Using a different company name for iPhone app distribution? - iphone

My company is starting to get into iPhone development. We'd like to keep our iPhone business segregated from our other businesses, so in the App Store, we'd like to be known by a different name. For example, although our company may be legally Company, LLC, we'd like our apps on the App Store to appear to be from a different company name, e.g. ReallyCoolApps, LLC, which will simply be a dba for Company, LLC.
I'm in the middle of the developer program enrollment, and it's asking me for my company name, website, etc. At this point, do I need to enter the name we'd like to appear as in the App Store (e.g. ReallyCoolApps, LLC), or can I enter our real company name (e.g. Company, LLC) here and choose a different name to appear as later when we're ready to distribute?
We haven't actually come up with an App Store name yet. I'd like to go ahead and get signed up so I can begin testing on an actual device and wait until later to come up with a name. I want to make sure this is possible before I continue.
Thanks!

The company name is set when you submit your first app. Be careful, you can not change it once submitted, the Apple docs clearly state this. If you use the wrong name you will have to get Apple to change it and that is no fun.

Apple will probably reject your application if the company name you provide does not match your company's legal name. Or at least they did for me, an operating as document was also rejected. i.e. our legal name was foo and we are operating under the name bar.

I'm not sure of the exact point at which you choose your display name, but I'm absolutely positive that it warns you and explicitly tells you that "you will show up in the app store as xyz" at the point at which you must give a name.
I setup my account a few weeks ago, and I'm sure it warned me.

Related

Release Itunes app name for others to use

Our organization has created an app for a client. Now, our client is hiring a different organization to build their app. They want to use the exact same name for the app, and are encountering 'This app name is taken' errors when attempting to create it.
The other organization also refuses to give us the information required to transfer the existing app over to them.
Can anyone say for sure, or know where in the documentation it may be explicitly stated that deleting the app altogether from our account will free up the name so they can use it?
The only other alternative is to re-submit our app under a different name, but this obviously takes far longer, given we'd need to go through the app approval or rejection process again for this to happen. I feel like the logical thing to do is simply delete our app, but I cannot find it explicitly stated anywhere that this will free the reserved app name.
Fastest way is to transfer the app to new profile,
You can delete the app (once deleted from your account, new organization can use the same app ID, however i don't recommended deletion as it's irreversible process and you cannot use the same name ever - Important: If you delete your app, you can’t restore it. The SKU or app name can’t be reused in the same organization. If you’ve uploaded a build, your bundle ID can’t be reused.). So if in future client wants to use your profile again, he/she cannot. Also need to consult with apple as i feel even bundle ID cannot be used by different organization.
Rename the app - Safest option in your case I feel is this. Remove app from sales and then simply rename app to existingappname1 ( add a number at end of app and new user will be able to use existing name).
In Any case delete should be very last option to be used.
Complete process for rename / transfer and delete explain here https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/TransferringAndDeletingApps.html

Password login for ios app

I am currently developing an app for a company that is in a very competitive field. I have finished all of the features of the app that they requested except for one, making it somehow protected from their competing companies to download and use. I thought that I could set up a UIViewController with a password field that would check against some kind of database, but I'm not sure how to do the checking against a database part nor the practicality of it, and was hoping I could get some ideas on how to do this so that other companies couldn't steal and use this app without a password or something that changes like every 30 days or something and is kind of like an activation code.
Review the WWDC 2012 video "Building and Distributing Custom B2B Apps for iOS". I'm unsure if your app is in this B2B classification, it seems that it might be from your description.
What I ended up doing (if everyone needs a reference) was setting up a server with an SQL table that has pass codes in it. Since apple does not allow for any sort of system that requires you to "buy the app from outside the app store" I made a dumby username field (shame on me) that takes any value you like and then requires to have a pass code that fits. Once the pass code gets authenticated with the web server in a json sql request (there are plenty of api's to do this with) it comes back and sends the user to the first screen and sets a value in a plist with how many days of use the user has left. Whenever the user opens up the app it checks to see if the date is different from the last date logged in (saved in the same plist file) and if it is different then it calculates the difference and deducts that many. When the count reaches 0 it sends the user to the pass code authentication screen again. A bit complicated but an effective method of getting around Apple's restriction on not having a sort of pass code system like this. Thanks for the answers, unfortunately enterprise did not work for this company since they needed to be able to distribute the app to as many 3rd party members as they wanted to without having to worry about them leaving the company for other suppliers and remote management of the app (I.e ability to remote uninstall) was also not an option. Hope this helps someone someday!

Way to expose appstore IDs but keep them secured for release

I am working on an application that will allow the user to purchase content from the app store
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40008267-CH1-SW1
These products require a "ProductID" that ties them to whatever is in the appstore.
I will need to store these IDs somewhere in the application so I know what to send the server when the purchase button is clicked.
I wish to expose these ID's and allow non-programmers to enter any ID they want in both our side and the server side, and not have to call on a programmer to go into the code and change some enum.
I figured a config file would not be very secure, for in the end it's just a text file that a user could potentially view after purchasing the app. May not be a huge problem if a user saw the ID, but I don't like the idea of anybody seeing the innards that go through a payment process
Assuming im making sense here, whats a good way to expose these IDs but still keep them secure so users may not find them?
Also curious, how secure is something like an enum in c++? Can people break the .exe down and see the code and its values?
For your final question, yes and no. If they have access to the debugging information (a PDB in Microsoft land) then yes. But armed with just an exe and disassembler, you will see only the constant values that are assigned to the enum members.

How to locate any mobile number using iPhone application

I want to make an application on iPhone which locates the mobile number region(area) when the user gets a call. Can anybody give me guideline how to accomplish that task?
You can't access the details of an incoming call on the iPhone.
Crazy idea: User would define a phone number of your server (SIP, VOIP) as "forward when declined"-number. When the user gets a call, he would simply decline it, so it would be forwarded to your server. There you could extract the information and send it to the iPhone (Push Service). And finally you would redirect the call back from the server to the user's iPhone.
For anyone looking for an answer to the second part of this question (how to get the location for a number), there is a similar question (asked interestingly enough one day before this one) with several answers here:
Telephone area code to city name on iOS
I also discovered an SQLite database named calldata.db in the private framework AppSupport.framework that contains US cities, states and area codes, as well as prefixes (the three digits that come after the area code).
Using a query like this you could find out that area code 212 is New York, NY:
SELECT * FROM citycode, npanxx, npa
WHERE npanxx.npa = 212
AND citycode.code = npanxx.rate_center
AND npanxx.npa = npa.npa
I don't however know if accessing/packaging this database would violate any agreements with Apple (I do know that the Default.phoneformat file from AppSupport.framework has been packed with several apps which had no problems getting into the App Store, see comments here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13116227/381233). Perhaps there are some methods in the AppSupport.framework that would get this information more easily, but that would definitely not be allowed in the app store.
As for the other part of this question (access the details of an incoming call), this would most likely be possible on a jailbroken phone. No doubt there's already a tweak in Cydia that does this.

Making a fax accessible from a ColdFusion Web App

We're programming a Testing Web Application for a University in ColdFusion with a MS SQL Backend.
Right now we have to manually take faxes sent to our fax machine and then find the account they are related to and input the info (the actual fax has to be found in a filing cabinet if we ever need to reference it again). What I would like to do is create a way for someone to fax to a certain number and then the fax be sent to an email account we specify.
If that worked properly we would need a way to get the email, store it somewhere on our servers and then link it to an account. The linking process would probably have to be manual and we are ok with that, but an easy way to view all the faxes sent to that email in our ColdFusion application in PDF form (searchable by the name we assign it) is what we are mainly looking for, so that we don't have to get the faxes on paper and file them by hand.
Is there a way to accomplish this? Preferably not through a paid service as we can program almost anything we need ourselves.
Hmm... have you tried services like eFax?
Why reinvent the wheel? Services like eFax and jConnect (there are several others, just Google "electronic fax service") are affordable and do half of what you are trying to do. Save yourself the effort and just spend a few bucks. You'll probably find out, too, that it will cost you less to just pay for the service than it would cost you to pay the developer to write the software.
So after you bite the bullet and sign up for an electronic faxing service, you just need an email account for it to send to, and to use CFPOP to check the inbox and download the attachments. The rest is a piece of cake.
From the sounds of it, I have built something identical to this faxing setup with Coldfusion.
After a few trials and errors I found best way to go is:
1) DIGITIZE INCOMING FAXES: Have all faxes either sent to an email address you can check via CF, or a network folder you save them on, which you can check with CF. You can absolutely keep your fax number and simply call forward incoming calls to your digital fax number.
2) PROCESS INCOMING FAXES When you find a new fax, it is best to process it and make a record of it. I store things like the file name, dig up the fax number it came from, check it against a list of known numbers, and have a routing table (in case it needs to go to someone).
3) PRINT AND ROUTE FAX Auto printing a document once in CF is possible via CF as well.
As for tables, I keep one to store each fax. I store the fax itself in a blob as well. Easy to replicate and move around, no big performance hit. I keep another table to store a list of incoming number profiles (like a caller ID table) to relate the number to a customer. I keep a table for routing rules, if an email comes from here, send it here. Last, but not least, if you have to manage multiple phone numbers, you can create multiple incoming profiles and file them.
Once you have each fax stored in the DB, you can do a lot with it and file/index/ store it digitally how you like. CFDOCUMENT will display disk based PDFs.
I ended up having to program something like this for custom routing options. It is possible to auto link items to certain files/folders/projects if you like as well with CF.
If you need to know anything else, ask, or we can discuss it off line if you need to keep some details private.
Agree with Adam. Don't create a bunch of problems for yourself - you'll save a lot of money and nerves by just using the existing service.
On the topic: I use Popfax and I kind of like it. It's comfy, gives you opportunities, discounts, contests and a lot of stuff you'd like if you'd be interested in. It's cheap (at least, 100% cheaper than your own software) and you can use it not only on PC, but also via mobile phone