samkim

KeyToss Mobile version 2 BETA is now available.

Mobile site: http://m.keytoss.com


I've been working on a lot of improvements to KeyToss. There's some more work left to do, but I think it's ready for a larger audience.

For those not familiar with it, KeyToss Mobile is an extremely customizable website for smartphone users - with search tools, sports, weather, and links.

New features include:

• News Feed Reader
  • Select from the set of existing news sources, or add any RSS or Atom news feed from nearly any source
    If you haven't tried news feeds, you really should. Nearly every news source is available, and eventually most information sources will also be available as a feed.
  • Share your feeds with other users, and search for the most popular feeds submitted by others
  • Import OPML-format feed lists (exported from most news readers)
  • Customize display of news headlines - including number of headlines, display of summaries, and whether to link to mobile-converted versions of the articles
  • Select from several mobile format converters
  • For now, no marking articles read. I'm not sure people would want to use it that way. We'll see.
• User Accounts
  • You can now configure your mobile settings from your PC. It's much easier to add feeds from your desktop.
  • You no longer lose all your personal settings when Blazer erases your cookies.
  • Emails and SMS no longer require captcha
  • Note: You need to log in in order to add a new feed, or upload any files.
• Improved UI
  • Add, delete, and rearrange order of modules
  • Add new pages; the limit is 4 pages, for now
  • Use phone keypad to navigate around screen and between pages
    *: next module on the page
    #: next page
    number keys: select pages and modules
• PC/Phone File Transfers
  • Upload files from your PC, and download them to your phone
  • Convenient way to install apps or other files on your phone
  • Files expire in a week
  • Limit of 20MB per file
• Stock Quotes Module
  • Basic interface for now
• MarketWatch Data Module
  

Existing features include:

• Sports Scores
  • Get the latest in-game scores for your favorite teams
  • Available sports include MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA
  • (NEW) Scores now link to the new ESPN pages for each team and the box scores for each game
• Weather
  • Get 5 day forecast for your location, or any location in the world
  • Save multiple locations, and switch between them with one click
• Search Tools
  • Initiate searches on any of dozens of websites, including Google, Amazon, IMDb, USPS, yellowpages.com, dictionary.com, and many more
  • Automatically do a local search using Google Local, yellowpages.com, or yelp.com, based on your currently selected location
• Mobile Links
  • Customize which links appear on your page
  • Many links are customized to your location; when you switch locations, the links are automatically updated

Other updates:

• Updated the following search tools: dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, IMDb, yellowpages.com, AOL Search, ARIN WHOIS, Barnes & Noble, and wapedia.
• Updated the following mobile links: hotmail, financial times, sports illustrated, all the ESPN links
• Deleted the Yahoo Music link

I've tested the new site using Blazer on a Centro with EVDO. If you have a slow data connection, I recommend having fewer modules per page. It's a little slow now; I'm working on rewriting parts of it to speed things up.

It's designed for a 320 pixel screen, though it's still usable on smaller screens. The user interface is a work in progress.

I have not tested it on Windows Mobile, iPhone, or Blackberry. I'd appreciate any feedback on making it usable on those platforms.

A bunch of you have been giving me feedback using the "Contact Us" link on the site. Please continue to identify problems and opportunities for improving the website.

In particular, please especially let me know if you can't import any feed, if you see any error messages (identify the filename and line #), if the site is slow or unusable, if the site doesn't behave the way you'd expect, or if you'd like to suggest any changes.

Thanks!


ETA:
Other Notes...

You need cookies enabled.
One of the keypad shortcuts (* for next module) requires javascript.
I recommend enabling your cache so that your browser doesn't have to retrieve images every time.

I recommend that your first step be to register a new account. This allows you to enter your own feeds, upload files, and use multiple browsers. Remember, even if you've been using KeyToss for the past year, you don't have a user account yet.

------
7/28/08 - fixed email validation page

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logmein

Wow! nice work. Just bookmarked this site. All possible interests channeled into one site. very cool.

patchs

I've used this as my home page for a while and it's even better now.
Great job!
I hope this doesn't turn into another Weather freeware/beta situation.

samkim

Thank you.

I'm not sure what you mean about Weather freeware, but KeyToss will always be free. The beta label is just to make it clear that there are still some kinks to be worked out and that I'd love some feedback on how to make things work better.

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patchs

That's good to hear.
Like I said, you have done a great job with Key Toss and your work is greatly appreciated.
It works perfect for me but I'm sure others will have comments to make it a better product.
Good luck.

skfny

Thanks Sam.

This is amazing. I use it even on the desktop, since it's so convenient and has everything I need. I love that you pulled the MW data that has OIL prices as well. EXCELLENT WORK.

The only comment I would offer is perhaps a way to add custom-defined mobile links.

oronzous

KeyToss has been my home page since started.

samkim

Thanks for the great feedback. It's nice to see that people find this site useful.

KeyToss got mentioned on berryreview.com this morning, and now the number of registered BlackBerry users outnumbers the number of Palm users. It's good to see that the site seems to work on BlackBerries. And apparently these blog things are popular and influential. (But there are still many more Palm users of the site who have not registered yet.) If you know of any sites or blogs relevant to mobile devices, please let them know about KeyToss. Thanks. (Hi, Dieter! )


Also, only a small percentage of users have submitted any new feeds to use on their pages. I suspect this may be due to a lack of familiarity with RSS. I may post later on the subject.

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skfny

I didn't submit any feeds because I use Bloglines mobile. I have too many feeds to clutter up this great site.

samkim

That's why you can add multiple pages.

I know there's also the fact that Bloglines has a synced desktop interface as well...

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GreenHex

I've always wanted something like this. Great job!!!

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Game over!

samkim

Thanks, GreenHex.

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samkim

I created a tool to make it easier to manage news feeds for KeyToss mobile from your computer browser.
http://www.keytoss.com
It's accessible only from a computer. If you try from a handheld, it'll redirect you to m.keytoss.com.

You can now browse through over 600 feeds, and preview them in a sub-window. You select the size of the small window, and you can use a basic keypad to learn the shortcuts. Since mobile browsers often don't have a full set of fonts, it won't be a perfect representation of what it will look like on your phone, but it'll give you a sense. I've tested it in Firefox and IE.

Right now, you have to load all the feed info at once. Eventually I'll manage to implement the concept of pages.

If you can think of any major news sources or blogs I haven't included (or even minor ones), please let me know.

There's still much left to do. I hope to improve the news reader function to handle images and full articles, and maybe even keep track of them or sync them. And I hope that eventually the www website will allow you to manage all of your settings from your computer browser.


So far, the response to KeyToss has been awesome. I appreciate the feedback I've received here and the many notes sent via the Contact Us page. (It seems that people are reluctant to highlight problems in a public forum?) I encourage you to keep sharing your ideas for improvement.

But most surprisingly to me though, not one person has complained about the speed of the site. I have an EVDO connection, and sometimes the site seems to lag for me. Does anyone find the site to be slower than they're used to?

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skfny

It doesn't seem slow to me at all.

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samkim

I took a break last weekend from pretending to be a programmer so I could pretend to be a graphic designer and copywriter. Here are some of the ads I created. Unfortunately, my ad budget is zero, so you won't be seeing these anywhere. Perhaps I'll squeeze one of these into my signature.


#1: "Use For Free"
#2: "Mobile Portal"
#3: "I am smart"
#4: "Last Century"
#5: "Upgrade"

Sorry about the heavy use of Blackberries in the ads. Most of my users now are Blackberry owners. Oh, and the last ad is targeted at owners of old Blackberries with crappy browsers; it's not aimed at Treo owners.

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UserOne

Just started using keytoss today.... I must say its quite impressive & useful.

Thank you for providing this service .

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PalmPilot Pro >> IIIe >> V >> m505 >> BB 7100t (T-Mobile) >> Treo 650 (T-Mobile) >> Treo 755p (Sprint) >> Palm Pre (Sprint)

oronzous

is it possible to show some currencies exchange rates?

samkim

I'm very sorry. Somehow I missed this message.

Thanks for the suggestion. Exchange rates should be technically easy to do, but it'll take some time, since my development queue is quite long. I hope to release a personalized links module very soon, along with a couple other interesting modules.


EDIT:
You can add an RSS feed of currency exchange rates. There are a lot of them out there...

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Felipe

just added this page to my Pre bookmarks.

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Felipe
On the road to 5,000 posts
Life is what happens between Pre Firmware releases.