ICombinator - Hacker News for the iPhone

[ca98am79]

http://www.icombinator.net

[bdotdub]

Hey cool, I created this :) How did you find it? It's still buggy. I was going to release it in a couple of weeks.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[bdotdub → bdotdub]

UPDATE: Hey everyone, I've updated iCombinator with a couple of things:

1. http://icombinator.net/ now forwards to http://www.icombinator.net/ GAE doesn't allow naked domains anymore

2. Added an icon for the web clip

3. Enabled standalone status (thanks doctyper!)

Anyone have better artistic skills for the icon? I'm open to suggestions :)

[dc2k08 → bdotdub]

you can have this one if you like: http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6992/icombinatortc2.jpg

looking at their logo on the main site, perhaps this should be a little more svelter: http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7205/icombinator2nj1.jpg

also this one: http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3392/icombinator3vo8.jpg

[dc2k08 → dc2k08]

scratch the rest: http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3820/icombinator5wt8.jpg

try that one. you can have any format you like if you want it. its a vector.

[wensing → dc2k08]

It's the flux capacitor!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_capacitor#Flux_capacitor

[dc2k08 → wensing]

non-1.21 giga-watt version: http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/4145/icombinator7xl0.jpg

[zack → bdotdub]

you rule for this

[ca98am79 → bdotdub]

I did a google search for my username and found it. I like it. news.ycombinator.com sucks with the iPhone and I like your site a lot better - much easier to read. Sorry to force you into the spotlight early, but it seems to work fine for me. It makes reading hacker news on the iPhone A LOT better. Thanks for creating it.

[pygy → ca98am79]

Personally, I prefer this layout on my computer too (except for the lack of a bigger left margin).

[bdotdub → ca98am79]

Not a problem. Glad you enjoy it :)

[sant0sk1 → bdotdub]

I've been using this from my iPhone for a few weeks after stumbling upon it from your profile page.

Thought it was public knowledge or I would've submitted it myself! =]

[babyshake → bdotdub]

This does exactly what it should and no more.

Great job.

[ca98am79 → bdotdub]

I like the name - pretty clever

[doctyper]

Excellent, but you missed adding some goodies that would really make this stand out.

1. Add a webpage icon to the app. 2. Enable standalone status, so the app launches fullscreen instead of in Safari.

More info:

https://developer.apple.com/webapps/docs/documentation/Apple...

[bdotdub → doctyper]

Awesome. Thanks for the suggestions. Will look into it when I get back home :)

[bdotdub → doctyper]

Just added both. The icon nothing special, but its better nothing. If anyone has anything better, let me know :)

[j2d2]

Interesting. Hacker News is already very light but I like the bigness of important things and smallness of others when I view it on my phone.

PG, I like this enough that it'd be neat if you gave us something similar so our account info can go through you.

It doesn't seem to work as http://icobinator.net btw. The www seems required.

[bdotdub → j2d2]

Yup, working on the DNS stuff. Yeah, I just thought it'd be better on the eyes :)

[qeek]

Now it's time to redesign the actual Hacker News site.

[AndrewWarner]

Well done. I read news on my phone, not on my computer. I wish other news sources realized that. I can't tell you how many news sites simply crash my iphone, but here are three: Portfolio.com, the Wall Street Journal, and Vanity Fair. It's nuts.

[pchristensen → AndrewWarner]

With Instapaper you can read stuff in text-only. Plus you can read disconnected (prob more useful for Touch than Phone)

[phr → AndrewWarner]

WSJ stopped crashing so much when I disabled javascript, but that's pretty drastic.

[puffythefish]

Thanks, I've been looking for something like this!

I just have one gripe: http://icombinator.net (without the www) doesn't work.

Other than that it's perfect

[unalone → puffythefish]

He said elsewhere that he's going to try to get that working tonight - it's on the App Engine, so it's tricky.

[venuem]

If you have blogs and are looking to get them formatted for the iphone or android platform. check out http://venuem.com

[danw]

Thats brilliant, thank you. I love the instapaper integration. Looking forward to seeing the new/threads/profile pages if you're adding them :D

[lhorn]

I think a better (and cheaper) way to do this would be to create a custom CSS file and assign it to ycombinator.com in Safari.

[icombi]

This works well on Android G1 as well, as most iUi web apps do. I wonder though if it's best not to popup a new page when clicking through to an article. With G1's global Back button it's not too bad to quickly go back, but on iPhone, you need tap-swipe-tap.

[lpgauth]

Than you! I used to use the website Buxfer made (http://buxfer.com/yc/) but it has been down for a while... Not too sure what is going on there..

[kriyative]

Also, check out http://i.venuem.net/ychn

VenueM is a general purpose solution for turning any RSS feed into a clean looking iPhone web site.

[unalone]

Nice! It keeps the look and feel and works smoothly: just what I want from an iPhone adaptation.

Is it tough making the sliding transitions? Or is there some basic code that handles that?

[bdotdub → unalone]

I used iUI (http://code.google.com/p/iui/). There's a patch for smoother transitions somewhere in there that I've planning to put in.

[AndrewWarner]

I wish it was easier to comment. I don't so much want to read the news as I want to interact with it.

Still, I love this. Every news site should offer this kind of iphone option.

[sh1mmer]

I've not really had trouble reading yCombinator on my iPhone and I can't vote up stories on your 3rd party site.

So I appreciate the sentiment but I don't see the point.

[wfarr → sh1mmer]

While I "see the point", I think you have a legitimate complaint with regards to the voting.

[dmpayton]

Fabulous!

Request: Please add support for non-www domain. It took me a few minutes to realize why I was getting 404'd on my phone but not in FireFox.

[bdotdub → dmpayton]

Yup, I'm trying. It's on Google App engine and its a little tricky with the DNS stuff. Will try to figure that out tonight.

[tzury]

I wish ycombinator will be one day that elegant

[sidsavara]

I don't have any iPhone, but this is spiffy. Even in my normal Firefox window ;)

[trickjarrett]

Well done sir, I will be using this on my ipod touch.

[bdotdub → trickjarrett]

Glad you like it! Does the screen transition a little choppy on yours?

[trickjarrett → bdotdub]

No flicker at all, it seems to run pretty smoothly thus far.

[t0pj]

Excellent.

Now if I could only cut and paste using my iPhone. ;)

[geuis]

I'm almost done with a same-domain bookmarklet that reformats HN for the iPhone within the browser. No 3rd party sites will be required, and you can interact with your account completely from the site.