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Ask HN: Web content over the phone?

19 points by do ↗ HN
We are looking for feedback and suggestions on a project we prototyped that won LA Startup Weekend back in October. The service, which we're calling Hinty at the moment, was envisioned as a way to access and navigate your online content audibly, specifically over the phone. The idea came from sitting in terrible LA traffic wishing I had access to HN or Techcrunch.

Since then we've been working to build something more stable and scalable. We have it to the point where you can call into Hinty and choose from 5 curated categories (tech, business, politics, etc.). Each category will play stories from relevant RSS feeds using text-to-speech translation. In addition, we are almost finished with a web interface so users can create their own channels from their favorite RSS feeds and prioritize them.

One of the issues we ran into is that a lot of good RSS feeds truncate their content, which makes them pretty useless for our needs. We are looking at scraping the content of those truncated stories but are concerned about the potential legal issues this will create. Any feedback on the copyright laws this might violate would be really helpful.

Also, since phone calls aren't free, we are looking at charging for the service right away. We are considering somewhere between $1-2/hour of listening. Would this price range be worth it for any HNers?

If anyone is interested in beta testing Hinty please contact us at info@hinty.com. If you think you'd pay for a service like this we'd love to hear your feedback.

14 comments

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mmmmax
I would pay for this. You have my vote.
EthanEtienne
For legal issues, how is this any different than a screen reader. You're just another browser. I would love to try this out!!
jtempleton
Hinty is removing any ads that may be on the source page or RSS feed and presenting in an audio only format. In addition, we would need to charge money to at least cover costs, so collecting revenue for someone else's content could be an issue.
jtempleton
If you haven't already, please email info@hinty.com to get the phone number.
jtempleton
In addition to the above post, we'd also like feedback on whether anyone has a concern over their own phone minute usage.
brudgers
I think that $1 per hour is high considering that large volumes of data can be had for $30 a month or less in the US. In other words, many people can run Pandora all month on their iPhone without additional cost. Wanting HN or TechCrunch is not the same as spending $10-$20 a week to get it during your commute...the demographic for whom such access is time critical is probably very small.

I still think there is something there, I just think that the a pricing model where the meter is always running discourages casual use, particularly when you can potentially run up several hundred dollars a month in use.

do
We are considering a monthly fee, but for the economics to work we will need to be making roughly that $1 per hour of usage to cover phone call and other costs.

We are still searching for the demographic that needs some sort of web content on the go, can't get it on their smartphone and is willing to pay for it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

brudgers
At that rate the information you deliver has to be critical and the user demographic has to require the voice conversion. IMO it's just too expensive for casual use and viral growth.

I guess that means either finding a niche which justifies the premium product or lowering the cost of delivery. I'm not sure why it is necessary to deliver via voice rather than the user's data connection via the web.

do
We started with the phone because it was easier to get a working prototype out the door and its truly a ubiquitous solution.

We are looking at building an iphone and android app. Its starting to seem like a more viable way to make the service profitable.

benhalllondon
Hinty? Hear INTernet? Clever.

Why would a Ads/Freemium model not work? You'd know the user, the stuff they are listening to, surely you could get some nice targeted ads?

I think it's a good idea, but text-to-speech grates after a while.

I'd try it, but I'm in the UK.

jtempleton
Our cost per user is too high to rely on an Ad/Freemium model.
aarlo
I've heard this idea before (maybe from myself? haha). I think it's great!

Why not just do a smartphone app? Or an RSS feed reader that speaks your feeds? Then you get the GUI from the smartphone too. Or could be an all-voice interface for when you're in the car...

do
We are currently looking at the smartphone app approach. The phone approach was easier prototype which is why we started there.
stephenou
It will be fantastic if it can read my Instapaper articles. I think it can be totally possible since Marco Arment is launching his full-access API this month.