I've been using MiniHack as my HN app, and while it has its issues (most frustratingly, the popup that notifies me that I've just upvoted/downvoted a comment), it's the most feature rich HN client I've seen yet, so it's a bit hard for me to switch to this just yet.
That said, I tried it out and here's my feedback for HNbuddy:
- This looks really nice, and loads comments super fast for me!
- An iPad version of HNBuddy would be nice. I'd be willing to pay for that, maybe as an IAP?
- Support for commenting, new posts, currently it's more of a "reader", which may be the intention, not sure.
- No ability to downvote? I can downvote in MiniHack and the regular website but not in HNBuddy
I've long been very frustrated by the search for a “perfect” HackerNews client for iOS (this is a thread I posted here a while ago asking for suggestions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15838104 ).
I really like HNBuddy. It cannot become my main client until there's a dedicated iPad version and until it allows me to comment, but I really like it and look forward to watching your improvements.
Does this download/preload all comments? This is one feature I can't find anywhere except for HN Zero[0].
When HN Zero loads the list of stories, it pulls all comment threads down too. That way I can read the comments when I'm in the subway.
HN Zero is great but it's a bit dated at this point and lacks some other features that I've learned to live without (no copy/paste from comments, no sharing of links, no iPhone X support).
In any case, I'll try this out. Congrats on shipping!
1. Nice touch open sourcing the credential handling code. Obviously there is no way for an end user to actually verify that the code posted is indeed what ships but it adds to your credibility. I wish more apps would extend that small effort!
2. The mobile landing page is better than most “serious business” app mobile landing pages. I would totally hire you to do just that for my apps if my budget was more than $0.
3. Is there a way to comment from within the app?
4. Maybe add active to the filter drop down in addition to show, ask, and jobs? HN has some hidden filters like “active” which are very useful.
1. Btw, I'm counting on/hoping for other devs to review this part of the code and make it more trustworthy. I don't think I can do anything more to guarantee that's the actual shipped code?
2. Thanks a lot
3. Not yet. I'm planning on implementing that in an upcoming version
1. Please have an option to turn off the reader function. I'd like to go straight to the URL rather than a parsed reader.
2. Main page is a little bit busy. Would recommend playing with the font size / weight. The first thing most people do is skim through the headlines, having kearning / a higher weight of font would help with that.
3. I find it odd that the url / time posted is above the title. Would be nice the match the main HN page and place that below the title. Just changes the mental model slightly enough to be annoying.
Definitely fast and elegant. I like it very much! I thought at first, that it didn't show comment threads with indents, I almost missed the "X replies" label. I like it the way it is, however.
Just two things:
1. In the "Lists"-tab, it says "synched". I'm not a native speaker, but I guess that should be "synced"?
2. Maybe I just missed it, but: Is there any way to submit a comment from within the app?
Thank you for this it looks promising. Just a couple minor constructive criticism points that are personally keeping me on minihack.
1: I need the ability to swipe back from anywhere on the screen, i’m unable to reach all the way to the left edge most of the time.
2: The ability to up the density of posts/comments on the page. I really like seeing as much content as possible without a ton of dead space and scrolling.
2. That doesn't seem complicated to add! Seeing the feedbacks here really gets me motivated to improve the app, so I'll try to add this in an upcoming version.
You normally get it for free if you're using a UINavigationController, see interactivePopGestureRecognizer.
I've never touched it beyond letting the default one work, but it's probably done using UIScreenEdgePanGestureRecognizer. If there's another gesture being grabbed by the active view (like scrolling) you might need to tell your UIGestureRecognizerDelegate to allow the gestures simultaneously.
EDIT - Oh I see, parent comment doesn't like the system standard of swiping from the edge of the screen. So that'd be a regular pan gesture recognizer, and probably trickier to do at the same time as scroll view.
I'd be hesitant to take that suggestion, since it means you'd never be able to use a "swipe right" gesture on the individual list items, like what you see in Mail for marking a message as read/unread.
Here's another feature suggestion, shamelessly lifted from the Apollo reddit client. Long press on the navigation bar to toggle between light and dark theme.
I'd also point out that your "sliders" icon for the settings tab is rather unconventional on iOS. Users will expect a gear icon to represent settings.
10/10 for the landing page. your landing page to appstore conversion rate would be to the roof I guess. As other folks were asking, commenting and posting would complete the experience.
Readit News
That said, I tried it out and here's my feedback for HNbuddy:
- This looks really nice, and loads comments super fast for me!
- An iPad version of HNBuddy would be nice. I'd be willing to pay for that, maybe as an IAP?
- Support for commenting, new posts, currently it's more of a "reader", which may be the intention, not sure.
- No ability to downvote? I can downvote in MiniHack and the regular website but not in HNBuddy
- A lighter Darker theme
I focused on the "passive" usage of HN for this first version.
I'll add the downvote feature (along with the post/comment submission feature) in the next major update.
I really like HNBuddy. It cannot become my main client until there's a dedicated iPad version and until it allows me to comment, but I really like it and look forward to watching your improvements.
Thanks for bringing this.
echo 'L xvh wklv dss hyhubgdb, dqg L oryh lw!' | tr '[D-ZA-Cd-za-c]' '[A-Za-z]'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher
Well played @tsucres. Well played.
When HN Zero loads the list of stories, it pulls all comment threads down too. That way I can read the comments when I'm in the subway.
HN Zero is great but it's a bit dated at this point and lacks some other features that I've learned to live without (no copy/paste from comments, no sharing of links, no iPhone X support).
In any case, I'll try this out. Congrats on shipping!
[0]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-zero/id764890985...
But I'm adding this on my list of potential new features for next versions!
1. Nice touch open sourcing the credential handling code. Obviously there is no way for an end user to actually verify that the code posted is indeed what ships but it adds to your credibility. I wish more apps would extend that small effort!
2. The mobile landing page is better than most “serious business” app mobile landing pages. I would totally hire you to do just that for my apps if my budget was more than $0.
3. Is there a way to comment from within the app?
4. Maybe add active to the filter drop down in addition to show, ask, and jobs? HN has some hidden filters like “active” which are very useful.
2. Thanks a lot
3. Not yet. I'm planning on implementing that in an upcoming version
4. I'm going to look into that!
Thank you very much for your feedback!
Not without way too much work (which would never satisfy everyone).
Reproducible Signal builds for Android | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11399893
1. Please have an option to turn off the reader function. I'd like to go straight to the URL rather than a parsed reader.
2. Main page is a little bit busy. Would recommend playing with the font size / weight. The first thing most people do is skim through the headlines, having kearning / a higher weight of font would help with that.
3. I find it odd that the url / time posted is above the title. Would be nice the match the main HN page and place that below the title. Just changes the mental model slightly enough to be annoying.
Just two things:
1. In the "Lists"-tab, it says "synched". I'm not a native speaker, but I guess that should be "synced"?
2. Maybe I just missed it, but: Is there any way to submit a comment from within the app?
2. Not currently. I'm planning on adding this in the next few weeks
Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you like it!
1: I need the ability to swipe back from anywhere on the screen, i’m unable to reach all the way to the left edge most of the time.
2: The ability to up the density of posts/comments on the page. I really like seeing as much content as possible without a ton of dead space and scrolling.
2. That doesn't seem complicated to add! Seeing the feedbacks here really gets me motivated to improve the app, so I'll try to add this in an upcoming version.
Thank you!
I've never touched it beyond letting the default one work, but it's probably done using UIScreenEdgePanGestureRecognizer. If there's another gesture being grabbed by the active view (like scrolling) you might need to tell your UIGestureRecognizerDelegate to allow the gestures simultaneously.
EDIT - Oh I see, parent comment doesn't like the system standard of swiping from the edge of the screen. So that'd be a regular pan gesture recognizer, and probably trickier to do at the same time as scroll view.
I'd be hesitant to take that suggestion, since it means you'd never be able to use a "swipe right" gesture on the individual list items, like what you see in Mail for marking a message as read/unread.
Here's another feature suggestion, shamelessly lifted from the Apollo reddit client. Long press on the navigation bar to toggle between light and dark theme.
I'd also point out that your "sliders" icon for the settings tab is rather unconventional on iOS. Users will expect a gear icon to represent settings.