Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare time?

Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by trykondev on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @08:58AM (#18175520)

My mother has expressed to me several times her disappointment at not having any printed pictures since she got her iPhone. I usually remind her that she can get her pictures printed if she really wanted to -- but after several years of this, I realized that the hassle of getting them printed is enough of a barrier that it's never going to happen.

So I'm working on an app that will allow for automatic printing and delivery of pictures from mobile devices:

http://www.printstream.net/

You can add pictures to your PrintStream account and it will choose a certain number each month to print and deliver to you. We also are thinking about an even more automatic method, where the app will algorithmically choose from all of your photos each month without having to explicitly add them to your PrintStream account. This is definitely a feature my mother would want, but we want this to be opt-in to protect the privacy of the users.

I'm still prototyping the app using React Native but I'm excited to get it up and running.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by protonimitate on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @09:39AM (#18175839)

This is a super neat idea. There's a lot of discussion around the value of printed images vs digital images and this is a great way to bridge the gap in a useful way. Also a fantastic gift service (what grandmother wouldn't love new photos of their grandkids delivered every month?)

Good luck!

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by otras on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @01:57PM (#18178251)

This reminds me of NanaGram [0], but it seems your use case ("I want to print my own photos") is different than their use case ("I want to send printed versions of my photos"). Very cool!

[0]: https://nanagram.co/

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by aacook on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @04:03PM (#18179375)

Thank you for the mention. My quantum-of-one [0] was my late 94-year-old grandfather [1]. My brother and I gave NanaGram to him for his birthday. (Well, really it was a quantum of two because my grandmother also loves getting photos in the mail.)

I got married this past June and at the wedding shower my Mom gave my wife lingerie while chanting "4 kids! 4 kids! 4 kids!" As you can probably tell, my Mom has 4 kids. My initial use case was "I want to send curated 4x6 prints from my 3 siblings and I to my grandparents." Most people using NanaGram send photos to their loved ones but we do have some folks sending photos to themselves.

@trykondev FYI your title tag is "Mysite." This is a super fun space to be in. Good luck with your launch. I think grandparents and moms are some the best of quantums.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3075&v=4WO5kJChg... [1] https://nanagram.co/blog/on-happiness-from-tirrell-cook

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by prostanac on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @11:58AM (#18177026)

How are you going to monetize the apps? I don't think ads will be enough.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by trykondev on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @02:43PM (#18178683)

Yeah, agreed -- I think ads would be insufficient. Right now we're planning to have a paid monthly subscription model. We'll probably scale it based on how many pictures actually get ordered through your account each month, up to some pre-defined maximum monthly quota.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by askafriend on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @11:58PM (#18181842)

Apple used to have this integrated directly into MacOS but they've recently removed it: https://9to5mac.com/2018/07/12/photo-print-products-disconti...

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by anotheryou on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @04:39PM (#18179634)

The smallest plans could send the picture as a postcard. Should be cheaper than a letter even.

Maybe even good for a first version because it you just have to print double-sided, but no envelope mess.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you currently working on in your spare t... by anotheryou on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @03:06PM (#18178900)

such a good idea. it will be so gratifying to receive them

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