(Obviously these are just my subjective opinions)
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Open the front page by default: every single time I open Simple Hacker News, I want to view the front page. I've never once tapped any of the other menu items, yet I still land on the menu whenever the app first loads. I'm guessing that even users that do select the other menu items still choose the front page an overwhelming percentage of the time. As such, I think the front page should be the application's root view controller and the menu should be accessible modally via a left bar button.
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The blue unread dot is overwhelming/distracting: Since Hacker News covers a wide range of topics, I don't think very many users expect to read all or most of the links that make the front page. As such, I think the unread indicator should be much more subtle. Instead of a blue dot, I think that stories should look the same way that they currently do by default, but the alpha of the table cell could be dropped a bit once a story has already been read. Thi