Why is it that some people can accept - even like - music behind a voice that tells something? I strongly dislike it. It makes it harder to listen to the voice. Am I the only one?
It causes sensory overload for me, I abhor it.
Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
121–130 of 185 posts
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#122I have two super nitpicky things to say.
1) The website is slightly wide on my phone, so it wiggles left and right when I scroll. I usually fix this by pinch-zooming out the tiny amount necessary to align it to my viewport width, but your website apparently suppresses zooming.
2) The AI announces itself as having the name “Jane Doe”. What's the point in this? I know that American news with real anchors do this (having the anchor announce their own name), but this is not universal so it feels foreign to me. Since AIs don't have names, it feels like this was shoehorned in just to sound like American commercial news.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#123Interesting project, I think it would be nice to also have a volume slider as well as a speed slider. I manually set the volume via wavesurfer.media.volume = 0.10; to keep from hurting my ears.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#124Interesting project, I think it would be nice to also have a volume slider as well as a speed slider. I manually set the volume via wavesurfer.media.volume = 0.10; to keep from hurting my ears.
I just had the biggest "duh" moment. Thanks for bringing it up.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#125Pretty interesting project. I have a special, yet weird, emotional attachment to these HN-based projects because they act like extensions or add-ons that could improve HN in one dimension.
While I don't feel like using this tool when I sit in front of my computer or when starting doom scrolling on my phone, I certainly would like to use it when I need to quickly check HN while being busy.
Some quick feedback:
1. First, regarding the UI/UX:
- The title and subtitle don't tell much about the app.
- In the audio track, while you can see the progress of the playing audio, it doesn't show the total time nor the current time.
- It would be useful to highlight the audio track into segments, each one representing a story.
- It would make sense to mention how many stories are being summarized (seems to be 5 right now).
3. Tightly linked to (2), having this tool as a mobile app and making it available as a widget, with a Play button, would reduce the number taps needed to play the broadcast.
I hope this serves as a constructive critic.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it’s a case of this not fitting your use case. It wouldn’t replace reading the front page for me but I could really see it replacing a podcast on my morning walk. Especially given the absence of news spin or adverts. I’ll definitely be giving it a try tomorrow.
I think you're right here. I'm forgetting about "entertainment". This will never replace my visits to HN because it's not efficient. Unless it uses neurolink to beam the information into my mind, that's always going to be the case. It fails in that way. However, let's consider a podcast. You get 5 people that are entertaining, knowledgeable about technology, well spoken, and have differing opinions, and get them to s…
This isn't what I had in mind, but now that you've suggested it I would absolutely listen to this. In fact, I'm convinced having read it that this is where we're going good or bad (I can see a lot of YouTube gurus suggesting this as the new get-rich-quick scheme for "creators"). A high quality version of this would absolutely work though if that can be achieved.
I was thinking more in terms of the way you can get morning news briefs on a nest hub. The AI summarising the top posts on HN would have value to me as something to listen to in the morning not because I expect a really interesting debate, but mostly just to get a quick update on what the buzz is on HN on a given day so I can decide if I want to pick up the thread from any of those topics when my day starts at the desk.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#127I have two super nitpicky things to say. 1) The website is slightly wide on my phone, so it wiggles left and right when I scroll. I usually fix this by pinch-zooming out the tiny amount necessary to align it to my viewport width, but your website apparently suppresses zooming. 2) The AI announces itself as having the name “Jane Doe”. What's the point in this? I know that American news with real anchors do this (havin…
Thanks for the feedback!
1) That's strange, I don't do anything to prevent zooming. Although I could provoke a situation where I interacted with the player and it somehow captured all subsequent touch inputs, so zooming was blocked. Maybe that's what happened? Reloading the page should fix it.
2) I like it because it adds a bit of personality. And I felt like the generic name "Jane Doe" would be fitting for an AI. Kind of hinting at the fact that it seems like a human, but it's not. Also low-key telling you that the whole thing is AI generated, in case you don't pick up on it immediately.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#128Pretty interesting project. I have a special, yet weird, emotional attachment to these HN-based projects because they act like extensions or add-ons that could improve HN in one dimension. While I don't feel like using this tool when I sit in front of my computer or when starting doom scrolling on my phone, I certainly would like to use it when I need to quickly check HN while being busy. Some quick feedback: 1. Firs…
Thanks a lot, all very good points!
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#129Lots of positive feedback here, but after a quick listen, I'm not a fan. To summarize my thoughts... 1. The experience just feels too sluggish. For example, I opened the HN homepage, skimmed all of the headlines, read the comments on the top post, and it probably took about 30 seconds. I was done, feeling like I got all the information from HN that I needed, with the intention of checking for new posts later in the d…
Wow this is awesome. I've actually been working on something very similar. In my case though I focus on individual stories. Like the commenter above I feel audio doesn't work so well for general overview. I haven't done a showHN yet because it's not quite ready but you can see where it's at here: https://news.gipety.com/hn/10842381/k/218/s/three-years-as-a... I think it would be quite a nice way to give a second life…
I like your project a lot! Please release it.
I've been 'summarising' a lot of articles using NotebookLM's new feature and publishing them as podcasts episodes here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0C8DGPdYwZQ1cbvQsnvO6t
I've been using their service to easily draw out the key points and if the episode is a good one then I publish it on the feed.
I do think that for specific content, that a lot of gold is stored within the comments sections and reading those actually gives more insight than the article itself so I've been planning on doing a few which draw off comments from either a reddit or hacker posts which link out to some post. I'll probably do one from reddit first. Probably science focused.
Re: Show HN: HN Update – Hourly news broadcast of top HN stories
#130Why is it that some people can accept - even like - music behind a voice that tells something? I strongly dislike it. It makes it harder to listen to the voice. Am I the only one?
Thanks for the feedback, looks like you're not the only one. Personally I enjoy it, but I can understand that some might find it distracting. I just need to figure out a way to implement a toggle for the music, while also playing nicely with the playback speed etc.
the music is more distracting at higher speeds for me and i usually listen at 1.5x when walking or at the gym. you could have the music be a separate audio track where the playback speed doesnt impact it and the toggle plays it simultaneously with the vocal track or not.