Besides being a constant testing ground for my struggles with the English language, this site has long been my favorite sandbox for working on my software development skills. I’ve always enjoyed tweaking the design and functionality of the site itself1, but early last year I decided I wanted to tackle a new project: a native iPad/iPhone app specifically for this site. While there were a few other climbing news apps in the App Store at the time, most if not all of them relied on public feeds from the respective sites, which, in my opinion, does not provide for a very good experience.
When I sat down to begin work on the app, I had a few goals in mind. I wanted the app to be fast and easy to use, and I hoped that it could provide an enhanced experience for those people using their mobile devices. I wanted the app to be easier to use than visiting this site in the browser, and hopefully at the same time it could be a more engaging experience. The toils of the development process and dealing with the arbitrary nature of the App Store approval process are fodder for another post if people are interested, but after many, many hours of hard work, the app was released to the App Store last week. You can download it for free2 by visiting this link.
Highlights of version 1.0 of the ClimbingNarc iOS app include:
- Read the latest posts, watch the latest videos and browse the latest comments with ease
- Browse and search lists of all the climbers and climbing areas that have been mentioned throughout the history of this site
- Add your own comments to any post
Screenshots
When will the android app be launched? Congrats with the iOS app, love your site.
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If someone else wants to give it a go that would be cool, but since I don’t foresee having either the time or an android device anytime in the near future that will have to wait.
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Awesome app!
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Narc, not sure if this is unique to Chrome, but since you’ve made your changes to the website, the font has become very difficult to read. It looks very light and washed out.
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Hmm, I use chrome as well. Could you email me a screen shot of what you’re seeing? climbingnarc at gmail dot com
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Having the same problem. Just sent you a screenshot.
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I also use Chrome and don’t have a problem with the text.
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Could be a Windows anti-aliasing issue. The new font is beautiful on my Mac/iOS device in all browsers.
This is personal preference, but most fonts look anemic to me on Windows, and it’s usually especially noticeable with slim fonts like this one.
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Just got it…now I can make snarky comments on the go!!!
Seriously though, thanks for investing so much of your time and energy into our little community!
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Downloaded and reviewed. Looks great! Having worked in iOS development professionally for 3 years (and software dev for 8), I think you’ve done an impressive job for a first attempt at objective C.
Looking forward to the updates.
-Matt Hoffmann
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bout time narc. looks great, stoked.
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Hey, awesome app! I’m actually commenting from it right now.
One thing I noticed was that if I clicked a video in portrait mode and then flipped to landscape and left the video, the page looked stretched out until I flipped it back to portrait. Not sure if you’d seen that so I figured I’d drop a note.
Definitely five stars though, I love it!
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Sweet! I’ll see what I can do about that bug.
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Awesome app! It really is easier than actually using the site with a browser, I think.
Here’s my request for a future enhancement, if you ever have time: try to add a feature so that if you’re reading a particular post, and you swipe right or left, it will take you to the next or previous post (or video). Kind of like in newsreader apps like pulse or flipboard. This would speed things up even more.
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That is high on my list.
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That is high on my list
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I’d much rather pay for the app than have ads. Heck, I’d rather pay you for it than get it for free. I’d happily pay $5 for this, and I bet I’m not alone. I just think this site and now app is so awesome that I want you to be making money from it!
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Hi love the site! and im trying to get the app for my iphone but i can’t seem to find it in the app store can you help ? it says its not available in the canadian or us app store anyone else have this issue ?
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I ended up removing the app from the App Store both because it is badly in need of an update and it does not work with iOS7. There seems to be a lot of demand for it so I hope to make an updated version, but I don’t expect to have time to do so for at least a couple of months.
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Thank you for the reply!
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