I don't think this is a very good example of a demo angular app. Hackernews isn't an app, it's a site. It works so well simply because it is such a simple site. If you're going to build it in angular, might I suggest you add some functional benefit to using the tool.
I'm behind a corporate firewall that (for some reason) blocks firebaseio.com - with the result that I get a blank page.<p>It would be worth at least letting users know why they don't get any data displayed.
Yep, looks about right for Angular: flashy but not-particularly-useful functionality (dynamic real time updates) while sacrificing basic web usability (blinky-blink loads, strange back button behavior, etc.)