Server side support for Google TV - google-tv

Does Google Server provide any server side support for Google TV devices? Does it provides any plugin or installables specific to Google? For example, Google advertisement or something like that?

Nothing specific that's targeted at the developer. We support our apps with significant server side infrastructure. (Beyond that statement I'm not going to discuss specifics)
Google App Engine is targeted at all developers and is an excellent way to provide server side support for your apps.

Related

How can I find out if IBM will be releasing new versions of the iOS SDK for Swift?

I am very interested in using BlueMix for mobile development. Really interested.
I've created a couple of stub app's using iOS9+ and Swift. And I can see that there is real potential.
My question is. When I look at the educational materials and toolkits available I get the impression that IBM are no longer investing in this area. How can I be sure that BlueMix and Mobile will receive investment? How can I be sure that BlueMix will support future versions of iOS?
I know some might think this is too general a question. The problem I have is that IBM is such a huge company I have no idea who I can approach for an answer directly.
As you mention this is certainly not a technical question. That said, if you would like reassurance that the mobile SDKs (including Swift) are a major focus feel free to monitor the Bluemix Mobile Services public-facing Github where you will see daily activity as work is done to bring all the BMS SDKs up to the latest and greatest releases for the iOS, Android, and Hybrid platforms.

Creating a single SmartTV app for multiple platforms?

I want to develop a SmartTV application for the GoogleTV platform and i've been browsing trough the GoogleTV Guidelines (https://developers.google.com/tv/android/).
However, i don't want GoogleTV to be my only platform. I also want the same app to work on devices like Samsung SmartTV and/or LG SmartTV.
But do the guidelines from Google conflict with Samsung guidelines and does the code of my application need a lot of rework to work on other devices?
I'm editing my answer. I just checked the Samsung website and, I'm happy to say, they threw out all the junk.
They use to have a number of different, non-interchangeable, coding languages. And none of them really worked on the TV's of the other manufacturers either. This is most likely the reason why few applications were ever developed for those platforms.
Now they are supporting basic javascript. So, you have the opportunity to build yourself a TV web page and load it up as an application on Samsung and potentially run it from the Google-TV browser. However, I would verify whether your application requires specific HTML5 features (such as offline support) that may not be implemented in the Android-like browser version running on Google-TV. Having said that, you can always build an app that loads locally on Samsung and runs from a remote server on Google-TV?
... for some historical perspective on how we go to where we're at you can continue reading....
The implication of each manufacturer having their own unique OS creating developer fragmentation was probably predictable to them but they were likely working in a panic. After they became aware of the Apple TV when the first patents were make public in 2008 they understood the longer term impact if Apple provided hundred of thousand of applications worth of content and they had nothing to compete. So they got together and decided on a standard they would implement that would provide a non-fragmented solution allowing any app to run on the TV's of any supporting manufacturer. AKA: they got it right.
In 2009 a good number of them announced support for the Yahoo Connected TV standard. However, by 2010 the development framework, app store, etc that was promised had not materialized. This is likely when they all went in their own direction (although you can still buy Yahoo Connected TV sets from Samsung, Sony, LG, Vizio, and Panasonic today).
With the implementation of the Google-TV Market and the ability of developers to transition existing apps to Google-TV apps with only 20% or so of the effort of creating new (thus lowering the cost and supporting the business case for a TV version) that they have a solution that meets their original requirements.
Now, there's certainly going to be a little 'bitten once twice shy' coupled with revenue sharing discussions and perhaps the impact of Google being a hardware manufacturer (Motorola Mobility) but, at the end of the day, the inevitable is inevitable. They either take Google-TV or create their own, very close, must run existing applications, version of Android.
PS: I didn't look at the other manufacturers site.
For my understanding core components like the Player and Remote Control Management are platform specific.
You would need to use a configuration file and implements these components independently for each platform.
Alternatively you can use some cross platform SDK.
Searching on Google for "smart tv app development" I found out:
Joshfire Smart TV SDK
http://www.joshfire.com/products/
Works on Google TV and Samsung
But not on LG
Mautilus Smart TV SDK
http://www.mautilus.com/knowhow/smart-tv-application-development/
As written in their website it covers
LG Netcast 2012
Samsung 2012 / 2013 models.
I hope it can helps.
orangeejs is a new open source project aims to ease the pain of cross platform smart tv app development. The target platforms are latest model of samsung/lg/android/ios.
There is a framework developed by BBC and called TAL. It aims to help you with cross-platform development. All their Smart TV apps were developed using this library so take a look.
First of all if you consider to develop for many TV platforms see the:
https://developers.google.com/tv/web/lib/jquery/
It's jQuery library for Google TV, so you can develop application in HTML/JavaScript just like in Samsung and LG.
Of course there are the differences in key handling, video player, event handling so you will need to develop the framework which cover all this differences.
There are few open source frameworks out there but not mature enough to use it "out of the box".
for example: http://framework.joshfire.com/
You might want to take a look at cloudee-couch which is open-sourced by Boxee. This example/framework is built on top of Spine.js. Base classes take care of key handling, focus, and oauth authentication.
It's not a big deal to make an application for the smart tv platform that supports across the devices. Now the industry is filled with a lot of smart tv app development companies with their unique functionalities and features to offer the customized app as per the business models. FYI I'd suggest you choose the best smart tv app builder from the list. Hope it will be helpful for the video content creators & business owners to stream across the tv.
VPlayed
Zype
Uscreen
Explore the complete list here Ref: https://dev.to/dwarak17/5-smart-tv-app-development-companies-to-develop-tv-apps-in-2021-1584
While both Samsung and LG have proprietary Smart TV systems, they also both support Google TV. If you create an app for Google TV, you'll only have to write it once and it will run on Samsung's Google TV's, LG's Google TV's, Vizio's Google TV's, and Sony's Google TV's.

SAML 2.0 based Authentication for iPhone application

Team, kindly help me how to implement SAML based authentication for iPhone application. I have .NET REST based JSON webservice as my backend service.
Kindly advice me on this requirement.
There are existing standards and tools to support your requirement today. As Scott mentioned, it does require either using the embedded browser in iOS within your application or allowing the iOS Safari Browser to handle the SAML/Browser portion of SSO (each has its own pros/cons). You can check out this free White Paper entitled, "A Standards-based Mobile Application IdM Architecture" that talks about how Ping (my employer) customers are handling this today if you'd like some more ideas.
The SAML-only solution has properties that bother some due to the phishing risk of downloadable apps, but the mechanism involved is outlined at https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/ECP
Other approaches involve hybrids of OAuth or other technologies but you won't find any standards or tool support for any of this.

How to integrate skype feature in my native app

I want to integrate Skype APIs in my native app. Is that possible? I have Googled around and couldn't find a way to start. I know there are APIs available for Mac OS X.
Can I make use of those APIs for my iPhone app? I know it is possible, as many apps like Nimbuzz have integrated Skype APIs in their iPhone apps.
Skype has a Public API which you can reference. This page has a wealth of information on how to use the API and the various commands. There is no public framework which abstracts it any further so you'll need to investigate how to make the actual commands by deconstructing the various wrappers.
I don't think Skype wants to particularly bring their API wrappers to the iPhone because you'd be competing directly with their own application. They do provide Cocoa wrappers but those are in the form of a framework and you can't have your own custom frameworks in an iPhone Application (only Apple approved ones). Also relevant: Skype bans Nimbuzz and fring while faking stats
SkypeKit sounds like what you want.
SkypeKit prohibits development on iOS devices. What may be of use to you is the URI scheme, This should let you open the skype App on your iPhone and place a call.
For additional help visit the Skype Developer Forum

Native Mobile browser based apps

Wondering if someone could point me in the right direction, as I am unsure of the correct terminology. I am looking to create a mobile website, which loads in a browser based application (iPhone, Android).
I have seen this done before. For example, the bank of america application is actually installed via the App Store, however, it is simple a browser window that loads the Bank of America mobile site (which is built to look and function like an app).
I find this to more cost-effective, as developing a mobile app is less intense, as opposed to developing applications for 2-3 different mobile platforms.
Can someone provide insight into the terminology or methods used to accomplish this? Looking for articles, examples, etc.
Thanks in advanced!
I would suggest to use IBM Worklight.
Worklight is an Eclipse-based visual development and server platform for mobile apps. Using Worklight and popular open technologies, you can build, test, deploy, and manage your smartphone and tablet apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone devices, with maximum code reuse and per-device optimization.
Worklight supports open technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Apache Cordova, and popular JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery, Dojo Mobile, and Sencha Touch.
Worklight offers extensive runtime libraries and client APIs that expose and interface with native device functionality.
Worklight includes a browser simulator so you can test and optimize the user experience of your mobile content on varying mobile devices.
Worklight consists of an IDE (Worklight Studio), a Java-based server, device runtime components, a web-based console for managing deployments, and an application center.
for more info see
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mobile/worklight/getting-started.html
Take a look at PhoneGap or Appcelerator, two of the bigger names in this "native wrapper" technology.