The 5 Why’s of Screenius

1Why is this app different from all other apps?

The moment you open Screenius, you’ll see this app is visually distinctive, not looking like any other mobile app you own – what, no pastel colors? no big flat buttons with san serif fonts? no lists? no tables? Hopefully, you’re someone like us, looking for the unique and the different.

As a feat of engineering, Screenius is intricate and finely made, like a good Swiss watch. If you know software design, you may appreciate that this craftsmanship is all client-side code (so as far as we are concerned, your data remains private to you and your iPad).

The aim of Screenius is to take the work out of finding interesting videos to watch. We want to minimize your typing, searching, scrolling, etc., automate whatever we can, to make your iPad as easy to use as a TV, but a TV with a brain.

We learn your taste by watching what video you consume (and don’t), and automatically fetch videos, two at a time, to present to you. In History, you can go back and scan through any video without ever bookmarking or tagging – we keep track of all videos you don’t give a thumbs down to.

2Why do I pick from only 2 videos?

Why can’t I see an endless list I can pick from? Trust us, there is an infinite supply of video ready and waiting for you – but why should you have to page through umpteen entries in an infinite list of video descriptions or wander through a never-ending grid of video thumbnails when all you want is to see something interesting?What could be simpler than an immediate choice – left or right? A or B? We use this simple, quick choice to hone our personalization algorithm – every set of choices we present is an automated A/B test to help us learn more about your taste, and only your taste.

3Why does Screenius shuffle randomly between my selected topics?

This is not North Korea – we assume you are interested in more than one topic. Most people have a broad set of interests, and different topics may hold different appeal depending on your mood or time of day or day of week. So we let you select any number of topics you enjoy, then we find videos from those topics for you automatically, filter them by what we know of your personal taste, and you always have the option to change your mind (change your topic) with a tap of a finger.

4Why can’t I save videos into a “favorites” folder?

Why should you? Memory is cheap, so why don’t we just preserve everything for you? Less work for you. If you really don’t want to ever see this video again, just rate it negatively and we’ll trash it. Otherwise, don’t worry, be happy.

5Why do I have a score?

That’s groundwork for future features. You can brag about your score or ignore it for now. As you wish.