Show HN: my one-day project, Trnsfr | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: my one-day project, Trnsfr

trns.fr

64 pointssahillavingia42 comments

There have been many times when I wanted to get something quickly from my browser to my phone. A Google Map before heading out, or an app someone messaged me to check out on Facebook.

So I built Trnsfr. It's super-simple: click the bookmarklet and it'll SMS your phone with whatever URL you're looking at.

That's it. But it's made my life a little better already. Hopefully it'll improve yours too.

What do you guys think?

How about an option of email along with sms. Email is free for me, sms costs $0.20.

How much time could it take to just email yourself a link?

I can see the purpose of SMS, I guess. You get an alert right on your phone.

This seems like a neat service but I prefer something a bit more robust like Instapaper, which I use for things like this.

Cool anyhow! Thanks for sharing! Good luck!

If you set your email client as the handler for 'mailto:' links (it's reasonably easy, at least on Firefox), the following bookmarklet creates an email ready to be sent (one click in Gmail) with the current page URL:

    javascript:(function(){var%20url=%22mailto:example@example.com?body=%22+document.URL;window.open(url);})();

Don't forget to replace 'example@example.com' with your own email address.

Good stuff. I've added the window's title to the email's subject field:

    javascript:(function(){var%20url=%22mailto:example@example.com?subject=%22+document.title+%22&body=%22+document.URL;window.open(url);})();

Right click on page, then select 'Send Link...'. (At least in Firefox)

Right, but that doesn't fill out the email address.

Then use my bookmarklet, cctome.com ;)

Incoming SMS is chargeable in US?

Yes, they charge for sending and receiving.

I like this. And what are you using as your SMS gateway?

I think it's cool but redundant and entirely unnecessary. You don't need to use the website. If you're already on your computer,why can't you just email yourself the click and open it from mobile phone. That's what i've been doing. I don't remember or visit any website. Problem solved.

Haven't tried it (not in the US), but it sounds neat: Having a bookmarklet makes invoking it painless, and opening an URL from an SMS should be easy from most phones. I'm assuming the SMS delivery is basically instant. It's also cross-platform on both ends.

That said, these days I just use Fox To Phone (or Chrome to Phone) to accomplish this. This platform-specific solution works better than sending an SMS would. It also does a few things in addition to just transferring URLs.

In the past, I had a browser extension that created a 2d barcode for the current page. It worked in a pinch, but scanning the barcode with the phone is relatively time-consuming and, overall, just a nuisance. FWIW, you could do the barcode thing with a bookmarklet, too, and end up with a solution that's cross-platform on both ends.

I used SMS because it is a) ubiquitous and b) already used by almost everyone.

Scanning barcodes is (at least right now) neither.

here is a QR bookmarklet thing i built two years ago http://miniqr.com/docs/bookmarklet.php but yeah, i know the usage stats, and well the short version is: QR codes are doomed.

your sms approach sounds good, let's see if it takes off.

They seem to be pretty widespread these days as a means to transmit information (mostly URLs) from physical reality to smartphones. I rarely if ever scan them, but that's due to the context: why would I scan the URL on some kind of ad poster?

I saw a QR code that was printed a few feet tall the other day, letting you scan it from across the plaza; that's pretty cool. I still think you could build some pretty neat "worldly" easter eggs by hiding QR codes around cities.

I was passing by a museum last week, and they had some exhibit in the public space in front, and on the small board describing it, there was a QR code for a YouTube video of an actor narrating something related to the exhibit. The fact that the paternalist description of the QR code ("A kind of bar-code for the future [blah blah] go into the "APP store"[sic] and search for [blah blah]...") was more prominent than the code itself detracted somewhat from the feeling of being in the future, but that was the first useful application I've seen in the wild.

I was at a store opening on Friday and they had a small (4x4) QR code in the window. The caption was simply: Shop Online

I thought that use case was pretty compelling.

I really liked the idea of Chrome to Phone on Android, so I built Send to WP7 for Windows Phone. I kind of feel that using SMS is really only a good fallback solution for phones without a good app (not to mention removing the need for cell signal, etc.). Cool project though, a great use for Twilio. :) Nice job!

I personally don't care if your project took 1 day or 1 year. I feel like by mentioning it the subtext is:

"Look what can be accomplished in one day, isn't that neat?"

and

"Be nice, it was just one day"

But really only the latter is useful (e.g. we won't be too harsh on missing pieces) and I think you can convey it by simply saying, "Early version", "Quick MVP", etc. Those say something more useful, too! They say if you plan on iterating further or not, or if this is meant as a MVP or just a portfolio piece or what.

The reason I added "one-day" is that I get tons of emails that recommend I focus on one thing.

The thing is, I am 100% focused on one thing. So a title like this when I hack together an idea I had in my downtime prevents the majority of those emails.

Thanks for your feedback though, I appreciate it.

My friend and I developed something similar for a hackathon a few years ago.

There's a bookmarklet for the browser and an Android app.

http://pagestackandroid.appspot.com/

Ours only work on Android app while Trnsfr could work on any phone with SMS.

Hi,

Good idea ( I use Chrome to Phone on my android, to do that kind of think). FYI : I tried the website and entered a random number I got a blank webpage with an error:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/_webapp25.py", line 703, in __call__ handler.post(groups) File "/base/data/home/apps/s~trnsfrapp/1.354335415123281066/main.py", line 388, in post body=body) File "/base/data/home/apps/s~trnsfrapp/1.354335415123281066/twilio/rest/resources.py", line 1018, in create return self.create_instance(params) File "/base/data/home/apps/s~trnsfrapp/1.354335415123281066/twilio/rest/resources.py", line 295, in create_instance resp, instance = self.request("POST", self.uri, data=body) File "/base/data/home/apps/s~trnsfrapp/1.354335415123281066/twilio/rest/resources.py", line 195, in request resp = make_twilio_request(method, uri, auth=self.auth, *kwargs) File "/base/data/home/apps/s~trnsfrapp/1.354335415123281066/twilio/rest/resources.py", line 168, in make_twilio_request raise TwilioRestException(resp.status_code, resp.url, message) TwilioRestException: HTTP ERROR 400: 21401: +15555557777 is not a valid phone number https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/AC36119600c07b44d...

Good continuation

Fixed, sorry about that.

For those not in the US, there is http://airlinkapp.com/, it's neat. Just add the bookmarklet to both browser and phone.

The War on vowels continues...

I think it started with Tumblr.

This feature is built into android. Just install the chrome to phone app by google & the plugin for chrome or firefox (fox to phone). Good for non-android phones I guess though.

I use Prowl on my iPhone http://www.prowlapp.com/ and 2Prowl extension for Safari http://extensions.dreamtbyphil.co.uk/ to easily push the page I'm looking at in Safari to my phone.

There are extensions for Chrome and Firefox as well http://www.prowlapp.com/apps.php

OT: The first thing I thought of was the Discover card commercial with Peggy. "Transfer!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZXZAlfykpo

Sorry, couldn't resist. Inspiration or coincidence?

I use qr codes for this. A well placed Qr Bookmarlet (such as this[1] one), and barcode scanner, and I'm done.

[1] http://code.google.com/p/qrbookmarklet/

What's wrong with just e-mailing link to yourself?

If your phone can view a website, it's very likely it can read e-mails too.

With this you don't have to navigate to your email client every time you want to send yourself something and you don't get a cluttered inbox. This is pretty simple and smooth.

The page where you enter your credit card probably should be SSL?

Credit Card?

The account page to buy more transfer credits.

oh, didn't see it since I couldn't register (outside US).

Good idea. Unfortunately App Engine doesn't allow SSL on custom domains but you can go here for now: https://trnsfrapp.appspot.com/account

So do QRcode extensions.

I'm not a fan of QR codes. They're also not supported out-of-the-box by any phone with a browser.

I agree with you and I don't feel that QR codes are a good fit for things like this (it's just awkward), but just a small nit: Windows Phones actually do support QR codes (and other bar codes) out of the box. I'm sure there are others, but that is the only know I know of. :)

I imagine that such extensions would create an image on the fly for you to scan with your phone?

If so, the big problem I see with that is that you have to pull out your phone right there and then. I personally use "Site to Phone" (http://sitetophone.com/) and the good thing is that I can send something from the browser and open it up later when I'm out and about. (it also keeps a history of the saved items)

Compared to trnsfr, Site to phone also has the benefit or allowing you to send the link to a page but also just any text.

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