I like installing iOS betas. Not sure why, I just love it. So when iOS 27 came out in June (or whenever it was exactly), I installed the first beta. A couple of days later I was browsing some website on my iPhone and needed to zoom out, but Safari wouldn't let me do it with a pinch. I went looking for page scale in settings, couldn't find it anywhere, and that's when I stumbled on an interesting Safari feature called "Describe Extension". I was like, ok, describing: I need to zoom out. Safari thought for a second, "vibecoded" the extension for me, and it actually worked. Wow, ok.
That's when I thought the future phone is basically a device that does whatever you tell it to, with no apps preinstalled. Then I forgot about the idea.
Fast forward to September. I listened to the Lex podcast with DHH. I never listen to Lex, but I'd run out of episodes from the podcasts I'm subscribed to. What struck me most was DHH saying something like: I like this notes app, but I only use about 10% of its features, so everything else is a distraction, so I just told Claude to rebuild the app and get rid of the stuff I don't use. That's not the exact quote, but you get the idea.
I remember listening and thinking, why don't I do the same?
I've now built 3 apps I use every day that follow the same idea. There was something I liked but not quite, so I rebuilt it to fix my issues and tweak it for myself.
So that's the background to today's post.
I don't know what % of people like reading news on the Apple Watch, but I'm one of them. Sometimes I just want short summaries on a small screen: when I'm somewhere it's not convenient to use the phone, when the phone is in another room, when I go to bed, etc.
But every app I've used to read news on the watch is shitty, and the news is shitty too.
So yesterday I thought, why not read Stacker News on the watch? I even installed a browser for the Apple Watch to try it. It was a pain in the ass, and by the time the page finally opened you're already tired.
So today I made a Stacker News app for the Apple Watch. There's no login, it's just a news app for the watch, but with Stacker News. I use it as my news app now, so if you're in the 0.01% of people who also read news on their watch, feel free to grab it via TestFlight =)
That's really cool! Did you publish the source code somewhere, or just closed-source for now?
Thanks! Yes, it's here https://github.com/obvioussummer46/stacker.watch just need to clean it up a bit, i think the latest build is still local, need to get to my mac later today;)
And now I want a watch
This is dope I recently made an app for galaxy or pixel users too posted it in here
cool, also for the watch but on android? Or you mean the phone app?
I don’t know software according to DHH very well, but what I do know is it’s always a source of inspiration motivated by curiosity….DHH for prez
https://jakelazaroff.com/words/dhh-is-way-worse-than-i-thought/
nahh
Doesn’t surprise me at all, but honestly, I don’t care 😄 What he said just motivated me to look at the problem from a different angle. That’s it. I didn’t even know about him before the interview.
Sick! Does it show the ~lightning when someone zaps your posts? Screenshots or photos of how it looks?
No, cause there is no login (yet?) , I just made it to read the news, not really interact with posts. Here are some screenshots:)
Smert stuff there, getting dangerous you are!
Honestly, I love this idea. It’s crazy how AI is making it possible to stop settling for apps that almost work the way you want and just build something that fits your needs. The Apple Watch news app is a perfect example—if existing apps are frustrating, you can now just make your own solution. The idea of phones and watches becoming devices that can create whatever tool you need on demand is pretty exciting.