Show HN: Printful, my latest iPhone/iPad app
6 comments
What are the legalities of scraping someone's site, effectively removing potential income from the website?
Do you store the articles in the DB, or just the position the reader is at?
The server 'encodes' the page and stores it on the local device?
Just curious. Thanks!
The server 'encodes' the page and stores it on the local device?
Just curious. Thanks!
The server does the "encoding", but the contents are stored on the local device (among other things, this method provides offline access almost "for free"). Think of it just like a proxy with a filter.
Since I have complete control over the HTML which is displayed in the devices, I can store the position where the reader is at just by recording an offset in the HTML code and doing some calculations with it.
Since I have complete control over the HTML which is displayed in the devices, I can store the position where the reader is at just by recording an offset in the HTML code and doing some calculations with it.
It looks great.
How do you want to differentiate yourself in this crowd market (personalized news feeds), given bigger players like pulse, flipboard, which are free.
How do you want to differentiate yourself in this crowd market (personalized news feeds), given bigger players like pulse, flipboard, which are free.
Thank you so much, I'm really happy to know it looks great to you.
I guess the key difference between Printul and the big players is that they are (or will be, in the case of Flipboard) monetizing via ads, while I monetize selling the apps themselves. I don't need (nor want) this to grow into a multi million user service, it can be profitable just with selling around 100 copies a month (which I guess it's a reasonable number).
I guess the key difference between Printul and the big players is that they are (or will be, in the case of Flipboard) monetizing via ads, while I monetize selling the apps themselves. I don't need (nor want) this to grow into a multi million user service, it can be profitable just with selling around 100 copies a month (which I guess it's a reasonable number).
I really like that you have a popular sources list, something I've wanted for a long time in other feed viewers
Printful is a state of the art reading application for both iPhone and iPad. With its unique features, it allows you to read all the news, blogs, feeds and web pages you could wish for, whenever you have time and in the best available format for your device.
Supported features include:
* Subscriptions to numerous different sources. Virtually any newspaper or blog is supported. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds or receive links shared by your Facebook friends and by the people you follow at Twitter (more sources to come in future versions). It should be noted that it's not a RSS reader, it crawls the pages and extracts the articles.
* Organizing all your sources and pages in different folders. Saving optimized versions of pages, removing any ads and distractions, so you can focus in the content. Contents are kept in your device, so you can access them offline.
* Support for multimedia items, like images and videos.
* Send articles from your web browser to your iPhone or iPad with just one click.
* Data synchronization between all your devices without connecting them to a computer. Your subscriptions, lists and reading positions are always kept in sync over the Internet.
Promo codes are available on request. Just email me using "HN" in the subject and I'll send you a code privately (my email is in my profile).
I guess HN might also appreciate to know that this is a one-man project, and it took me around 2 months of work to write all the code.
Server side is written in Python. I'm using Tornado, lxml for HTML parsing, gearman for work queues and Postgres for storing data.
I'm considering porting this application to Android and OS X, but I'm not sure yet. Any kind of feedback about that will be highly appreciated ;).
App Store Links (more info and screenshots):
Printful: http://itunes.apple.com/app/printful/id385487729?mt=8
Printful Mini: http://itunes.apple.com/app/printful-mini/id385488175?mt=8
Some more screenshots:
http://imgur.com/a/DYdxo
PS: I can't find the exact rules for "Show HN" posts. Just let me know if this infringes any rules, I'll take it down immediately.