MWSF 2010 Demo: SachManya's Yapper

This sounds like it has the potential to become a big giant blackhole, since every RSS feed on the planet could potentially become a separate app. Not only does everything have to funnel through Yapper, but it also has to funnel through Apple. And what happens when an RSS feed changes addresses?

EDIT: Not to mention, what happens when the common runtime needs to be updated. eg: when you build SSBs with Fluid, and Fluid itself is updated, you still have to update each of the SSB apps. That's handled nicely by Fluid, but the same thing won't happen with Yapper. So if a bug is found (eg: incompatibility with iPhone OS 3.something or 4.0), every "app" built with Yapper is going to have to be updated and resubmitted.

It sure seems like the long way around. Just make a decent RSS feed application, maybe design its UI to make it feel like every RSS feed is separate (eg: open the reader app and a pseudo-"Springboard-ey" kind of UI appears, display an icon/favicon for each feed, tap one to read it) and sell it for $2.99, instead of the complicated and potentially floody $0.99-separate-app-per-feed.

Frankly, I can see Apple baulking at this, esp since there is little value actually provided by Yapper's approach. It's not really any better than those apps that are little more than a Safari front-end for a website. And I wouldn't be surprised if Apple built RSS handling into iPhone OS 4.0.

Interesting. Only last week I had an idea for creating a source-code package that bloggers/online authors could buy to create their own apps, with the option of having me compile/submit it for them of course.

I decided not to in the end, because I don't think the market for it is particularly big given the effort it'd require. A well built iPhone specific web page would be 10x better for 99% of people.

Of course, I may be wrong, and I wish these Yapper guys well with their project.

Seems a small shop - their sign up forces you to provide a telephone number and website...

Just like having an app ber book, or an app per genre for the same app, maybe having an app per RSS feed is a little OTT. Any word on them getting broad Apple app approval?

How is this different from iSites?

iSites = already established

iSites = cheaper

iSites = monetizable

How is this different from iSites?

iSites = already established

iSites = cheaper

iSites = monetizable

One difference is that iSites is currently backed up and not accepting new monitezations until all currently paid apps have been submitted to Apple... who knows how long that could take...

^^^ +1 iSites was pretty good, but is being bombarded. Yapper is expensive in terms of comparison to iSites; some of us have no alternative....:(

I think this is a great idea and it should have been done a long time ago.

Frankly, web browsing on the iPhone is not the best experience, so anything that improves it must be welcome.

But $99? That's a bit steep for most bloggers, who would really need something like this.

What's the point of having an entire App just to read an RSS feed, when you can do it right from Safari (for free)?

Some good questions raised on this forum. I thought i would share my research here. First I looked at both services. iSites is around a bit longer that's right and they are a bit cheaper. Also both say they are building native iPhone and android apps but then I digged a bit more and i found that isites is not a totally native app-what they have done is completely a web based solution wrapped within UIWebview. What I mean is that guys their navbar and tabbars are background images not native iPhone navbars and tabbars. So why does that matter - it would take an iSites based app much longer much to load the app and the content because everything is delivered over the network connection. Further, I downloaded one of the iSites apps and tried to launch the app in the airport mode. Guess what, the app is useless when their is no network connection. YAPPER on other hand says their app would still run offline - very cool for people like me who take Caltrain everyday to work, I can still read the articles when their no network connection. Finally, YAPPER has an option for push notifications so a publisher/blogger can send our alerts for breaking or exclusive stories. I hope this helps.

This sounds like it has the potential to become a big giant blackhole, since every RSS feed on the planet could potentially become a separate app. Not only does everything have to funnel through Yapper, but it also has to funnel through Apple. And what happens when an RSS feed changes addresses?

Some good questions raised on this forum. I thought i would share my research here. First I looked at both services. iSites is around a bit longer that's right and they are a bit cheaper. Also both say they are building native iPhone and android apps but then I digged a bit more and i found that isites is not a totally native app-what they have done is completely a web based solution wrapped within UIWebview. What I mean is that guys their navbar and tabbars are background images not native iPhone navbars and tabbars. So why does that matter - it would take an iSites based app much longer much to load the app and the content because everything is delivered over the network connection. Further, I downloaded one of the iSites apps and tried to launch the app in the airport mode. Guess what, the app is useless when their is no network connection. YAPPER on other hand says their app would still run offline - very cool for people like me who take Caltrain everyday to work, I can still read the articles when their no network connection. Finally, YAPPER has an option for push notifications so a publisher/blogger can send our alerts for breaking or exclusive stories. I hope this helps.