PPK came up with JSON over SMS, which would be a great way for people to use apps with phones (or in countries) that don't support data (including MMS). I guess this is a much bigger problem in developing countries. You can see his slides about this here: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/10/fronttrends_...
Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
41–50 of 109 posts
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#42This is so clever. So impressed right now but I feel like this is going to get shut down so fast....
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#43This 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...
Hello,
Let me know if you need a hand with hosting (VPS, dedi, etc). Don't worry about cost (no strings attached). Feel free to drop me a line at joe@unixy.net
Cheers
P.S: We've recently deployed a several 24-core SAS nodes so there's plenty of capacity to spare.
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#44This is so clever. So impressed right now but I feel like this is going to get shut down so fast....
Thanks, it was a lot of fun :)
I hope it doesn't get shut down TOO fast. I think it has a chance since the userbase will probably be very small, since the number of people who have Android phones without a data plan with US T-Mobile is probably on the order of thousands...
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#45Do 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.
Nice. I hope the app has a "don't send passwords" warning in there ;)
Also, how do you (do you?) handle SSL operations, specially POSTs?
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#46Do 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.
Who pays for the MMS you send back? You or the recipient? (Or is it free?)
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Nice. I hope the app has a "don't send passwords" warning in there ;) Also, how do you (do you?) handle SSL operations, specially POSTs?
It doesn't have a "don't send passwords" warning. I should definitely add some kind of warning/disclaimer page that pops up when you boot the app.
I display a warning when the user tries to navigate to an HTTPS URL that messages sent to/from Smozzy aren't encrypted and it's not recommended that you proceed. I had a general idea for an encryption scheme (hardcode Smozzy's certificate's public key into the application and use it to encrypt a randomly generated string with each request and then send that encrypted string with the request and use the unencrypted string as a symmetric key to encrypt the rest of the request/response), but I was kind of too lazy to implement it for the initial release.
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Who pays for the MMS you send back? You or the recipient? (Or is it free?)
The recipient pays if they don't have a messaging plan. You can send an MMS to a US T-Mobile customer by emailing 1115557777@tmomail.net (if their phone number were (111) 555-7777), so that's how I do that.
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
Hello, Let me know if you need a hand with hosting (VPS, dedi, etc). Don't worry about cost (no strings attached). Feel free to drop me a line at joe@unixy.net Cheers P.S: We've recently deployed a several 24-core SAS nodes so there's plenty of capacity to spare.
Wow, thanks, I really appreciate the offer. I'll definitely let you know if I need help.
Re: Show HN: Smozzy (for Android/T-Mobile) - browse the web without a data plan
#50I remember getting an Ericsson (A2618?) phone in around 2000 that was advertised as a WAP phone and being very disappointed that it only supported WAP over SMS (UK networks didn't allow that - I think the closest network with support was in Greece).