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by emilv 4352 days ago
No voice? That lost all of my interest. So now I need to tap out a message on my expensive, somewhat fragile smartphone with dirty fingers while losing all sight of the road for a minute. Instead of a sturdy walkie-talkie where I can hear the voices of my friends, talk efficiently in real sentences and I can look where I'm going all the time.
3 comments
daniper 4352 days ago
I get it's not for everyone, but what we learned as we developed this is that more people wanted asynchronous data comms as opposed to real-time voice. And when I say "more," I mean like, 75% of testers preferred the former.

From a networking perspective, as well, it makes our ad hoc reconfigurable network more scalable if we're focused on short-burst transmissions that are, technically speaking, delay-tolerant. This means that even if you're at a huge event with tons of people using goTenna, even if a gajillion of them press "send" at the exact same femtosecond, all the messages can get through in a matter of seconds if not milliseconds.

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emilv 4352 days ago
That is a good point. But then I'm even less sure where I would use this. Definitely not when out hiking in the woods.

I still believe I'm with the 25% that didn't prefer asynchronous messaging.

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maxsilver 4352 days ago
I think they are legally forbidden from doing voice by the FCC, on the ultra low band spectrum they're using. (see http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/multi-use-radio-service-murs... search for "you can not make telephone calls")

If you want walkie-talkies, there's another entire band dedicated to unlicensed voice calls - http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/family-radio-service-frs

You could ask them to make a dual mode device. MURS for text/sms (and greater distance), and FRS for voice and picture messages (with less distance).

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jrockway 4352 days ago
We're calling the "very high frequency" band the "ultra low band" now? Interesting.
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decktech 4352 days ago
while losing all sight of the road for a minute.

You could stop for a second, I guess.

Instead of a sturdy walkie-talkie

Why don't you just buy a walkie-talkie? They're cheaper, they just don't interface with your phone. But it sounds like that's what you want.

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