think I would use it more on my phone or iPad than a desktop, cool that it works on mobile devices.

I came here just to post that exact thought!

I think part of this problem is that Stack Overflow will make users wait 2 minutes before voting an answer as correct, so they go the easiest route and leave a comment thanking the correct author instead.

I agree with the above. Keep in mind that a lot of what you take for granted in a native app you'll have to build yourself. Scroll inertia, image carousels, determining a "flick" vs a tap, fixed tab bar - these are all something that haven't been 100% figured out. Yes, you can find solutions for each one, but try putting them all together and you quickly see the conflicts. Add in some caching of data and you'll learn that the HTML5 cache concept is different for each device.

I've tackled these issues personally, and at my company (iPad app). Keep in mind that your users will demand that your app at least feel native, if not the same UI controls. You think that you'll have the freedom to run on each platform, but in reality you'll be dealing with the quirks of each platform and that will set you back some dev time. Webkit is not 100% the same on each browser

What Phonegap gives you is a demarcation point to drop in your HTML code - and that's it. If you need API access for accelerometer, vibrate, etc then Phonegap can help. If your app is focused more on the user experience, then Phonegap cannot help you.

Do you really want to launch an app that will feel awkward on every platform, or just develop a native app for each major platform? That platform space isn't as large as you might think - iOS, Android, <pick your consumer markets third>

I'm a mobile product manager by day, my contact info is in my profile if you have any more questions.

There is quite a demand for a lightweight Phonegap app that calls on remote pages, but frameworks like JQTouch don't handle remote injection of pages (breaks navigation, tapping,etc).

I hope to see JQM support this without a lot of fiddling. It would be killer to have an app that was essentially PhoneGap + JQM UI + loading of JQM-compliant pages. No XML request, parsing, mapping to UI elements needed.

Definitely improved, this is an addicting concept! Nice work.

Cool idea, but the potato keeps going to people who are dropping it rather than to new people. If they drop it more than a couple times then they should be pushed down the queue.

Is anybody else concerned about what a rogue app could do to your car? The SDK supports mostly read-only operations so that is better, but I'd be concerned if something like repeated status polling would impact my car while driving....

A good project manager knows to bring both the client and the designer together in one room, and not be the gateway of information. This article is just a rant about the issues someone is having with a particular project manager.