

Bump Technologies (YC S09) Launches API - jmintz
http://blog.bu.mp/an-open-letter-to-app-developers-bump-technol-0

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tolenka
For most iPhone applications, why is this better than the built-in GameKit,
which allows for peer-to-peer discoverability over bluetooth and WiFi without
any active internet connectivity?

I could see an argument for cross-platform compatibility, as GameKit is
iPhone-specific.

That said, is the service being provided sufficiently difficult to implement
that it warrants paying (and relying on) an external service? How likely is it
that an open source version of the server/client could be produced?

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jmintz
Two main reasons: 1) BT does not work quickly or reliably for ad-hoc
connections. Have you tried using GameKit? It takes >45 seconds to ad-hoc pair
(if BT is cold) and does not always work and 2) BT is very unreliable across
platforms.

But requires an internet connection but is fast and reliable compared to the
alternative. Time will tell if that is a more compelling compromise.

A lot of the applications using the Bump API are built on the cloud, so they
would be useless without internet anyways.

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jmintz
Shameless plug: if you think this is cool come work with us!
<http://bu.mp/jobs.html> There are even more exciting things on the horizon
(well we think so at least).

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callmeed
I wonder if "bumping money" would be possible with this API. I think that
could be huge.

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yan
That's such an awesome idea, I have no clue why it wasn't obvious to me before
(That is to say, a mark of all brilliant ideas). This requires physical
contact, very good on battery power, and actually creates an incentive for
personal micro-transactions.

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ivankirigin
what is the incentive?

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dcurtis
Yeah, while this seems to have some weird geeky appeal, it's still way harder
than just pulling out a dollar and handing it to someone.

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Brushfire
I've been in many scenarios (a lan party comes to mind) where there were
multiple people who had either large bills or no cash at all, and yet we
needed to buy things like beer or pizza.

This makes it very easy for people to transact small amounts of money (ideally
free through paypal) using this technology. People may forget their cash, but
they never forget their phone. Neat.

Brian

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ivankirigin
In case anyone missed the trend of Bump showing up in R&B videos:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQJccwiMxpU>

I love it

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zaveri
I would like to see the DropBox app use the Bump API

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wglb
How would that work? Meaning what would you expect it to do?

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Brushfire
Congrats guys, looks good. I wonder if any UofC NVC ideas will make use of
your API.

Brian

