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Magic

getmagicnow.com

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101–110 of 558 posts

Re: Magic

#101

Post by bgvrofg »

daxelrod wrote: post #80
cmikec wrote: post #2

Hey everyone - this is insane. My friends and I created Magic a few days ago as a side project and it's completely blown up by accident since then. We're getting stormed with messages and orders. We thought we'd launch it ourselves later if it did well, and other people have been posting it on Product Hunt, Reddit, HN themselves... I'm here to answer any questions, although we've hardly slept!

Are you OK with people using Magic for things that don't result in a purchase? Something like "Is the 4:30 train from Greenwich to NYC late?" or "What hours are my local DMV office open?" "Anything you want" makes it sound like people can use it like they'd use Siri.

That could be done by charging a standard fee for the operator's time spent searching.

Re: Magic

#102

Post by aaronem »

cmikec wrote: post #21
sjwright wrote: post #11

Arthur C. Clarke famously said any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This maxim has proven robust over decades. But now are we now so used to interacting with layers of technology and automation that sufficiently trained humans could seem in any way magical? I don't agree, but a scary indictment if it were true. Clever business name though.

I love this quote. Thanks for reminding me of it! :) For me, the "magic" refers to the magic moment that I experienced when we prototyped this internally. Despite the power of today's on-demand services, I've always felt them to still be rather frustrating. Sometimes the drivers cancel, they get lost, you still have to manage them. We tested this by delivering the product to each other internally, handling all the an…

This is what used to be called "concierge service". You can still get it with, for example, high-end American Express cards, or from firms which specialize in providing it.

Judging by the examples on your site, you've succeeded in bringing concierge service to (sorry) the masses, by pricing it much lower than competing offerings.

Congratulations! You have a highly viable MVP. Good luck scaling it out!

Re: Magic

#103

Post by MereInterest »

bgvrofg wrote: post #88
alansammarone wrote: post #79

I love the absurdly simple way this works. That said, maybe there should be some form of (appropriately simple) authentication on each request, because what if my phone gets stolen/lost?

You could do this: if you enable passcode confirmation, type your pass anywhere in the text message along with your text confirmation. If you forget, you get a request to do so.

Except that text history is usually saved on the phone. If someone has access to sending texts, they will have access to that as well. It is probably better to go with phone locking, instead.

That said, I like the passcode idea. I know that caller ID is easily spoofed, and so I would imagine that the source ID for text messages can be spoofed as well. Requiring the passcode would prevent this sort of attack.

Re: Magic

#104

Post by alansammarone »

bgvrofg wrote: post #100
alansammarone wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that may not be ideal. most people keep their sms history, so the person trying to use the service in my behalf could just scroll the screen. or do you mean some sort of one timer passcode? that could complicate things a bit, not sure how it could work

You could call them and enter a few numbers I guess. This isn't stored, at least on my phone since you are in a call, and can be automated. ( Or just don't store that message. )

ye, that seems reasonable... it kinda complicates the process though

Re: Magic

#105

Post by nileshtrivedi »

darrelld wrote: post #22

Loving the simplicity of it all. I just need to text a number. No app to install and grant access to my phone, no website to go and sign up to with my facebook account. Nothing. Just text a number and get what I want. It solves my problems by giving a path of least resistance to getting what I want. A company doing a similar thing was handing out fliers over the summer and they had an app to install. I thought the id…

You do need to give them your credit card details though, which is like signing up.

Re: Magic

#106

Post by ars »

sidcool wrote: post #71
cmikec wrote: post #2

Hey everyone - this is insane. My friends and I created Magic a few days ago as a side project and it's completely blown up by accident since then. We're getting stormed with messages and orders. We thought we'd launch it ourselves later if it did well, and other people have been posting it on Product Hunt, Reddit, HN themselves... I'm here to answer any questions, although we've hardly slept!

I am in India and I want to send a gift to my friend in the US. Possible?

Why are you posting here? Send them a text and ask.

Re: Magic

#108

Post by louisbird »

Am I supposed to tip the delivery guy?

Normally I tip for pizza delivery, Instacart, etc. Do you make sure that's included for me?

Re: Magic

#109

Post by api »

jonheller wrote: post #5

Besides questions about revenue and such, can I just say that I absolutely love the landing page. No gimmicks, no parallax, no videos, no fake testimonials, no hero images, no marquees. Just good copy. Not sure if this is because of how quickly this blew up, but well done.

But how can you disrupt without parallax?

... And thanks. I thought I was the only one who thought the video fad was dumb. Now it's just a toll booth for getting a product presented, and I never watch them. How about others? Do you find videos actually useful or are they just glitz?

Re: Magic

#110

Post by wongarsu »

MereInterest wrote: post #103
bgvrofg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could do this: if you enable passcode confirmation, type your pass anywhere in the text message along with your text confirmation. If you forget, you get a request to do so.

Except that text history is usually saved on the phone. If someone has access to sending texts, they will have access to that as well. It is probably better to go with phone locking, instead. That said, I like the passcode idea. I know that caller ID is easily spoofed, and so I would imagine that the source ID for text messages can be spoofed as well. Requiring the passcode would prevent this sort of attack.

The source of text messages is indeed easily spoofed. Most paid services enabling you to send SMS over the web allow you to set arbitrary sender IDs, so the cost of entry for spoofing is about $5.

It's not hard to imagine this leading to trouble as soon as you get into the crosshairs of some internet troll who managed to get your mobile number.

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