MobileDN 1.2 update – Full DN integration for iOS

over 9 years ago from Alasdair Monk, Product designer @Heroku

I'm very happy to announce the new version of MobileDN, my iOS Designer News app is now available for free in the App Store.

This is a big update, bringing a lot of the new API integration right into the app.

New features

Fully integrated with the new DN API
Swipe right to upvote comments & stories
Swipe left to reply to a comment
Add new comments to a story
Markdown support (!) – links in comments are now clickable and you can view images within comments
Free, as ever

I'm super excited to share all this new functionality with you. As always, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Download from App Store

screenshot

52 comments

Marc Edwards, over 9 years ago
Great stuff! Thank you for making it. :)
I have some comments, if you don’t mind. Even if you choose to not act on the suggestions, I hope they help make the app even better.
Sign in validation
It's possible to sign in with empty credentials. It might be good to disable the Sign In button until there’s something in both fields.
Table cell down state
It doesn't seem like there's a down state on the table view cells. It’d be nice to be able to know when and where I’ve tapped.
Comments default state
“No one has said anything yet” displays while fetching comments, even if people have commented. It seems like a better empty state might be to leave it completely blank?
Search
Search could be added to the top of the Top and Recent tabs, saving a tab, but also reducing number of taps from 2 to 1 in most cases (tap search field and typing vs tap search tab, search field and typing).
Probably not entirely correct as search covers the entire site, not just top and recent, but it still feels like it could be an improvement? If you did keep search as a tab, maybe highlight the search field when the tab is selected?
Settings
Seems like you don’t need a separate sharing settings screen? Everything fits pretty well on the one tab.
Thanks for reading.
7 points
Stephen Chinnadorai, over 9 years ago
Great update! One minor critique: on the login screen when the email field is highlighted, I would switch the iOS keyboard over to the one with the @ key at the bottom.
7 points
- Michael Aleo, over 9 years ago
  Can you do me a favor and also follow up with about a million app developers?
  4 points
  - Stephen Chinnadorai, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )
    It's really easy to do for a mobile site (). So I'm guessing there must be some barrier that's preventing most iOS app developers from doing this?!
    0 points
    - Michael Aleo, over 9 years ago
      No, it's very easy. They just don't think/know.
      1 point
Account deleted over 9 years ago
Well done, I love it!
5 points
Kelly Sutton, over 9 years ago
This is pretty great :)
(Posted from MobileDN)
4 points
- Alasdair Monk, over 9 years ago
  Thanks Kelly, and thanks for all your help with the API
  0 points
Daniel Golden, over 9 years ago
You are the bomb, man. This has just officially replaced the DN web app link on my home screen.
iPad plans?
4 points
Daniel Spronk, over 9 years ago
I remember buying a DN app, which couldn't even launch on my phone because it crashed. You've not only made a good app, you're updating it too. Mad props to you. I would gladly pay for this app and I'm guessing many others too.
3 points
Parker Moore, over 9 years ago
Fantastic work! This post being written from MobileDN, you can likely tell I am a happy guy. Two questions though:
1. Can I donate money to you for the app? Feels like cheating to get such a sweet app for free!
2. Where do we submit bug reports? :)
3 points
Alasdair Monk, over 9 years ago
Thanks everyone - really appreciated :)
2 points
Xavier Haniquaut, over 9 years ago
Awesome job you have my upvote, but what about the non-members? They can not use the app to just read the feed as they use to do in the previous version. I get that DN wants to keep it close but isnt this a bit too elitist?
2 points
- Parker Moore, over 9 years ago
  This was something I thought about too. It would be great to preserve the "spectator" views if possible.
  That said, it may be a huge challenge programmatically so pragmatically speaking, for a proof-of-concept, 1.2 is exceptional.
  0 points
Greg Rosen, over 9 years ago
Nice work man! Couple of small pieces of feedback:
-On the login page, you should set the email input field to use the email keyboard for easy access to @ & .com -Comment scrolling seems to be slightly laggy/jittery now.
Great work however.
2 points
Manik Rathee, over 9 years ago
Really nice work.
I agree with Parker as well - I'd like to donate at least a few bucks for this.
2 points
Tim Parker, over 9 years ago
LOVELY JOB AL MONK
2 points
Harouth Arthur Mekhjian, over 9 years ago
Looks amazing! Now if only we would get an android port :D
2 points
- Gonçalo Morais, over 9 years ago
  HI Harouth! Ahmet have already done a DN Android app, which you can find here. He released the source code, so I'm trying to schedule future features and improvements with him.
  1 point
Ahmet Yalcinkaya, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )
Nice job! This post send from MobileDN app and I love the new update.
2 points
Braden Hamm, over 9 years ago
LOVE THE APP! One small fix: on the sign in form, it would be nice to have a 'Next' button on the keyboard to jump from the email field to password field. Using the 'Return' key is another option.
1 point
Matt Cole, over 9 years ago
Amazing! Would have definitely paid for this.
1 point
Falko Joseph, over 9 years ago
GG, 134 points already. Well deserved.
1 point
Kory Westerhold, over 9 years ago
This is rad. Great job dude!
1 point
Christoffer Tønnessen, over 9 years ago
Very nicely done! I would though like to see some more padding when writing comments. It gets a bit clutered
1 point
Artemiy Morozov, over 9 years ago
Fresh! Looks even better than original website :)
1 point
Belkin Fahri, over 9 years ago
Good job! Do you have plans for iPad app soon? :)
1 point
Surjith S M, over 9 years ago
I don't have an iPhone to check :-P
But, The screens looks great!! Keep up the good work.
I've also made an Infinite scroll Chrome extension for DN, but I think no one is interested :-P
1 point
- Andrew Liebchen, over 9 years ago
  Good idea, I'm giving it a try.
  0 points
Falko Joseph, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )
Nice! MobileDN became the most used app on my iPhone :) love it.
1 point
Julian N, over 9 years ago
Awesome work!
- Sent from mobileDN
1 point
Shaun Tollerton, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )
Awesome.
1 point
- Alasdair Monk, over 9 years ago
  thanks bud
  0 points
Kevin Rabinovich, over 9 years ago
Thanks a lot for making this-- where can we submit bug reports?
0 points
Arnaud Benard, over 9 years ago
Great job. Love the icons!
0 points
Ahmet Sulek, over 9 years ago
Man thanks for this, I'm enjoying the endless traffic in Istanbul right now :)
0 points
José Delgado, over 9 years ago
Great Job.
0 points
Manik Rathee, over 9 years ago
Is there any plan to be able to create new posts from the app? (Not sure if this is an option via the API, haven't dug into the documentation myself)
0 points
- Kelly Sutton, over 9 years ago
  It's not available in the API currently. We're taking things one step at a time.
  3 points
Removed Account, over 9 years ago
Looks great. Too bad I just sold my iPhone :(
0 points
Ernest Ojeh, over 9 years ago
Android user here.. I feel lost :(
0 points
- Gonçalo Morais, over 9 years ago
  Have no fear! Ahmet have already done a DN Android app, which you can find here. The code is open-source, so I'm trying to collect new feature and improvements to submit a couple of pull requests to it.
  0 points
Cole Townsend, over 9 years ago
Great!
0 points
Michael Aleo, over 9 years ago
No joke, last night I moved MobileDN into a folder and replaced it with the Safari bookmark because I couldn't add comments. Well timed :)
0 points
ポールウェッブ, over 9 years ago
Oh yes, what a great way to start the day.
0 points
Rafael Alex, over 9 years ago
Stunning work! Thanks for your effort.
- Rafael
0 points
Mathieu Mayer, over 9 years ago
You're awesome. Have my upvote and my love.
0 points
William Channer, over 9 years ago
Love it.
0 points
Benjamin Fritz, over 9 years ago
Thank you!
0 points
Nattu Adnan, over 9 years ago
Thank you and good work!
0 points
Joe Turner, over 9 years ago
Fantastic! Good job!
0 points
Jens Nikolaus, over 9 years ago
Well done!
0 points

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