Ask HN: Please Review my iPhone App (Use an External Keyboard to Send SMS)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=787457

by codesink • 17 years ago

2 3 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've just launched my first iPhone app (NoTap SMS) that lets users type text messages for the iPhone using any connected PC's keyboard.

I think that it may be useful to send SMS faster (not where on-the-go) expecially for not-ASCII languages where tapping on the iPhone keyboard is painful (most European/Asian languages).

I've sold about 20 copies of the app to date and I'm planning to release a free version in the next few days (users of the free version will be allowed to send at most 10 messages, then they'll need to upgrade).

It would be great to have some feedback from other HN'ers.

Thanks!

<a href="http://www.notap.it">www.notap.it</a>

adrinavarro2• 17 years ago

Clickable link: http://www.notap.it/

adrinavarro2• 17 years ago

IMHO, I find it useless. Maybe for long messages (splitted, >500chars) in East-European languages it's a good idea, but not for any Western European language (English, French, Spanish... yeah, it's maybe a little bit slower to write but not a pain, at all).

Anyway, the whole process (open the app, write in my computer then copypaste to the message app) is slow and painful. It would be "better" to have an associated username (with password) in the computer+in the iPhone. For example: I open the app, I write in my computer that long-long message, the app automatically updates (COMET anyone?) and I just tap a "send" button, which opens the message app with the message already written...

... but in fact, the whole idea is pretty useless, we don't write messages as we write emails. And for emails, we already have another way to do it :-)

codesink• 17 years ago

Thanks for your feedback!

I agree that the process (open app -> enter code -> send message -> paste) is a bit cumbersome but still I can't cope with the onscreen keyboard for message longer then a few chars. I still think that somebody out there feels the same pain, sale stats will tell us the truth :)

The next release will have a "persistant pairing" flag that will allow users to skip the "enter code" phase to make the process a bit faster.

Unfortunately opening the app with the message already written is not possible with the current SDK :(

Ask HN: Please Review my iPhone App (Use an External Keyboard to Send SMS)

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