Ask HN: Review my LockScreen news and social reader startup

7 points by camdykeman 13 years ago | 8 comments

Frontpage launched last week and is very much a minimum viable product at the moment - it only has minimal functionality and there is still lots to do. Its bootstrapped by myself building the frontend and my cofounder developing the backend.

Frontpage allows you to browse your favourite news and social feeds right from your lock screen without having to enter any passwords or fumble through multiple apps.

Once installed, simple activate Frontpage from Frontpage's settings tab, turn the screen off, and when you turn it back on you can begin browsing content.

Frontpage currently only supports the New York Times (remember, its a MVP). Frontpage is also only available on Android due to the fact that iOS does not allow lock screen augmentation.

We'd love to hear your thoughts!

http://www.frontpageapp.com

bnjd 13 years ago |

Cool idea. Howver in the past replacement lockscreens tend to be hit or miss - many users report still seeing the normal lockscreen, or having to unlock both. How are you addressing this problem? (for example, WidgetLocker has this issue)

I think its possibly more prevalent on lower end devices for whatever reason(remember probably a majority of android devices can be categorized as low-end).

Edit: I've just installed it on my phone(HTC One XL), it occasionally shows my normal desktop first then the it opens. For the most part though it seems to be working.

Some criticism(Not trying to be rude):

- Text is hard to read

- Background is plain ugly

- Seems to fail when no data connection is available.

camdykeman 13 years ago | |

hi bnjd, thanks for giving Frontpage a try.

We're aware of the issues involved with lockscreen apps, it comes with the territory. Old versions of Android are fragmented, and even new versions are often restructured for franchise use - HTC is one company that does this and it is likely the root of the desktop showing periodically on yours. Android is slowly becoming more standardized and this will help, in the meantime we're just doing the best we can.

I'll do my best to address the no-connection failure. Does it completely shut down the app? Could you be more specific about the text? Is is too small? Wrong color? Any background suggestions? Its currently a minimum viable product so feel free to toss out what you'd like to see :)

Thanks again for the review.

bnjd 13 years ago | | |

The android situation is definitely difficult. I should mention I'm on a Jellybean sense rom, so like you said it isn't stock.

For the background I'd recommend a nice dark gradient or something similar. The background has different parts being black and white and even with your semi transparent padding the text seems hard to read. I'd try to get more contrast there. I don't have any specific color suggestions though. Good luck!

jpasden 13 years ago |

Cool idea! I would try it if I had an Android phone.

Seems a little weird to me to make the lock screen interactive, though. If there are all sorts of things you can do on the lock screen, when does the lock screen cease to be a lock screen, and when does it become some new layer of limited interactivity?

camdykeman 13 years ago | |

Hi jpasden, thanks for taking a look and sorry we couldnt offer a solution for your operating system.

We realise that content on the lockscreen might seem counterintuitive, but we view mobile more in terms of consumption/production than in terms of on/off.

Traditional lock screens serve as a barrier between on and off while Frontpage offers a choice between production and consumption. The lockscreen is a great space for consuming content because its highly accessible. Its a bad place for production because it lacks security (obviously). By viewing mobile this way keeping the two separate, we believe we can greatly improve your mobile user experience.

cdl 13 years ago |

Cool concept, I like how easily accessible the content is. You should try displaying more images for the articles. Also sometimes the image lags when loading.

camdykeman 13 years ago | |

Hi cdl, we're happy you like it!

You hit the nail on the head: mobile is all about accessability so we built Frontpage to bring your content to you, the way it should be.

The low image count is just the nature of The New York Times. Next week we're rolling out a bunch of new publications which use pictures more often so be sure to check for updates!

We'll also be introducing an article caching system to fix those loading delays.

Thanks for your input! Email info@frontpageapp.com if you'd like to be kept up to date on Frontpage's progress as we move forward.

camdykeman 13 years ago |

The app is free! Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.frontpageapp.com