Very cool! You might also want to add weather, amazon/yelp ratings for products/places, directions from place a to b and location based search (coffee near staples center, la). Would be super useful for people on the move without access to a data plan.
Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#32Very cool, right now this is only in US?
Do you have any plans to scale it here or are you only showing it as a proof-of-concept and will be shortly moving it to developing countries (where data service is less common)?
Also, what's the point of the link at the end, if you're using SMS for this type of info it seems kinda unlikely that you have a phone that can handle data...
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#33This reminds me of Google Talk Guru, the Google bot that lets you ask simple questions. It was an experimental service a few years ago. I'm not sure if it's still accepting invitations, but it still works for me in Google Talk or Gmail Chat: You can try to "friend" the bot by adding guru@googlelabs.com to your contact list. I sometimes still use it for a quick reference.
Which in turn reminds me of similar xmpp/jabber account: im@ddg.gg
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#34Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#35Nice Idea.
I'm sure you can spare the prefix letter with a little effort.
You should try and make it as a plugin for existing IM app (e.g. Whatsapp)
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#36this would likely be extremely slow, but what about doing some form of TCP/IP via SMS, thereby using SMS as a "real" data connection
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#37Just tried to use your service from Australia and got no response :(
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#38is this thought for developing countries?
It is and will be scaled. Half the world still does not have 3g access through smartphones.
holy crap, I was writing a very similar app months ago, based on very similar premises, but I sorta gave up (actually got too busy as well, etc) once I read that actually the whole world is going 3g, even most developing countries are experiencing rapid 3g growth[1].
In any case, this looks very cool, seems better-thought-out than my original project. Good luck!
[1]: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile...
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#39Just tried to use your service from Australia and got no response :(
Might be turned off at the moment.
Re: Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS
#40Just tried to use your service from Australia and got no response :(
Sorry, service was turned off momentarily, feel free to try it again!