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Show HN: Curiosity, a context-aware Wikipedia reader for iPhone

28 points by jeffd 11y ago

kenhaggerty 11y ago
Very cool. At some point I'll have to get a Watch to see what it's like having it on my wrist, but the iPhone app itself is a fun time killer. What was the most interesting / surprising / difficult part about making the Watch portion of this app?
- jeffd 11y ago
  The hardest part of the watch portion is just the testing and debugging. It takes a long time to install on the device and get a real feel for the speed of the app. The other hard part is figuring out what feels right on the wrist, that part I'm still figuring out.
grinich 11y ago
Is this built with Swift or Objc-C?
- jeffd 11y ago
  It's 100% Swift, with some Obj-C libraries.
wingerlang 11y ago
Cool, although I really wish it was free and with an iAP to unlock it. Or a lite version. I want to give it a go for some days to see if I really use it. How do you get the items by location?
- jeffd 11y ago
  I thought about doing some sort of free version of the app with IAP, but it was very hard to find a way to do it that didn't make the app feel too restricted. I might toy with the idea in the future, are there any good examples that you like? I get the items using the GeoData extension of the MediaWiki API: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoData https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoData
  - wingerlang 11y ago
    Maybe full version for a week, month or X usages, then restrict to some kinda distance/amount of items or add ads. Or just keep it as it is, it might yield more with less downsides for you.
    - jeffd 11y ago
      Yeah it's a tough call what to do. I remember that the Reddit client Alien Blue did a pretty good job of free/paid separation.
thehoff 11y ago
Great idea, I even went to the store and purchased it (I'm that guy, the one that never buys apps). Alas, the app won't open, it keeps crashing upon startup (6s+) so I can't even play with it.
- jeffd 11y ago
  Bummer, I'll try and hunt down the crash logs and see what's happening.
  - thehoff 11y ago
    After a phone restart all is well now. Nice clean app that will definitely a new go-to when trying to kill a few minutes (ie. waiting in a line). I thought it would be cool if you could go to other cities and see what article pop up there, but then noticed you have that already!
    - jeffd 11y ago
      Weird that it worked after a restart. iOS ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Glad you found the location search feature, let me know if you think anything else would be cool.

28 points by jeffd 11y ago

Very cool. At some point I'll have to get a Watch to see what it's like having it on my wrist, but the iPhone app itself is a fun time killer. What was the most interesting / surprising / difficult part about making the Watch portion of this app?

jeffd 11y ago
The hardest part of the watch portion is just the testing and debugging. It takes a long time to install on the device and get a real feel for the speed of the app. The other hard part is figuring out what feels right on the wrist, that part I'm still figuring out.

grinich 11y ago

Is this built with Swift or Objc-C?

jeffd 11y ago
It's 100% Swift, with some Obj-C libraries.

wingerlang 11y ago

Cool, although I really wish it was free and with an iAP to unlock it. Or a lite version. I want to give it a go for some days to see if I really use it. How do you get the items by location?

jeffd 11y ago
I thought about doing some sort of free version of the app with IAP, but it was very hard to find a way to do it that didn't make the app feel too restricted. I might toy with the idea in the future, are there any good examples that you like? I get the items using the GeoData extension of the MediaWiki API: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoData https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GeoData
- wingerlang 11y ago
  Maybe full version for a week, month or X usages, then restrict to some kinda distance/amount of items or add ads. Or just keep it as it is, it might yield more with less downsides for you.
  - jeffd 11y ago
    Yeah it's a tough call what to do. I remember that the Reddit client Alien Blue did a pretty good job of free/paid separation.

thehoff 11y ago

Great idea, I even went to the store and purchased it (I'm that guy, the one that never buys apps). Alas, the app won't open, it keeps crashing upon startup (6s+) so I can't even play with it.

jeffd 11y ago
Bummer, I'll try and hunt down the crash logs and see what's happening.
- thehoff 11y ago
  After a phone restart all is well now. Nice clean app that will definitely a new go-to when trying to kill a few minutes (ie. waiting in a line). I thought it would be cool if you could go to other cities and see what article pop up there, but then noticed you have that already!
  - jeffd 11y ago
    Weird that it worked after a restart. iOS ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Glad you found the location search feature, let me know if you think anything else would be cool.