Show HN: Helvetica Neue – A Native iOS Hacker News Client Built for Consumers

14 points by rismay 10 years ago | 7 comments
  • rismay 10 years ago
    I thought I'd post this now that I'm using this as my de-facto way to read HN. How annoying is it when the front page is clogged with "We're going to Mars in 15 years" and "Gangnam Style broke YouTube" stories. I read them, but I don't want to see them after that.

    Comments and enhanced animations are up next.

    • joelmbell 10 years ago
      Just an FYI, looks like Quick and Nimble are required subproject but they aren't included in the repo so its a bit more complicated to get everything setup if you want contributors.

      Edit Nevermind. They are gitsubmodules.. duh.

      • rismay 10 years ago
        As soon as they move to Cocoapods, I'll remove the git submodules.
    • mapimopi 10 years ago
      Were you aware that Helvetica Neue is a typeface?[1]

      [1] https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/neue-helvetica/

      • rismay 10 years ago
        It's the default font on all Apple products and abbreviates to HN. My favorite variant is Ultra Light condensed. Unfortunately, a lot of people have problems reading such a light and tight typeface. Thus, I made an effort to use dynamic fonts in as many places as possible so that the font is the same size and weight as you would see in first party Apple apps.
      • pingram1 10 years ago
        sounds interesting. I especially like the caching for offline reading. one question: how does this impact battery life since the app automatically refreshes the stories? is there a way to turn that off / manually refresh?
        • rismay 10 years ago
          Since Firebase 2.0, network activity has improved dramatically. Also, I cache any favicons. The only problem right now is battery life because of the always on WebSocket. I'm going to add functionality to turn off auto updates soon.