131–140 of 225 posts
The irritating part is that, even if I decide I want the app, I still have to use the website to see the particular piece of content I was linked to. Most sites just tell you to get their app, they don't deep link into the app when you do have it.
Fuck you, Google.
Worst part is, most of these apps are essentially browsers. There is no additional content or interesting extra functionality being offered... just same old content, only formatted differently. So, this concept of installing a new browser every time I visit an unfamiliar site, really is ridiculous. This is almost as bad as "here's a mobile version of our site, opened automatically for your convenience". If your site…
With a browser, a site can identify who I am.
With an app, the developer can download my location, contacts list, messages, or any other information contained on my phone.
All the more reason to say "fuck you".
Amen. To borrow a quote from Alton Brown, "I hate unitaskers." -- applies to apps, as well as, kitchen tools.
I guess he wouldn't much like the Unix philosophy as summarized by Doug McIlroy.
The Unix philosophy is for small, atomic, pipeable utilities that do a single task (more properly, subtask) in conjunction with other tools.
There are exceptions. including, say, web browsers. But where a browser is one level of monolithic app, it's generalized to that particular information purpose. A site-dedicated application is worlds worse.
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There is really no alternative to Linked In - there is other software that does the same thing but since no one in my network uses it, that would be worthless to me.
> There is really no alternative to Linked In Since I moved to Android and saw the permissions their app wants (access to my phone calls and calendar, among others), I've found a great alternative: they can wait until I get to my desktop, if I bother remembering.
I think there is a fascinating split personality to the internet these days. On the one hand, there is a big drive to move traditional desktop application functionality into the web browser (e.g. google and microsoft's office web apps, photo editing, and even some computation in the case of Wolfram Alpha.) On the other hand, there is a big drive to push traditional internet content into standalone apps, as this autho…
I find it very difficult to actually read long-form material in a web browser, whether desktop/laptop, or phone/tablet, with all the competing features and distractions which are presented. HN is better than most, G+ is particularly bad, other sites fall at various places along that range.
The specific mode of advertising website-based apps via pop-up interstitials is typical of what I find really, really annoying about sites (persistent header, footer, or sidebar elements in particular).
When TBL's original WWW documents were posted to HN some months back, I was particularly impressed with how readable the pages were, largely due to the bare minimalism of their markup. For actually presenting information (which was, it turns out, what he was hoping to accomplish), the original HTML markup remains surprisingly good.
This is one of the best advantages android has over iOS - you don't have all those goddamn app nag screens all over the internet.
That's not my experience at all. I get that "Install our app" popup on Android when loading many forum/discussion-type sites. And it's really goddamn annoying.
This is one of the best advantages android has over iOS - you don't have all those goddamn app nag screens all over the internet.
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I don't know how to make a bookmark on the "desktop" of my phone, and I'd rather use an app than look it up.
Which is ironic because Web bookmarks/caches are one class of apps that are explicitly banned from the Apple app store, because the web bookmark feature exists. That's why my game, cross platform on ios, android, and web, is not published on App Store. So iOS users can't play my game on an airplane.
Also, if you set up local caching properly, your game should be fully available in offline mode as well, if the user saves your site to their home screen.
The idea of using an iPhone app to browse a particular website reminds me of AOL keywords like "www.cbs.com". Every time I see an "Ask HN: what app do you use for HN?" I wonder why people don't just use the browser. What is the allure?
I don't know how to make a bookmark on the "desktop" of my phone, and I'd rather use an app than look it up.