Instapaper for Retina iPad • Hacker News Board

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#51

Post by bradleyland » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 12:51 PM UTC

huggyface wrote: post #44

rubergly wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a "mistake" from the perspective of users who wish it were on a platform they used, but it's not a mistake from the perspective of Marco, who is busy enough working on the iOS and server components of the service; an Android version wouldn't provide enough revenue to warrant an employee or contractor. Is it a mistake for the developer of TextMate to not spread to Windows?

an Android version wouldn't provide enough revenue to warrant an employee or contractor. A statement with absolutely zero backing. Readability did the analysis and certainly seemed to believe that Android supported their product. Marco doesn't do analysis but instead just parrots the standard rhetoric, seemingly hoping that his words alone will make Android irrelevant and thus unnecessary of effort. His loss.

It's backed, in principle, by the fact that Android users are less willing to purchase apps[1], which doesn't fit Marco's business model. It doesn't matter to Readability, so moving to Android makes perfect sense for them.

1 - http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/android-apps-are-too-expensi...

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#52

Post by narkee » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:03 PM UTC

nirvana wrote: post #43

hnal943 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or for that matter, why not a Kindle?

The kindle has only two things that make it competitive enough to be worthy of discussion- e-ink and lighter weight. In every other category (ok, excluding price) it fails compared to the iPad. on e-ink there isn't really an advantage to my eyes. I've never gotten eyestrain reading on my (first generation) iPad. The image quality of the e-ink display is worse than even the first generation iPad (to my eyes), in large…

Don't forget battery life.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#53

Post by mgcross » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:12 PM UTC

tuananh wrote: post #38

hboon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the retina display makes it so much better for reading.

Retina vs E ink, which one is better for reading?

I often have problems with eye irritation/fatigue after a long day of work and thought an e-ink device would make night reading easier. Got a kindle touch, tried it for a week. It was worse, without a doubt. I tend to read in dim light (indirect lamp), and found that the kindle needed direct light for me to easily read without eyestrain. iPad with very low brightness, or even in reversed accessibility mode is nicer. For me, that is. And, any book or paper with code samples just doesn't work well on a small e-ink screen.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#54

Post by smackfu » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:32 PM UTC

vacri wrote: post #10

This is slightly embarrassing: Instapaper doesn’t show Retina-resolution graphics on the new iPad yet. It's only slightly embarrassing for Apple's culture of product secrecy, which prevents them from releasing tools in time for devs to have gear ready for release.

I'm pretty sure the simulator that devs use supports the Retina iPad, and was available before release date. The tricky bit is that the Retina iPad is higher resolution that most people's desktops, so simulation becomes difficult.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#55

Post by smackfu » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:33 PM UTC

nirvana wrote: post #42

Erwin wrote: post #24

The screenshot is looking great. Ignoring form factor, is the new iPad going to match Kindle's reading quality? I generally read fiction on the Kindle (2nd gen) and anything that has graphics or requires rapid page turning on the iPad (1G).

Having used a retina screen iPhone and iPod I'd say in my opinion the new iPad (which I haven't seen) is going to far exceed the kindle's screen in readability. Where I think kindle probably still has the edge is in ergonomics, specifically weight. The iPad is too heavy for me to hold like I would a physical book. (but I make do with this fact and use it anyway as one... and I've got the heavier first generation iPad…

It does make me wonder if a higher DPI screen would really help the Kindle in readability. Or if the major issue now is just the contrast.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#56

Post by Kylekramer » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:37 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #50

huggyface wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you expect him to shell out a large sum of money to develop an Android app to _hope_ he'll regain the money through sales? I would bet that he could have (well...not any more as the opportunity has long passed) gotten any of countless decent individual developers to write a very good port for free, asking for only a fraction of sales: It is not a complex app and isn't pushing the envelope. I would never expect tha…

http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android He has invited people to do just that; if you make it with his public API, and he thinks it's good enough, he'll let you call it the official Android version and split revenue 50/50.

FWIW, he backed off that pretty quickly. He claimed it was for Shift Jelly only and his words got misconstrued as a public challenge.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#57

Post by saturdaysaint » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #20

Shank wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can attest that the Kindle Fire is a perfect reading device. Perfect form factor, light yet feels great, etc. I really don't think an iPad is great for reading based on size, but I've never had one long enough to try it.

I had a Fire and really didn't like it for reading -- it falls in the valley of uselessness between a Kindle (DX being my favorite) and the iPad. I don't find my iPad 1 particularly heavy -- the main drawback of the iPad vs. Kindles is lack of daylight readability, and to a lesser degree, potentially distracting apps (email, web). The Fire seems like a great video watching device, but I don't do much of that (and whe…

"potentially distracting apps (email, web)"

Quite on point. Few people would willingly admit to this, but a lot of research suggests that simply having options available imposes a real cognitive load. Simple additions to text like footnotes and hyperlinks produce real drops in recall/comprehension - it's not a stretch to apply this to the iPad with its notifications and rich entertainment options.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#58

Post by EnderMB » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 1:59 PM UTC

gtufano wrote: post #19

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #14

Competition is good. Readability is certainly making him stepup. I still think ignoring android is a mistake (assuming he continues to do so in the future.). I foresee sharing happening within these read later apps and the size of the network matters.

I don't really know. Assuming that this is a free market, I think the fact that nobody stepped up on Android (with a noticeable success) is probably an indicator of the fact this could not be an error. More seriously (hoping we can have a quiet discussion about differences in market between iOS and Android): Instapaper makes (probably serious) money selling the app. Can you make (serious) money in Android without Ads…

The problem I see with the Android market is that there tends to be far more competition. You state that no one has stepped up on Android, however there are a number of decent apps that do exactly what's needed, and Readability have already launched on Android to some success.

Android users are often aware that they're missing out, but there is always something to fill that void. As a result, their users have a siege mentality towards their platform and the businesses that ignore them. As Instagram is likely to figure out when they (finally) move to Android arriving late to the Android game could be fatal to the perception of their brand.

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#59

Post by sjs382 » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 2:08 PM UTC

Kylekramer wrote: post #56

rsynnott wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android He has invited people to do just that; if you make it with his public API, and he thinks it's good enough, he'll let you call it the official Android version and split revenue 50/50.

FWIW, he backed off that pretty quickly. He claimed it was for Shift Jelly only and his words got misconstrued as a public challenge.

Wow, really? Source?

Re: Instapaper for Retina iPad

#60

Post by omaranto » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 2:14 PM UTC

gtufano wrote: post #19

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #14

Competition is good. Readability is certainly making him stepup. I still think ignoring android is a mistake (assuming he continues to do so in the future.). I foresee sharing happening within these read later apps and the size of the network matters.

I don't really know. Assuming that this is a free market, I think the fact that nobody stepped up on Android (with a noticeable success) is probably an indicator of the fact this could not be an error. More seriously (hoping we can have a quiet discussion about differences in market between iOS and Android): Instapaper makes (probably serious) money selling the app. Can you make (serious) money in Android without Ads…

What makes you think nobody "stepped up" on Android? There are a number of Instapaper clients for sale in the Android Market. I've only tried one (which sounded like the best from reviews I read), InstaFetch, and it's quite good. It has a couple of extra features beyond Marco's client: it can read articles to you (Android comes with a TTS library, I don't know if recent iOS versions let developers use Siri's TTS function from their code --of course, if Marco wanted to add TTS he could license a library or something like that, but it's definitely not as convenient for him as if he could just use a system API), and it updates your articles without you having to run the app (which I understand was not possible in iOS [1], but again, I wouldn't know if a recent version changed that). Plus, with Androids intent system, you don't need to install the send-to-instapaper bookmarklet in the browser: InstaFetch adds an add-to-instafetch intent that you appears in the browser's menu of ways to "share" the page .

The one thing Instapaper 3.0 did really better than InstaFetch is that it's option for changing from the light to dark theme is accessible right from the article view, while in InstaFetch you have to go to settings.

[1]: http://www.marco.org/2010/06/10/iphone-multitasking-and-back...