from Hacker News

Ask HN: Review my LockScreen news and social reader startup

by camdykeman on 1/27/13, 1:38 PM with 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

  • by bnjd on 1/27/13, 8:50 PM

    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.

  • by jpasden on 1/27/13, 2:55 PM

    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?

  • by cdl on 1/27/13, 2:24 PM

    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.

  • by camdykeman on 1/27/13, 1:40 PM

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

    http://www.frontpageapp.com