Show HN: My iPad Hacker News Client, Hacker News Paper

It is truly unfortunate that this app so closely resembles Giles’ work. In hindsight, everything seems obvious: “Hacker News... As a Newspaper.” Yet nobody did it before Giles, and now somebody else has done it after Giles.<p>It reminds me of the talk about how obvious the iPhone UI is, such that Google wasn’t copying iPhone but just proceeding along “obvious” lines. Yet, it seems that they were busy proceeding along the obvious line of imitating Blackberry until the iPhone became a hit, then they were proceeding along the obvious line of imitating an iPhone.<p>The author of this work seems to be saying that he did this entirely independently. I am prepared to accept his word for that, which is why I use the word “unfortunate.” There are so many truly new and novel things to invent, it is a great shame that two smart people put work into inventing the same thing instead of giving birth to two different ideas.

Thanks, just downloaded! My 2 cents:<p>0. Nice minimalism.<p>1. The main body typeface is needlessly hard to read (words have weird kerning with some letters sticking together a lot). I strongly think that the body font should be as readable as possible, simply since it is going to be read a lot! Pick the most readable font out there (or maybe the second most readable).<p>2. The "Return" button is hard to tap when holding the iPad in both hands. iBooks solves this problem by having the entire left edge tappable; not sure what would work best in this app.<p>3. Are you familiar with the Flipboard for iPad? (you probably are). I think it is beyond awesome. All magazine/web mobile apps should learn from that app.<p>4. That every article pops out from the bottom edge of the screen (UIModalTransitionStyleCoverVertical ?) gets annoying after a while. The animation where the whole screen whizzes by from the bottom up every time you tap is more tolerable on a smaller screen like the iPhone. I would rather prefer an animation with a "zoom" effect with the article expanding from its location in the grid to the entire screen; or maybe something else you can think of.<p>5. It is annoying that comments have to be shown in a browser window which takes a while to load.

Congrats on the launch. Unfortunately you've chosen to name your app the same thing Giles very similar app from 2009 is named.<p>I truly believe that the onus is on you to Google the name you want to use before you launch. Heck, just to make sure there isn't competition - much less something with the same name. That isn't good for either of you.<p>Perhaps you should strongly consider changing the name of your application.

first of all, great work. I really like the the presentation, something different. I've got a few issues with the app though:<p>- It's hard to flip pages, I opened articles often when I tried to flip one. Seems the gesture recognition needs some refinement<p>- I don't like the font and the header. I think it looks a bit cheap. At least the font in the sub-headline could look nicer.<p>- Get rid of those standard rounded rect-buttons in the article view. Doesn't need too much effort to style them a bit, and it makes a huge difference.<p>Thanks for this app, well spent money :-)

Thanks for the code. Gave it a spin but found the fonts a little too jarring, especially the main font. There needs to be more contrast too. I know you're trying to imitate an actual newspaper, but perhaps play a little more with the hues of gray? Right now it all seems a blur to me.

Thanks a lot for checking out my app. Here are a few promo codes for anyone interested.<p>EFERTFJWWR7W<p>36XTN3E9MNYN<p>LAKJ99K6RFNY<p>X4ERRNY46NTE<p>3HLAMPWWE3X6

Nice work! I'm using the app right now to add this comment. I agree with all the feedback so far, but it's still worth the money even in its current state.

Get real, its all about the implementation and execution, although I have not seen the but seems like (from comments) the guy did a good job in execution and action.<p>We all have ton's of ideas, techcrunch can be newspaper like, mashable can be magazine like, its all your execution with little bit pinch of idea.

If you prefer a free (and high-quality) app, check out this one:<p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-reader-technology/id463699245?ls=1&#38;mt=8" rel="nofollow">http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-reader-technology...</a>

Thanks - I've used - 3HLAMPWWE3X6. I'll test and provide a review in a bit.

What percentage of the profits are you giving "iamgilesbowkett" since you've created a facsimile of his idea from 2009?

added to <a href="http://hnresources.com/apps/#iphone" rel="nofollow">http://hnresources.com/apps/#iphone</a>

Is iOS 5 really necessary? I didn't upgrade yet because of my jailbreak, so I can't use the app :-/

Super!

This is a blatant copy of my web app Hacker Newspaper.<p><a href="http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2011/11/imitation-is-sincerest-form-of-flattery.html" rel="nofollow">http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2011/11/imitation-is-sincer...</a>