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Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

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Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#1

Post by thomatas »

http://www.txtful.com/

We're a small bootstrapped team based in Chicago who've built a platform that anyone can easily use to take a bit of functionality on the web and make it accessible via text message, IM, email, Twitter, etc.

We've learned lots from reading other people's submissions and comments here on HN, but we now would like to open it up to the community and get some direct feedback about what's good and what can be improved.

The beta is still private so that we can manage the demand, but the first 100 people who use this Invite Code get in:

HACKERNEWS

After that I promise we'll get invite codes out to everyone else who is interested ASAP.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Ted Homatas

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#2

Post by wushupork »

I'm a novice txtful user, but I see lots of potential for it. I've made short codes amazon price checking and netflix queue. I've found that I use the amazon price checking thing every now and then.

Cool thing about this is anyone w/ a phone can use it, not just a smartphone - I don't have an iphone like everyone else.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#4

Post by whalesalad »

I have an iPhone so doing some of these things isn't has hard as it might be on a regular phone, but i've always loved intelligent services like this that let you take a simple thing like text messaging and turn it into a very powerful tool. Even with my iPhone, text messaging is a real fast way to send data. I'll be playing around with it :)

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#7

Post by wesley »

This service seems great, but there's one big catch. You'll need to enter your passwords in their system for netflix, gmail, and whatever else shortcuts you want to use.

If you're willing to do that, great, but I'm not.

Edit: Ofcourse, there are also shortcuts that don't need passwords.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#8

Post by thomatas »

vaksel wrote: post #5
[deleted] wrote: post #3

[deleted]

you really don't need to create fake accounts on here to get people to try out your product

Sorry this is just the excited wife of one of the founders. We're looking for real feedback and criticism here. Please feel free to rip it up.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#9

Post by pclark »

thomatas wrote: post #8
vaksel wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you really don't need to create fake accounts on here to get people to try out your product

Sorry this is just the excited wife of one of the founders. We're looking for real feedback and criticism here. Please feel free to rip it up.

heh, cute :)

American only or worldwide?

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text

#10

Post by thomatas »

wesley wrote: post #7

This service seems great, but there's one big catch. You'll need to enter your passwords in their system for netflix, gmail, and whatever else shortcuts you want to use. If you're willing to do that, great, but I'm not. Edit: Ofcourse, there are also shortcuts that don't need passwords.

That's true Wesley, but not all shortcuts require personal info. And I want you to know that we encrypt all the info you give us with AES-128, and you're free to use whichever shortcuts you're comfortable with. It's not all or nothing.
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