If you’re at all interested in the startup scene, programming or tech in general, chances are you’ve had a browse through Hacker News every now and then.  For those who haven’t heard of it, Hacker News is run by startup fund Y Combinator and is something like Reddit, but without any scary r/ sub-reddit sections and no option to downvote posts or comments.

There’s almost always something interesting to read and while the web interface is functional and does a great job of pushing the content and comments to the forefront, it can hardly be called attractive.  Reading the site via Safari on the iPad is fine, but fairly uninspiring when put alongside content aggregator apps such as Flipboard.

Step forward Hacker News Paper, a new app clearly influenced by Flipboard’s magazine style layout.  The app works by pulling all the front page stories and placing them in a newspaper style format, with the intention of making the whole thing a little more iPad and finger-friendly, and a lot more attractive.

The interface will be familiar to iPad users, with a swipe to advance through the pages and a tap to read a story.  Each story is formatted in a similar way to Safari’s own ‘Reader’ option, and there’s the option to skip to the comments or read the original source.  The bare-bones text layout does present some problems though, as it doesn’t show any images, thus forcing you to visit the site.

Although Hacker News Paper doesn’t allow endless viewing of Hacker News – remember it only collates the front page, equating to five iPad pages – but this isn’t a big concern as not only does the content regularly change thanks to the upvote system, but also the majority of good content is found on the front page anyway.

Talking of upvotes, the comments button takes you directly to the site itself so you can login to your account, comment and add your vote just like you would on the website.

There are a few problems though.  The pages are very text-heavy, featuring the post title, original source link, who it was posted by and when, plus article feeder text too; with very little change in font sizing and minimal breaks in-between.  With no images to soften the look either, the pages are far too busy and it actually goes against the app’s primary function of making the site easier on the eye.  I also found the page turning swipe control was flaky when reading in landscape orientation, and far too often resulted in me opening an article rather than turning the page.  This was less of a problem in portrait though.

Finally, there’s the price.  Hacker News Paper normally costs $4.99 (but is on sale at $3.99 at the moment), which seems a little too much for an app that doesn’t let you browse the whole of Hacker News, or offer anything other than a prettier design over free apps like the (admittedly annoyingly ad-supported) Hacker News Padreader.

That said, it is very fast and does take advantage of the iPad’s content-viewing strengths, however it feels a little incomplete and needs even more visual flair injected to make it worth the upgrade over one of the free Hacker News iPad reader apps.  Here’s hoping a future upgrade will fulfill Hacker News Paper’s obvious potential.

Postives:

• Lets you read Hacker News in a magazine-style layout.
• Access your account to comment and upvote.
• Automatically updates with fresh, front page content.

Negatives:

• Considerably more expensive than the competition.
• Text-heavy style is too busy.

Overall: 3/5.