Sending a text message from a PowerBook with BlueSCSI WiFi

[Sideburn]

I thought it would be funny to teather my PowerBook 180 to my mobile WiFi hotspot and send a text to a friend while at the beach or Starbucks or something.

I found this post where someone was sending an iMessage from a 68k Mac a couple years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30489003 but it looks pretty involved and looks like it requires a modern Mac and “A network-connected machine capable of running CoprocessorJS” like a raspberry pi etc. too complicated and complex but I’m sure a lot of this has to do with sending iMessages.

But would sending an SMS be more “open” and simpler to pull off?

Has anyone done this already? What might it take to do so?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

You'd need an SMS gateway of some sort, either a purpose-built device or a cellular modem you can send AT commands to. I used to have a GSM terminal with a serial port back when 2G was still a thing I used for this and I drove it directly with Hayes AT commands to send and receive SMS. Now I have a little standalone system which is basically a case with an RPi and a USB Telit modem jammed inside. There are serial LTE modems out there but they're more intended for B2B/M2M apps and they may not be particularly cheap.

 

[Sideburn]

Ohhhh right that makes sense. Back in2913 I was making rotary cell phones that had a cell modem inside and you could program it by sending it commands through sms messages and it would reply back. The “UI”
For it was texting. I could use the same hardware I suppose.

Rotary cell phone if you are interested in checking it out (it was also on Hackaday): www.retrocell.net