alt.hn

6/20/2026 at 5:00:38 PM

Show HN: Ember, a native iOS Hacker News reader I built around accessibility

https://github.com/DatanoiseTV/ember-hackernews

by sylwester

6/20/2026 at 6:12:03 PM

I love to see an open source implementation.

I’ve been using [Octal](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888...) for a while now but it’s not open source.

Would you be opposed to a pull request adding login/posting support? I think the way it works in Octal is webview for login, snatching the cookies out of the webview, then using the same posting endpoints as the website with the cookie.

by charrondev

6/20/2026 at 9:23:15 PM

Looks great!

It seems you’re nervous about getting permission to show what you made to the world from Apple.

May I suggest you encourage people who want to use the app to get their own subscription and build and install it themselves, or consider AltStore/SideStore. Or go via TestFlight with your own monetization built in.

No one should need permission to ship from a trillion dollar company.

by cadamsdotcom

6/20/2026 at 11:40:23 PM

This is a long bow to draw just for an excuse to get on your soapbox about Apple, especially talking to someone who has definitely heard it all before and has definitely formed their own view on this particular topic (and doesn’t need proselytising from you).

by UqWBcuFx6NV4r

6/21/2026 at 6:05:29 AM

I thought it was interesting to read. It had some information I didn't have before.

by krageon

6/21/2026 at 12:52:51 AM

Only offering ideas, people are free to ignore them.

You never know - OP might not have thought of these options.

by cadamsdotcom

6/20/2026 at 5:48:26 PM

Looks great, do you plan on publishing to the AppStore?

by newdee

6/20/2026 at 6:07:57 PM

If it is possible and Apple accepts the app.

by sylwester

6/20/2026 at 5:30:08 PM

Well done. As a colour blind person (and iOS developer) I am thrilled anytime an app doesn’t rely on colour cues alone. I’ve used Hack and Octal but I am going to give your app a try.

by gavinmckenzie

6/20/2026 at 6:48:10 PM

HN is quite nice inside a desktop browser, but mobile browsers are a different story altogether. But even there, it fares slightly better than old.reddit.com. So looks like I should dust off that xcode.

by shelled

6/20/2026 at 7:38:09 PM

I disagree it works great in Vanadium.

by Cider9986

6/21/2026 at 10:35:00 PM

@sylwester is the repo run by a bot? or is it you? I'm OK with either, it's just issues are being marked as "help wanted" even though they are done in PRs waiting to be merged. It seems the replies in the threads ignore all user comments? What's going on?

And I've completed your big "login" feature request, it is done, just waiting for the PRs to be merged so I can make a nice clean rebase and tidy PR for you to review. But if small PRs aren't being merged I'm reluctant to file a larger one.

by msephton

6/20/2026 at 7:00:49 PM

I've been using Octal on iOS and https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News on Mac that was showcased here 4 months ago.

Got to give you kudos for the Accessibility enablement though - while some of it is baked-in support, it’s worth appreciating your work in whittling down whatever else can be supported.

Here is a comparison for the two on Mac, if you're interested. https://gq6o9uxicyzuw8es6qxe78bnml9wc3re.pastehtml.dev/#core

by ofcrpls

6/21/2026 at 3:40:23 PM

I'm curious if you used a particular tool for this comparison or a LLM. I ask because (layered irony) I'm making a general tool for multi-dimensional item comparisons, using Claude to build the tool (but not the comparisons, not that I mind).

by wittjeff

6/21/2026 at 9:27:10 PM

I had my personal notes comparing Octal and Ironside, then I had claude go through both the repos.

by ofcrpls

6/21/2026 at 4:58:11 PM

I'm posting this from a test feature I'm working on for your app: HN login, comments, replies, edit, etc.

I've also filed some smaller PRs.

by msephton

6/20/2026 at 5:39:24 PM

Looks great. Does it support pinch zoom like webpage hn does

by ios-contractor

6/20/2026 at 11:44:35 PM

Needing to resort to pinch and zoom for everything is an indicator of bad accessibility. HN “supporting” pinch and zoom is more like… HN not being responsive and/or being good about dynamic text size.

by UqWBcuFx6NV4r

6/22/2026 at 6:08:01 AM

pinch and zoom doesn't really have to do with hn. All webpages support pinch and zoom. iOS-wide text enlargement isn't always a solution

by ios-contractor

6/20/2026 at 9:02:27 PM

One thing that would be useful in the readme is instructions on how to install the built app on a phone, for those of us who don’t do iOS development.

by lemming

6/20/2026 at 8:09:16 PM

Could not find the appstore link, is it published there?

by kamyarg

6/20/2026 at 6:11:52 PM

Any chance of HN getting angry about this, à la Reddit?

by roger_

6/20/2026 at 7:00:46 PM

Ok. I don't need or want this.

Doesn't mean others can't find it useful. e.g. I bet some portion of users would appreciate Dark mode without resorting to CSS tweaks. /rant

by rkagerer

6/20/2026 at 9:01:25 PM

(Perhaps they meant as in Is This At Risk of the Apollo Apocalypse rather than as in behaving more like Reddit?)

by altairprime

6/20/2026 at 11:42:43 PM

* HN reader apps have existed forever.

* There is a public API.

^ The incentives for “getting angry” aren’t there, like they were for Reddit.

Think critically.

by UqWBcuFx6NV4r

6/21/2026 at 1:48:42 AM

The information comes from HN; would there be a risk of copyright infringement if the product were listed on the App Store?

by ethanhq

6/21/2026 at 12:54:00 PM

Just starred it on github ;) Looks very good !

by Calgaryp

6/20/2026 at 9:40:02 PM

i've been using hackfeed, it does the job.

make this available on testflight, this looks great, would love to daily drive it.

+1 for the accessibility features, great job!

by pi-victor

6/20/2026 at 6:52:43 PM

Are you planning to release Android version as well ?

by _dharmik_

6/21/2026 at 8:27:26 AM

I will check if it is possible to build for Android.

by sylwester

6/24/2026 at 9:21:35 AM

[flagged]

by Studui81Labs

6/20/2026 at 6:11:51 PM

[flagged]

by Tiberium