My new app Cyberspace has just been approved today - iTunes link: http://bit.ly/getcyberspaceapp. In one sentence, it is optimized specifically for the purpose of reading, discovering, and sharing. And it's pretty good at them.
Feature list: reading queue, access to Pinboard/Delicious bookmarks, DuckDuckGo as default search engine, ad blocking, Readability bookmarklet, text mode powered by Instapaper Mobilizer, share to different services, Pastebot & OmniFocus support, scratchpad with TextExpander support, etc.
Not at this point, I think. Feature set in Cyberspace can easily replicated by using browsers' extensions, and it's hard to convince users to stay away from Firefox, Safari & Chrome.
especially when companies like facebook & google discriminate against you for not using firefox, safari, chrome, or IE.
example: when I use google docs, I have to set my browser (midori) to identify as safari in order to not be told "you're not using a supported browser, use chrome"
Ha, great. Ad-Blocking enabled by default and DuckDuckGo used for search. Good choices and good idea to differentiate your product from competition like that.
Thanks. I'm not trying to compete with browsers like iCab (icab.de) in terms of feature sets - I just can't keep up with them. Cyberspace is my attempt to be an 'opinionated' web browser that integrates well with the user's work flow.
It may never replace your main web browser of choice, but it's really good at some frequent tasks - like checking out your Tumblr dashboard, Hacker News, etc.
> It may never replace your main web browser of choice, but it's really good at some frequent tasks - like checking out your Tumblr dashboard, Hacker News, etc.
That sounds like a niche that a lot of folks (including me) would like to see addressed. I like what I saw in the YT video and am planning on getting Cyberspace ASAP.
Btw. this reminds me of an idea me and a friend had over lunch on how to take down Google, Facebook etc. An evil hacker could theoretically write a virus, that only does one thing: Block Ads. Or install an Ad-Blocker.
This could SERIOUSLY disrupt online business as we know it. Same thing would happen if the Cyberspace browser became the market leader. The creator would probably be bought out for whatever money he wants just so that ads get re-enabled for that browser.
Haha, I for one would be more than happy to be infected with that 'virus'.
I'm not totally against advertising though. I think it's the execution that fails — I really love those ads by The Deck and Fusion Ads. If only the web is without ugly ad banners, Flash ads and the like.
This looks like an interesting app. However, the features that you have integrated are not unique or interesting enough for this app to gain a lot of attention.
If your intention is to create a niche app that solves a few problems, you've done a great job of that. The users who like your app will like it a lot.
If you are still in active development and would like to increase the number of people using your app, here are some things that might help:
1) Re-conceive both your self-hosted product page and the Apple App Store description. In short, you need to answer this question quickly and accurately: what makes your browser 100x better than any other browser out there? Currently, your "discover, read, share" sections are not compelling. Your App Store description is a little better with your quick point form feature list.
2) Your integration of Social Bookmarking is very interesting. I recently reviewed Delibar (http://robisit.com/gl). It is an app that saves bookmarks to Delicious or Pinboard. I concluded that the major flaw in this software was that it was limited to these two social bookmarking services. I think that you should integrate every single bookmarking and sharing service into your browser somehow. This is a powerful feature that is not currently being used in iOS apps properly.
3) I realize it's early - but listing real testimonials sells apps. Plain and simple, quotes such as, "I love this app, it changed my life" help people spend $2 on an App.
Without downloading your browser and testing it, it looks like you have an interesting product. The way that you have collected useful browsing add-ons and components into one iOS package might be useful. On the surface, your sales text isn't compelling and presents the biggest problem.
You're correct - I intended to create a niche app and tried to integrate useful components into the users' workflow. Those who wish to use Cyberspace to replace his main browser might be disappointed by the lack of features compared to other alternate browsers.
1) It's interesting that you find the App Store description better, since the text are the same - on my product page, I just reorder them and put into different sections.
Cyberspace is a collection of tiny little features that add to the users' browsing experience, and indeed, I find it difficult to put them into words, trying to sell to the users.
2) I would love to hear about other social bookmarking services. I am only aware of Pinboard/Delicious and wish to add more to Cyberspace. Currently they're in the simple form of each site's mobile version, which I find suitable for a small screen/popover. In future version, I will add the ability to add your own service to Cyberspace.
3) That's a great idea.
I wonder if you want to give Cyberspace a spin. I'll send you a promo code right away.
Agreed. Also, the screenshot on your homepage doesn't tell me much about your app (and the screen is out of date).
Granted most of the users that would find this app useful are power users, the teaser text on the site is probably more technical than it should be. Sentences like "There's no need to get out of your current context to check out a random link - just queue it to visit after you finish your current article" come to mind when I say that.
If you're interested I'd be more than happy to send you a couple other copyedit/text edits to that landing page. Just email me.
My favorite tool for offline reading on the iPhone is actually another browser. Before I go on a flight, I load up HN, open up links to stories and comment pages I want in iCabMobile, which then saves them for offline reading. I've found it be more effective than Instapaper because I only need to load it once, and I end up reading a copy of the webpage itself, with all formatting, images, layout, etc.
If Cyberspace can support a similar feature, I would gladly purchase it, because iCabMobile's offline support isn't as well supported on the iPad.
Just got it. I like the focus on working though a bunch of links. Currently for a site like hacker news I open a lot of tabs but I always have to switch back on opening the tab and it uses up a lot of memory loading them when I not actually going to read them yet.
iCab solves the first problem as it can auto background tab any links to a different domain. This is a actually smoother than the flow here: tap-hold-selecting is a slow operation I don't want to have to do it for every link on a page.
Instead I'd love a toggle that turns on add to queue as the default operation for the duration of that page. (This would be an improvement on the iCab option as the background loading is easy to forget about and then immediately becomes confusing.) The toggle should be a main button like the plus and would cease to apply if you navigate anywhere else or start going though your queue.
Another option would be certain pages always open in auto add to queue mode (eg set on the the bookmark). And some people might prefer add to instapaper as the default action etc.
EDIT: I actually really like this. Feels very smooth.
A few points. Some which have been hit already by prior posts, but I'd like to reiterate. Right now you're in marketing mode. So:
1. The website really needs the focus right now. My first point of confusion was the image. Naturally, our eyes are going to navigate to that, but it doesn't tell me anything. I'm confused looking at it. What is this? Do I really have to read the blocks below it to figure out what it is? I've skimmed the titles, but I'm not interested in reading all that right now... (That's my train of thought)
I would throw in a simple script to cycle through some images. Include some text explaining some of the core features.
2. What does this do that the other browsers don't? Some of this will be explained once point 1 is resolved. Past that, I would add more images + text below it.
Don't just tell me, show me. I might not have the time to read through a block of text. If you can describe epic in a picture, do it.
3. The Icon. There are people who will simply refuse to buy an app because of the icon. Sad, but true. This is how people discover you. They will see a list of icons in their search and find the prettiest one to tap.
You need something simple, slick and polished. Right now I feel like it belongs on a childrens e-book.
4. "You must be at least 17 years old" -- Really?
5. Consistancy. Pet-peeve of mine, but why is your skin different between the iPhone/iPad version? The iPad skin is solid. I'd subclass those iPhone components and give it the same look-and-feel.
6. I would definitely milk the social networking bit. I can't count how many times I've shared links and images from a page.
7. 'firmware 3.2' should just probably be 'iOS 3.2 or later.'
All opinions of course. Take what you will. All in all, great work. I'm not sold primarily because the core browser does a good enough job, but I can be convinced.
1) 2) 6) 7) Thanks. You're right on most points — the website, the copy, and the screenshots definitely need works. I'll have a screencast replace the current image asap.
3) The icon. Some people really like it, some hate it with a passion. I'll come up with a new (hopefully) better one.
4) That's Apple's requirements. All apps that pull data from the internet have to specify a 17-year-old age restriction. There's nothing I can do about that
5) I'm not sure about that. Both the iPad/iPhone version use default OS' skins (gray on iPad & blue on iPhone)
28 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 69.3 ms ] threadFeature list: reading queue, access to Pinboard/Delicious bookmarks, DuckDuckGo as default search engine, ad blocking, Readability bookmarklet, text mode powered by Instapaper Mobilizer, share to different services, Pastebot & OmniFocus support, scratchpad with TextExpander support, etc.
example: when I use google docs, I have to set my browser (midori) to identify as safari in order to not be told "you're not using a supported browser, use chrome"
It may never replace your main web browser of choice, but it's really good at some frequent tasks - like checking out your Tumblr dashboard, Hacker News, etc.
That sounds like a niche that a lot of folks (including me) would like to see addressed. I like what I saw in the YT video and am planning on getting Cyberspace ASAP.
This could SERIOUSLY disrupt online business as we know it. Same thing would happen if the Cyberspace browser became the market leader. The creator would probably be bought out for whatever money he wants just so that ads get re-enabled for that browser.
I'm not totally against advertising though. I think it's the execution that fails — I really love those ads by The Deck and Fusion Ads. If only the web is without ugly ad banners, Flash ads and the like.
I love the integration with Readability and Instapaper.
If your intention is to create a niche app that solves a few problems, you've done a great job of that. The users who like your app will like it a lot.
If you are still in active development and would like to increase the number of people using your app, here are some things that might help:
1) Re-conceive both your self-hosted product page and the Apple App Store description. In short, you need to answer this question quickly and accurately: what makes your browser 100x better than any other browser out there? Currently, your "discover, read, share" sections are not compelling. Your App Store description is a little better with your quick point form feature list.
2) Your integration of Social Bookmarking is very interesting. I recently reviewed Delibar (http://robisit.com/gl). It is an app that saves bookmarks to Delicious or Pinboard. I concluded that the major flaw in this software was that it was limited to these two social bookmarking services. I think that you should integrate every single bookmarking and sharing service into your browser somehow. This is a powerful feature that is not currently being used in iOS apps properly.
3) I realize it's early - but listing real testimonials sells apps. Plain and simple, quotes such as, "I love this app, it changed my life" help people spend $2 on an App.
Without downloading your browser and testing it, it looks like you have an interesting product. The way that you have collected useful browsing add-ons and components into one iOS package might be useful. On the surface, your sales text isn't compelling and presents the biggest problem.
1) It's interesting that you find the App Store description better, since the text are the same - on my product page, I just reorder them and put into different sections.
Cyberspace is a collection of tiny little features that add to the users' browsing experience, and indeed, I find it difficult to put them into words, trying to sell to the users.
2) I would love to hear about other social bookmarking services. I am only aware of Pinboard/Delicious and wish to add more to Cyberspace. Currently they're in the simple form of each site's mobile version, which I find suitable for a small screen/popover. In future version, I will add the ability to add your own service to Cyberspace.
3) That's a great idea.
I wonder if you want to give Cyberspace a spin. I'll send you a promo code right away.
Edit: How is this a joke? You mean, the cartoonish style?
Thanks!
Granted most of the users that would find this app useful are power users, the teaser text on the site is probably more technical than it should be. Sentences like "There's no need to get out of your current context to check out a random link - just queue it to visit after you finish your current article" come to mind when I say that.
If you're interested I'd be more than happy to send you a couple other copyedit/text edits to that landing page. Just email me.
If Cyberspace can support a similar feature, I would gladly purchase it, because iCabMobile's offline support isn't as well supported on the iPad.
Edit: Have you tried Wikipanion? It's only for Wikipedia browsing, but its feature set is amazing. The offline support is very robust, too.
iCab solves the first problem as it can auto background tab any links to a different domain. This is a actually smoother than the flow here: tap-hold-selecting is a slow operation I don't want to have to do it for every link on a page.
Instead I'd love a toggle that turns on add to queue as the default operation for the duration of that page. (This would be an improvement on the iCab option as the background loading is easy to forget about and then immediately becomes confusing.) The toggle should be a main button like the plus and would cease to apply if you navigate anywhere else or start going though your queue.
Another option would be certain pages always open in auto add to queue mode (eg set on the the bookmark). And some people might prefer add to instapaper as the default action etc.
EDIT: I actually really like this. Feels very smooth.
I'll be sure to tweak the Reading queue feature to speed up the process. Stay tuned.
A few points. Some which have been hit already by prior posts, but I'd like to reiterate. Right now you're in marketing mode. So:
1. The website really needs the focus right now. My first point of confusion was the image. Naturally, our eyes are going to navigate to that, but it doesn't tell me anything. I'm confused looking at it. What is this? Do I really have to read the blocks below it to figure out what it is? I've skimmed the titles, but I'm not interested in reading all that right now... (That's my train of thought)
I would throw in a simple script to cycle through some images. Include some text explaining some of the core features.
2. What does this do that the other browsers don't? Some of this will be explained once point 1 is resolved. Past that, I would add more images + text below it.
Don't just tell me, show me. I might not have the time to read through a block of text. If you can describe epic in a picture, do it.
3. The Icon. There are people who will simply refuse to buy an app because of the icon. Sad, but true. This is how people discover you. They will see a list of icons in their search and find the prettiest one to tap.
You need something simple, slick and polished. Right now I feel like it belongs on a childrens e-book.
4. "You must be at least 17 years old" -- Really?
5. Consistancy. Pet-peeve of mine, but why is your skin different between the iPhone/iPad version? The iPad skin is solid. I'd subclass those iPhone components and give it the same look-and-feel.
6. I would definitely milk the social networking bit. I can't count how many times I've shared links and images from a page.
7. 'firmware 3.2' should just probably be 'iOS 3.2 or later.'
All opinions of course. Take what you will. All in all, great work. I'm not sold primarily because the core browser does a good enough job, but I can be convinced.
3) The icon. Some people really like it, some hate it with a passion. I'll come up with a new (hopefully) better one.
4) That's Apple's requirements. All apps that pull data from the internet have to specify a 17-year-old age restriction. There's nothing I can do about that
5) I'm not sure about that. Both the iPad/iPhone version use default OS' skins (gray on iPad & blue on iPhone)