I was part of the beta trial and I consider the Bombfell team my friends (even if we've never actually met). This service has changed the way I dress. To address what @jawns was saying, I was one of those who didn't care about brands and also made questionable fashion decisions. If you're willing to give Bombfell a try, they will change your mind about quality brands. They make you look good and will work with you till you're happy with your selection. These guys are awesome and I wish them 1000% success!
One quick suggestion. If this is for "normal people" (I'd rather have that say non-techies as it's slightly insulting to us non-normals), try to factor our programming terms. 'Version Control' is a programming term. I would change it to 'File History'.
1) It appears to be continuously getting GPS data. That will kill my battery. Dead battery = I'm late anyway I may need to uninstall until this is fixed.
2) I don't need to be reminded of everything on every calendar I have access to. Have it so I can select which calendar I need to bounce for.
3) Along the same lines of 2, allow me to ignore specific events. I subscribe to a couple general holiday calendars and I don't need to be told when to leave for "Memorial Day" or whatever.
Otherwise, great concept. I look forward to keeping up with your progress.
With regards to issue #1. The drain of numerous applications using the GPS hardware on the phone and thus killing battery life makes me wish Google Latitude had an API that devs could use to request my GPS co-ordinates. If you can login via Facebook why can't you do location via Latitude ?
Yeah that makes perfect sense. Have Android handle the actual GPS interaction and allow app developers to poll for that info. Then, have a global setting in the phone's settings that says how often it can poll the GPS. Get on it, Google!
I don't know how I missed this. Everything I was thinking seems to be included. The only potential feature that it lacks is access to information on users other than myself, such as would be available through the web interface. I can see numerous reasons, however, as to why Google would not expose this information through an API.
1. Bounce doesn't actually (at least it isn't supposed to) use your GPS all the time. It should poll for updates every 30 minutes until it gets closer to when you need to leave, then we ask for updates the closer we get to your "Bounce time."
2. Yeah, we'll make it smarter so you can customize which events it notifies you for and which it doesn't.
1) Hmmm is there some sort of timeout if it can't get the location via GPS? I'm in a room with no sky view so it can't effectively get the location via GPS. It seems to me like it never gives up if it can't find the location (maybe I'm wrong, that's just a guess).
2) It'll be way more awesome when you can do that.
Yeah, the GPS thing is surprising. My understanding of Android development is limited but doesn't Location Manager allow for cell/wifi location detection? I'd really like to see this with GPS as an optional or last resort fallback.
For instance, I'm here in my office and have no GPS coverage and bounce is stumped.
Neat idea, needs better execution, looking foward to updates.
EDIT: One other point of feedback. I have an appointment at the Panama Hotel in Seattle. That appointment shows up in Calendar and maps figured out the location without a problem, but Bounce thinks I'm going to Panama. The republic. Is there any way to pull this from Maps?
Props for dealing with the feedback in this thread so quickly and sorry for turning HN into a low fidelity bug tracker. I promise to submit future bug reports in a more useful manner.
Fwiw, folks, this is staying on my phone. One of the great things about the android marketplace is I can expect this will be updated sooner rather than later.
I find it helpful to see what other people are using so I can either guide myself towards what I should learn next or know that I'm on a track that's going to be supported for the foreseeable future.
It would be helpful to know how many others believe its a good idea. I might be on the cusp of thinking an idea is good, but I don't want to back a dead horse.
I like this idea. I agree with derekdahmer that it'll be hard to know what will look good on us without first knowing what we look like. What if you had some sort of "paper doll" type system. You upload a full body pic of yourself, and then the female approved outfits can be virtually tried on.
Right, and that's exactly why I've had some tell me to use we in articles and other copywriting. But it just doesn't really feel appropriate always ... if you're just one guy writing a blog, seems like you should make it sound that way. I do see the value in projecting the bigger image, but sometimes it seems like down-to-earthness can go a long ways too...
"Bigger images" go both ways - you can find yourself held to standards and prey to expectations that you don't want.
I've seen this a lot in hobby industries - guys working out of a tiny rented space in a office park find themselves wondering why their customers think they're a big company with a lot of money. This is inevitably due to their trying to look "professional", which tends to be a mingling of actual professionalism and aping the promotional styles of larger companies.
Do you see yourselves competing with the craigslist "for free" section?
If so, how do you plan to compete? I'm not sure the map makes up for the sheer number of items on cl.
If not, what differentiates you from them enough to say you're not competing?
Couple of points:
- take taken items out. I found an item near me only to find out that it had been taken 8 months ago. Nobody cares about items they can't Yoink.
- The text in the footer bar is rendering weird in chrome. It's got some strange white outline to it.
- Move the search out of the map. I wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't pointed out here. I would also duplicate the search box on the get page.
- How to get started belongs somewhere on the front page (maybe in a closable panel) not on the give or get pages. That page should focus on what's in the blue boxes.
- on the get screen "You know you got to have faith." should be "You know you've got to have faith."
- I like the stats page.
One last thing, how do you make money? I see no way to pay for anything and no advertising. Am I missing something?
I like the idea. I think with a little tweaking this could really take off.
Here's my thoughts
1) For the front page, its a little right in your user's face that you're taking a 50% cut of the money. I would word that differently. Not sure exactly how. Maybe take out the bit about how much the ladies get paid and explain that in the signup process, or separate the "how it works" by gender on separate pages. Its just a little too "kimono wide open" on the financials. Also, "Just click here within the next 7 days for a full refund." should either be eliminated or reworded to say something to the effect of "You can get a refund within 7 days of getting a response." While we're on that subject, are you going to award the money to the lady regardless of whether it was rejected? If not, you should clearly state that. I don't think you do. You just say answer the question and get paid. There's nothing talking about the approval process being tied to the money.
2) The bullet points below the top box on the front page repeat a lot of the information that is in the top box. You don't need to repeat yourself. Consider combining those two spaces into one.
3) While "meet the ladies" is a whimsical title for that page, it doesn't actually deliver (as people have already stated). You're not actually introducing us, more telling us about demographics. Maybe "Who are the ladies?" is more accurate and consistent with the message of the page (I noticed you have a link titled exactly that which points to the same place...)
4) You need something to convince us to trust you. A demo of a question/answer? Screen shots perhaps? Testimonials would definitely go a long way.
5) The menus could stand to be cleaned up. Either you don't need the "login/register" links or you don't need the "guys ask a question" and "ladies answer a question" links. I would lean towards getting rid of the latter. That allows you to move buzz down to the footer (its not that important to have up at the top. The average user doesn't care how much you've been talked about... sorry. The "guys ask a question" link points to the login page. I'm not sure why the "ladies:..." doesn't also point to a login/register page. It should as well. Also, fix the capitalization on the text of the login page. You Don't Need To Capitalize Every Word Of A Sentence.
6) On the buzz page, get rid of the buzz in Spanish. The site is in English. Don't expect anyone to take the time to pop it into Google Translate or for a majority of people to know Spanish.
Sorry this kinda jumps around alot and is probably a little too snarky. I hope this helps.
I really like this idea (robotics is one of my passions and anything that makes it easier is awesome).
Didn't mindstorms just come out with an android app? Does that effect you guys at all?
You definitely have that social aspect going for you but you'll be competing against Let's Make Robots which seems to be emerging as a leader in the robotics based social network space. You guys look prettier than LMR which is a plus and you seem to targeting the less tech-savvy among us who may be intimidated by LMR.
What's your plan to make money? I can't seem to find that anywhere.
Thanks! We do think some area of robotics can and should be made a lot easier.
Lego recently released an offical android app for Mindstorms. It's cool and we definitely see it as a sign of where things can be going. We are looking into how it can be taken to the next level. And LMR is excellent for tech-savvy folks.
We think the idea of Kleekbots is really exciting and that Mindstorms and other users will think so too. We have a few business models in mind (eg pay-as-you-go) so as to be able to continue providing the service. We can see it going so very far.
We are definitely seeking community feedback from early stages, to tell us what people think of Kleekbots, what people would like to see, and especially how much people are happy to pay to take their Mindstorms (and smartphones too!) to the next level and beyond.
