off topic but a simpiler website would have been nice. All the video and huge pictures of half dressed people is too much to browse for work.
GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
41–50 of 179 posts
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#42The part I think is missing is a connection back to the cell network so that you can give people in more remote locations the ability to text the rest of the world using this as a link. I don't see the 2-user walky-talky being that useful, but I would happily leave this and an extra phone in my car if it meant getting text functionality as I hike out 20 miles.
> The part I think is missing is a connection back to the cell network so that you can give people in more remote locations the ability to text the rest of the world using this as a link. While reading their FAQ I thought of that, and if the API is open sourced or reverse-engineered, it shouldn't be too difficult to write a smartphone application which would act as a relay between to goTenna and the phone network (fo…
Daniela, goTenna co-founder here -- back-haul is the 'easy part.' We just wanted to start with the hard part, i.e. a communication system that never requires central connectivity; a smart network with no actual central brain.
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#43I slid the range slider all the way down as I'm in the, notoriously flat, Netherlands. Most of the time I'm in a city, Amsterdam, and then I'd have a range of 0 miles. Is that correct? That does not sound very useful to me then. Can someone confirm that this is correct?
I think their slider is a bit misleading as if you have the slider at 0ft then the range is 0 but if you have it at 5ft then the range is up in the miles. I think their point is that if you need to use this then you may need to seek slightly higher ground... or some stairs...
Correct!
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#44I wonder how hackable these will be, or what kind of bandwidth you might be able to push. I could see putting one at my home and one at my office to create a poormans wireless bridge.
It's 2 meter VHF, very low bandwidth. Useful for GPS and text messages only. An Email bridge might be pretty cool, but I'm not sure of the exact speed.
Yes, we're focused, with this first product, on asynchronous, low-bandwidth data comms. Through our R&D for the past 21 months, that's what most testers and people wanted most, especially when they don't have service otherwise.
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#45So it's just a walkie talkie that has bluetooth? You can buy decent walkie talkies for £20, I'm not what paying £100 is getting me.
From the few details [1] I've been able to find it seems like it's unusable in the UK anyway as it uses 151-154 MHz, which is a licensed band. If they moved it up into the 433ishMHz unlicensed band their range claims would all have to be revised. [1] http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/no-signal-gotenna-has-a-messagi...
We'll expand internationally later!
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#46This is pretty interesting. I work for an NGO and something like this looks really useful for people working in the field to allow some sort of simple communication/location when you don't have service, or it is super expensive.
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#47Reminds me of the Cybiko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people are 5ft tall!
But most pockets are only about 32" off the ground. Maybe they should sell hats that it attaches to.
We industrially designed a nylon attachment strap to each goTenna so you can attach it wherever you'd like. Including, I suppose, your head.
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#49They should maybe pause the video in the masthead when the overlay video is playing.
Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service
#50They should maybe pause the video in the masthead when the overlay video is playing.
It does! Which OS/browser are you using?