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Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

11 replies on 1 page. Most recent reply: Aug 28, 2008 6:36 AM by Nathan Smack

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Bruce Eckel

Posts: 875
Nickname: beckel
Registered: Jun, 2003

Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript (View in Weblogs)

Posted: May 23, 2008 11:55 AM

Summary
Microsoft has created a really impressive newsreader.

It's still in beta; here's the link.

OK, I'll ask the obvious question. I've seen some of what Silverlight can do, and it's quite impressive. So why did they write this application in Flash instead of making it a showcase for Silverlight?

Jonathan Feinberg

Posts: 3
Nickname: jdf
Registered: Aug, 2003

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 23, 2008 1:57 PM

It's not "amazing"; it's horrible. I guess it's amazingly horrible.

(By horrible I mean useless, unusable, with no thought given to usability, that kind of thing.)

David Hope

Posts: 2
Nickname: dhope
Registered: Nov, 2007

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 23, 2008 3:23 PM

Well its not perfect in usability but its clear and very slick and not a bad showcase for flash either way. I have yet to find the time to try any serious flex coding, I am interested in know how much code and also effort is required in making something like that, for example could anyone say how easy it is to make things move and spin in 3d like in that page?

Barry Kelly

Posts: 4
Nickname: barrkel
Registered: May, 2008

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 23, 2008 4:14 PM

Strongly disagree. Epic fail for me. It's visually flashy but completely unusable and, since I can't see where I enter my OPML or raw RSS and ATOM feeds, pretty nonfunctional too.

Eric Brown

Posts: 1
Nickname: zogster
Registered: May, 2008

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 23, 2008 6:55 PM

1) MSNBC is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC, and doesn't take its marching orders from Microsoft's Developer Division;
2) Silverlight 1.0 just shipped two months ago, and it's entirely possible that MSNBC didn't want to spend time battling with beta code;
3) The really amazing Silverlight stuff doesn't come until Silverlight 2.0, which just reached beta.

Benjamin Ferrari

Posts: 1
Nickname: benferrari
Registered: May, 2008

Not so amazing if you ask me

Posted: May 24, 2008 8:17 AM

I also think that this is a horrible User Interface. In fact, it may be one of the most awful GUIs I have ever seen. All these effects make absolutely no sense - they do not support me in any way, but only confuse me. I have no idea why the stories all spin around like crazy. Why should I prefer this madness over a "river of news" style aggregator?

The application also seems to lack nearly all of the features I would expect from a news reader.

Tim Nash

Posts: 6
Nickname: tim08
Registered: May, 2008

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 24, 2008 1:28 PM

Is this really the future of web pages? And we can't even get a browser with a built in grid? <sigh>

Eric Gillespie

Posts: 13
Nickname: viking
Registered: Jun, 2005

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 24, 2008 9:27 PM

They seem to have a limited number of pre-set links, with no obvious facility for adding personal links not already in the list. Frankly, though I like some of the effects, I'm also put off by the spinning stories. How the hell am I supposed to "pluck one out of the clued"? Oops - that was supposed to be cloud, but now I think my first guess was right after all.

It's a weird front-end metaphor, and not one that I think the average new-user would readily grasp. And from the accessibility issues, how the hell is someone that's mobility-challenged supposed to have the speed needed to read each flying box, and to click on it? Once you've got it pinned down, then it does at least have the decency to stay put, but there's no obvious way to close the article, except by choosing another "article" flom the cloud. I'd rate this a very poor 2 out of 10. It's not impossible, but the program could do with being scrapped and started again.

Just my NZ$0.02 worth...

Cheers, The Viking

Dorian Gray

Posts: 7
Nickname: dgray
Registered: May, 2007

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 27, 2008 5:20 PM

I like this. I haven't really explored all the features of the newsreader itself, but I really like the user interface. It is a good demonstration of what you can achieve as far as a user interface is concerned.

Cervantes Vive

Posts: 1
Nickname: cervantes
Registered: May, 2008

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: May 28, 2008 9:18 AM

Is this really built entirely on ActionScript? Or Flash Professional with some ActionScript? How can I tell?

James Watson

Posts: 2024
Nickname: watson
Registered: Sep, 2005

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: Jun 10, 2008 1:37 PM

I can't read the headlines: Fail.

This is a great example of Bubble 2.0 mentality, though. Throw a bunch of flashy (pun originally not intended) crap at the user but don't actually worry about usability.

Nathan Smack

Posts: 2
Nickname: nsmack
Registered: Aug, 2008

Re: Amazing Newsreader Written in ActionScript

Posted: Aug 28, 2008 6:36 AM

Cool application of the technology.
Things I would do to make it better:

* Give some depth to the swirling headline cards for more "3d" effect.

* Obviously add the functionality to allow addition of non default feeds RSS/ATOM etc...

* This idea just popped into my head, have an audio on/off feature that would read the headlines as they reach the front of the rotation. I would leave this running on one of my other monitors, or in the background and when I heard a headline that interested me, I could click over... Probably a 2.0 feature.

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