Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan • Hacker News Board

Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#1

Post by FaceKicker » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:13 AM UTC

Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
smozzy.com

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#2

Post by rorrr » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:37 AM UTC

This is hilarious, gotta be the most inefficient way to access the web.

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#3

Post by fishtoaster » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:38 AM UTC

That's pretty great- wish I had an android to try it!

I can't help but wonder what kind of speed you actually get through that- would it be sufficient for day-to-day use, or just enough for a few patient page loads now and then?

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#4

Post by FaceKicker » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:40 AM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #2

This is hilarious, gotta be the most inefficient way to access the web.

It's definitely not fast, but it's not quite as bad as you might think. While I was testing it, the whole pipeline, from pressing the "go" button to the page being fully rendered could take as little as 15 seconds.

Granted I'm just releasing this now, so if it gets any users at all we'll see how my cheap VPS holds up...

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#5

Post by SwellJoe » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:42 AM UTC

One of these days, the network providers are going to stop putting arbitrary labels on their data, as though "voice", "text" and "data" are not all travelling through the same towers and pipes.

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#6

Post by FaceKicker » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:42 AM UTC

fishtoaster wrote: post #3

That's pretty great- wish I had an android to try it! I can't help but wonder what kind of speed you actually get through that- would it be sufficient for day-to-day use, or just enough for a few patient page loads now and then?

Not sufficient for day-to-day use, probably between 15 seconds and a minute to get a page. But if you don't have a data plan, it's possibly better than nothing...

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#7

Post by calebmpeterson » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:43 AM UTC

Do you use compression at all or is it straight uncompressed HTTP via SMS? Or something else entirely? This is wonderful for it's creative (mis)use of texting...

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#8

Post by teyc » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:44 AM UTC

Cute and clever. Browsing the web at 140 characters at a time.

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#9

Post by hollerith » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:45 AM UTC

Great. Now we need a way to send IP packets over a mobile voice call (using the same principles used by old-fashioned modems).

Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan

#10

Post by FaceKicker » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 4:46 AM UTC

calebmpeterson wrote: post #7

Do you use compression at all or is it straight uncompressed HTTP via SMS? Or something else entirely? This is wonderful for it's creative (mis)use of texting...

The requests (which are just URLs, and any postdata/cookies if applicable) are sent to my server via SMS.

The responses are sent back to the phone via MMS, in up to 5 (I think?) segments. I download the webpage along with all resources (stylesheets, images, etc.) and put everything in a zip file. I encode the zip file as a PNG (each RGB pixel is 3 bytes of the zip file) and send the PNG in the MMS.