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GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

static.gotenna.com

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Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#71

Post by ikonst »

This can be significantly better than walkie-talkies. In poor reception, sometimes you can't manage to deliver even a simple message coherently (especially since, to be understood by a fellow human, you need reliable communication in real time for the duration of your entire message).

But usually, you just want to get a message across. You want something like morse code, not voice. Delivering a short textual message, not in real-time but "instantly", with redundancy, error correction and retries, serves me better than walkie talkies.

(Heck, you can deliver a short audio fragment, but I don't see too many people using the "send voice" feature in Whatsapp, don't know about you.)

Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#72

Post by giarc »

smackfu wrote: post #56

"Early supporters get 50% off for a limited time." I always wonder about this kind of pricing structure. It seems like selling your product for half of what you plan to eventually charge for it gives you pretty useless data on what the proper price should be. You may sell a ton at $100, but people perceive that as expensive, and then you might sell zero at $200.

I imagine they are profitable at 50% and therefore if they don't sell any at full price, they could come back down to 50% off (or somewhere similar).

Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#74

Post by giarc »

These would be great for vacation travel. I sometimes travel with another couple and we often split up during the day. I prefer not to pay for cell service in these countries (high cost, I'm on vacation, can check email later, don't want to be tempted to spend time on my phone etc) but this would be nice since it restricts it to messages to the other couple only and location info. Very tempted to buy a pair.

Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#76

Post by umsm »

jrockway wrote: post #73
calebm wrote: post #70

Potential cool application of GoTenna: communication with a robot without having to pay for a data plan.

Uh, just use Zigbee or something similar?

Zigbee: "Outdoors with line-of-sight, range may be up to 1500 m depending on power output and environmental characteristics"

Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#77

Post by jrockway »

umsm wrote: post #76
jrockway wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, just use Zigbee or something similar?

Zigbee: "Outdoors with line-of-sight, range may be up to 1500 m depending on power output and environmental characteristics"

I'd buy one of these GoTennas before you get too excited about the range.

"Oh, but it's VHF so you can get Es propagation and talk to Europe from the US!"

Good luck with that.

Re: GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service

#79

Post by umsm »

rwbt wrote: post #7

Very cool. I hope this becomes at least a niche success and the price comes down in future versions.

At $150 for two devices, it seems like a good deal for something that you would use once or twice a year. If the price goes up (as the website suggests that it is currently being offered at a 50% off promo), then I doubt it will become a mainstream device.
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