

Divvyshot (YC W09) launches free iPhone App - simanyay
http://blog.divvyshot.com/divvyshot-now-has-an-iphone-app

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there
why do developers think the shake thing is useful or fun? seriously, it looks
ridiculous when you're trying to do it in public. you look like you're pissed
off at your phone and trying to get it to work by shaking it.

just get rid of the gimmick and make a button initiate the action.

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Sam_Odio
We considered a button but ended up going against it. It doesn't scale - the
button doesn't give us enough data. People don't time their presses well
enough and if the app becomes successful we'll have a hard time telling apart
presses that occur close to each other (both in time and space).

We've also considered a 4 digit pin but that confused users. It turns out that
users intuitively understand the shake UX to transfer the contents from one
phone to another.

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bmalicoat
Not to be argumentative but doesn't shaking present the same scaling problems?
You can only stack so many iPhones before it becomes dangerous to shake them
(for me shaking one is enough!). Why not put a button with a certain timeout,
surely users can hit the button within 5 seconds of each other.

~~~
Sam_Odio
We're not talking about scaling by syncing more than 2 devices simultaneously.
We're talking about scaling our user base.

The problem is that we can only expect GPS to be accurate to 1-2km and the
phone clocks are often off by 1+ seconds. This makes it difficult in
metropolitan areas when multiple transfers can occur simultaneously within a
1-2km radius.

~~~
bmalicoat
Ah, I misunderstood the mechanism, I thought it transferred over wifi, sorry.

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jmatt
What happens when you want to share but you aren't with that person?

For me the vast majority of the times I'm sharing it's with someone that
physically isn't with me. Maybe I'm just a special case.

~~~
johndevor
There's an option to send somebody an email with a link, or you can do
twitter, flickr, or facebook.

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nick007
wow -- finally a photo sharing app that makes sense and that's easy to use...
jesus christ it was about time. i'd say it was worth the wait though because
these these guys nailed it. i just shook pictures to a few friends in the
office... worked perfectly but they should really offer a disclaimer about not
being responsible for carpal tunnel (i'm feeling a little stiffness).
regardless, job well done team divvyshot!

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johndevor
The shake-and-share ability looks great. Let's hope that catches on, as that
would make photo sharing really easy (and fun).

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seiji
Secret Bump API?

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physcab
I can't quite put my finger on it, but the voice in the video sorta bugs me.
It has that infomercial-ist tone which leaves me with the impression that the
product is worse than it seems.

~~~
Sam_Odio
We noticed that too. We were even thinking we could end the video with
something like this: [http://www.realmofprosperity.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/08/...](http://www.realmofprosperity.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/08/informercial-debt-method-copy1.jpg)

Oh well, you can't get everything right.

~~~
physcab
hah. yah. I've never produced a video like this and I'm sure it's harder to
pull off so it makes the viewer feel like you are completely genuine. I wonder
if there is a service that sells voice-overs? Getting the Apple commercial guy
would be sweet.

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grinich
Are you planning to promote this outside of divyshot.com? Are you running ads?

I built an app for Hacker News that just went live on the App Store this
morning, but my announcement completely flopped on HN.
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=986329>) I mostly built it for myself,
but figured that a few folks here would find it useful. What's the right sort
of marketing for iPhone apps?

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tkahn6
It might have gotten more votes if you had provided a link to a page with
screenshots and a description of the app. I use Linux and therefore a link
directly to iTunes doesn't do much for me.

~~~
grinich
What about a short movie vs. screenshots?

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unohoo
I've always liked the concept behind divvyshot. However, I wonder how well it
is faring considering that the juggernaut - Facebook photos - has become one
of the de facto places for folks to upload photos.

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physcab
Competition validates the market exists.

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unohoo
its a no brainer that the market exists. My question was geared more towards
how will they compete against FB photos, which has grown like a weed.

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jfarmer
There's an opportunity in mobile because many photos are taken on the phone
and (arguably) it's easier to transfer photos from your computer to your phone
than your computer to Facebook because USB is faster than broadband.

People want to share photos w/ their friends. Facebook is the easiest way;
that doesn't mean it always will be.

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jfarmer
I hate that the "reply" button vanishes so soon.

Yes, of course that's right. The 1-to-N factor and ease of tagging are why
Facebook grew so much faster than all the other photo-sharing services.

I guess my point was that DivvyShot is in a different part of the pipeline
(closer to the camera) than Facebook, so that presents new opportunities.

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davisml
Wooo Sam! Nice to see it's finally released!!

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nishantmodak
I can share files with Bump also. Can you tell me what differentiates this?!

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sixbit
man the voice over style in the video was borderline late night infomercial.

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zackattack
How did you make this awesome demo video?

I would love if you spilled the beans...

* Writing the script * Getting someone to shoot/edit it * Lighting * Getting someone to read it etc.

I have to do something similar soon [ non iPhone, ;)] and I am truly in awe.

