We're building a cloud service that will enable users using misc mobile devices (iPhones, Androids, new Nokias...) to sync their data to the cloud. We plan to charge for the device cloud sync capability through a monthly subscription on our website. Our users will pay a single monthly subscription and then use the service across all their devices, regardless of the platform. Users without subscription will be able to use parts of the app without the cloud sync.
Will the kind folks at the AppStore accept this kind of behavior since we're in a way avoiding the in app purchases - the app will be free, and the user will be paying for the service on our website.
I am aware that the Kindle app for iOS uses the same behavior, so I am guessing this should be possible. From what I saw here:
Will Appstore accept this kind of application?
it should be applicable in my case. Does anyone else have any additional info regarding this?
As far as I know yes as spotify, mog and other music streaming services all behave this way
Related
I need to write a sandbox for iOS. The goal is to monitor malicious app. It need to have the capability of moving apps on my iPhone into my sandbox and monitor malicious app if there is.
I only need that as a simulation meaning I’ll write two apps one malicious and one safe and while trying to move them into my sandbox I need to send some info about the apps to my back-end that checks for vulnerability.
I only care about understanding how to create this sand box and have this communication with those two apps. Any idea from where should I start?
Is there any way to track iPhone app utilisation? I'd like to know every time a user has opened or interacted with my app. I don't want any other information about the user or their device. I don't even need to identify the user. I just want to monitor frequency of use and inactivity.
I thought of possibly creating a unique ID using time in seconds and then writing some code in viewWillAppear that sends an email containing the unique ID. But I don't even know if my App will be approved for sale in the AppStore with this function.
Any suggestions would be welcome - thanks you very much in advance for any effort spent on answering this question...
just use Flurry in you App
Flurry Analytics delivers powerful insight into how consumers interact with your mobile applications in real-time. Over 60,000 companies have chosen Flurry Analytics to use in more than 150,000 applications across iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, JavaME and HTML5.
Flurry Analytics helps mobile application developers make better apps, deepen consumer engagement and improve monetization of their applications. The service is free, cross-platform, easy to integrate, able to handle data loads of any size application and frequently updated with new, advanced features.
You can use Google Analytics to track these figures.
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ios/
How can we create a Facebook application on app engine ?
Do you have any example?
Do we need a business account for app engine to host Facebook application or will it work on free account ?
Paid or not, it is related with capacity of your your application. There are several Quotas and Limits on App Engine. If your app stays in bounds, you do not need to pay to Google. But if you plan a widely used app, and if it will use large bandwidth, cpu power, disk, IO etc, then you may think about paying money.
Business is another issue, it gives you support and reliability, and central development management. You can see other details of business here
You can see this example also: HOWTO: Create a Facebook App with Google App Engine and Best Buy Remix.
i want to create a application which sync my iPhone contacts to my server and vice-versa.
i read a article on google Get Google Sync on your phone . i want to this type of feature which directly update the contact without user interaction (however one time setting is desired).
any body have idea how the google sync work .
Please advice me that how can i achieve this task. any suggestion and link is greatly appreciated
I think it's important to separate the two overlapping approaches in your question.
Firstly, Google Sync is essentially a way to use Microsoft Exchange protocols and to setup a Mail / Contact / Calendar profile on an iPhone. The iPhone OS supports this feature, not an iPhone App in the App Store. Google Sync leverages this fundamental capability of the phone by exposing the data (mail, contacts, calendars) via these known protocols. If you want to expose data in this way to your users, setup a Microsoft Exchange server and ask questions on serverfault.
Secondly, there are iPhone apps. iPhone apps sold in the app store are not currently allowed to run in the background. This means you can't emulate functionality like iTunes or Mail where your music plays while you are browsing the web, or mail checking is done while you are playing a game of Mini Squadron. If you want this backgrounding capability, file a bug/enhancement with Apple.. However, you can interact with iPhone contacts (Address Book) via the API.. You can also of course "re-invent the wheel" and expose the data however you like via the internet, and consume that data from a custom iPhone App with the one caveat that users would need to actively launch your application to get to this data and it would not be integrated with the built-in iPhone Calendar, Address Book or Mail applications. Some good examples of that are some of the music community apps that have messaging systems built into them. Presumably that is all being done with web services.
EDIT: It is also worth mentioning that should you go the "iPhone App" route, you should at least consider if push notifications are right for you, and if so how you will handle it.
Have you seen the API-Docs?
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/ContactData/Conceptual/AddressBookProgrammingGuideforiPhone/100-Introduction/Introduction.html
Next there is an application I use called Funambol - it is a sync4j Server/Client. They have an open source application to sync contacts on the iPhone. Source is somewhere in their repository, informations here: http://forge.ow2.org/scm/?group_id=96
As slf told you your application must run in foreground. This may limit you.
Good luck & best regards,
Florian
The 3.0 SDK will allow your application to read contact data on the phone.
Web services will allow you to publish that data to your server, and receive updates.
You may also want to use coredata to store a hash of all contact data so you can tell what is new / updated and just send that data to your server.
I finished building an app that allows beaming of photos, contacts and text clips over Wi-Fi
IPhone to IPhone and IPhone to desktop.
I want to decide on the feature set of the lite version of my IPhone app. I also want to come up with a pricing model. So the question is, which of these components should be free, and for which I should be charging for ?
For example, the lite version could have all features except the ability to interact with the desktop version - that is, it would work IPhone to IPhone, but not IPhone to desktop. The paid version would be able to beam to the desktop. In addition, the desktop version would be free, so you could share it with family and friends.
Alternatively, there would be a single free IPhone version and I would charge for the desktop app. The only thing here is that I would have to setup server side code for managing registration codes.
One reason to make your desktop app free and the iPhone app a paid product would be to take advantage of Apple's app store and their payment processing, hosting, etc. While I know 30% seems steep for what Apple provides, it is nice to have that part of the business be handled by someone else. For example, you will never have to deal with credit card processing or have to issue refunds - Apple does all that for you.
I like the mechanism that is more suited to viral distribution and giving people a good taste of all the features, before they are sort of convinced to go for the paid version. The marketing value of an app that can be freely tried out once one user recommends it to another, is invaluable. If someone recommends a product to me and I have to pay for it, then I probably would put off trying it till alter when I have learned more about it. However, if it is free, I can download and try it without feeling like I need to do more research prior. Once I like, and am hooked on it, then I will want locked functionality that I would have to pay to unlock.
I'd stay away from selling, payment processing, and reg code management, if your expertise is in coding - you'd make yourself more money writing more code than writing reg code management utilities...
Good luck.
I'm not sure charging for either is the best idea. If you keep both tools free, you get people trying (and liking) both apps. Viral distribution will ensure a decent user base. Once people use both tools, they're more likely to pay for the next part, which is the connector software.
I like your idea of three parts: a free iPhone app (Let people share photos on their iPhone), free PC app (There are hundreds of photo viewing apps, free... Don't try to charge for them, that way lies pain) and paid connection between 'em.
That way:
You get people using your iPhone app virally (To share with each other's phones & try out the application)
You get people using your PC app virally (Because the cost to try is nearly null)
The connection can be sold through Apple's iStore, so you don't need to do the money handling side
You could even make the connection component a subscription, but as an end user I hate that idea unless I get some additional functionality from it being a subscription (Like free hosting).