RSS is great for when you’re at your computer or actively reading feeds on your mobile device but it’s not as pervasive and intrusive as SMS text messages. That may seem great, I mean who would want to be constantly bombarded by RSS updates on their phone? But for the very important feed or two, a new RSS to SMS service dubbed Pingie hopes to ensure you don’t get left behind.
Pingie is a service from the folks at UNEASYsilence and a number of real uses for it already come to mind. Want to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest Slickdeal, or better yet PSTAM post? Pingie can help. However, those uses are a bit more pedestrian than potential uses such as sending campus news/emergency alerts to your phone.
Once you create an account on Pingie you can add feeds and later login to change settings. Don’t worry about becoming flooded with SMS messages though – you must reply to a text with “PING ME” to start the service and you can stop at any time by replying with “STOP PING”. Here’s what a Pingie SMS notification looks like:
FRM:pingie@pingie.com
SUBJ:Pingie: 2008 PSTAM Reader Roll Call
MSG: 2008 PSTAM Reader Roll Call
By default Pingie also sends email notifications, but I don’t care for that too much so I disabled it in my account settings. If Pingie had to change one thing, I would say the format of the actual SMS. There’s too much info in there that is superfluous and redundant. A simple “Pingie: [POST NAME] on [Website Name]” would suffice, with perhaps a link for iPhone users to tap on.
Do you think Pingie could come in handy for you?
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It could be very handy on the campus. We have a rss-feed where important news are posted, for example when a class is being cancelled.
Would be nice to have control over the fromat, including defining rules with regex search/replace, so you can get rid of the cruft you don’t want. I’d use that.
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I look forward to seeing this FAIL on Uncov. :)
-danny
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After some brief playing, I think this is US only. I’ve tried with both normal and international phone numbers to no joy. Ah well, never mind.
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gotta love these simple ideas.
hopefully they will take into consideration the format change, or maybe just give the user the ability to change it in their account. that would be awesome
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I think it’s in FRM, SUBJ, MSG format because they send SMS via email (phone@mobile.att.net or w/e it is.. dunno), not via real SMS relay, so I think all the garbage is a bit out of their control (keeps their costs low though :p)
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Hi guys,
SMSGupshup (www.smsgupshup.com) has been providing a similar service in INdia. Do try it out if you are in India.
Needless to say, I work at SMSGupshup – would love to know your comments, feedback, brickbats. pratyush [at] webaroo[dot] com
PP
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Would have some use, but not an option it appears in Spain.
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I spend some time trying to keep in touch with friends and family at home and abroad, this tool would enable me to send an sms to those who are not too active on the internet, just by publishing to my blog. It sounds like an interesting tool.
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always the best services are US only :(
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Good tool
Thx that was all what i need
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