Looking for a way to not have a publicly hosted video be used in an iphone application. Youttube or Vimeo seem like the obvious choices for free hosting of video, but the public nature is discouraging. Want to charge for video content, so making it free to all defeats the purpose.
Any ideas?
You will likely require a CDN, Content Distribution/Delivery Network and then write a front-end application that authorizes access to that content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network
Level3, AT&T all have some kind of offering. Some more dynamic than others.
Good Luck
Getting some sort of paid hosting with enough bandwidth and storage would be the natural choice.
Related
I am hiring a freelancer to develop a social networking app for iPhones with event creation, messaging, etc. He asked me if I was going to provide web services/api. I am completely new to app and web development so I am not sure how to answer. If I provide those things, what do I need to do?
Thanks.
you need to get it very clear in your head what you want to build before you hire a freelancer. If you don't you'll be in a costly world of pain very quickly.
So, sit down and think, if you have a friend developer maybe you can have a chat with him and decide the architecture of the product.
What that guy asked you is if you need an API to provide data which is a fair question. Think of a source of your data where other applications can connect and interact with it.
The answer is yes you will need an api because all the mobile clients need to connect to something and that something will be an Api. The Api will be the bridge between your data and your clients. The data will reside into a database so that's another thing to consider.
As I said, think very well what you want because the quality of what any freelancer will build, depends on the quality of information you provide. If it's not clear in your head then it won't be pretty.
I would like to build an iphone/ipad app that has social networking capabilities and the ability to sell magazines and specific articles. I would also like this app to be able to be as flexible as possible for future features.
Should I insist the developer use objective C or could he accomplish the same thing with HTML5 etc..
If you're the client, and have specific technical requirements, you should document them from a technical POV. If not, well that's why you're hiring a developer--for their expertise.
There's pros and cons to each and we'd need to have a lot more project details to be of any specific help for you.
Do note that selling items via an app has its own set of red tape political issues with Apple. You may want to tackle that aspect of the project first. If you don't want to route any payments through Apple so they can take their cut, then you might want to rethink the app model and consider a mobile web site avenue instead.
UPDATE:
In general, here's some high-level comparisons:
Native Apps:
Pros
can access native device functionality directly
can leverage the native UI more directly
can be much more performant in situations like heavy game animation, 3-d, image/video editing, ec.
may be smaller file sizes
Cons
have to be written per-device
different devices use different native IDEs and Languages
HTML5/Phonegap apps
can be written with cross-platform Web standards
can still leverage native device features to an extent
are easier to port from device to device (though still takes effort)
Cons
you won't be creating graphic-heavy game-type apps with it now
may be a bit slower than a native app
Pure HTML5 local web app
This is different than something like a phonegap solution. PhoneGap takes HTML5 and compiles it into native code. That means you can send it through the app store. There's another option, however, where you put the HTML5 app on your web server, and then a user requests to keep it locally on their device. The advantage is that this allows you to bypass the app store completely (though in most situations, people prefer to go through the app store)
I would say, "no", you shouldn't insist the developer use Objective-C. At least not unless other requirements not mentioned dictate the need for a native app. As DA mentioned, there are App Store policies that would need to be complied with for native apps that can be avoided by creating a web app. Also, if you choose, it would be easier to produce a web app that could be used across other platforms rather than being restricted to the iPad.
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.
HI all,
so we all know "pinch media" - the "spyware" software ;)
i'm searching for some really cool analytics softwares for my iphone application.
pinch media, is the one i know, it looks really great, but we all know, the reputation of this piece of software is very bad.
i'd like to know if i can use it, or if my app then is one of this spyware apps, for users (it isnt really, i know, but users might think it is, when i use this).
are there some alternatives? other programms, with the same good analysis?
I found admob and motally.com, but pinch media/Flurry is the best one atm.
Here is a good pdf that compares some of the main iPhone/iPod touch analytics providers
Try Google Analytics
Any analytics package which reports usage statistics back to a central server (Flurry, Google Analytics, etc.) will be considered "spyware" by some users, not just Pinch Media's offering. The really paranoid users will sniff data traffic out of your application and detect traffic from any service, no matter who provides it.
If you really care about those users who will be upset by this, give them the option to opt-out of data collection in your application's settings or when the application first starts.
If you are looking for more inside on your app, you should try heatma.ps. They let you view heatmaps for your app, and other interaction data.
Example heatmap:
I suggest you to take a look at Appsee
Appsee provides visual in-app analytics, including heatmaps, real user recording and user bahavior reprots. And you can create a free account there.
Flurry, Google Analytics, etc are central server to store the user's data.
If you want to build your private data center. you can visit this url
http://www.github.com/cobub
And the web site is: http://dev.cobub.com
to get the open source system (both server and client sides)
There are two kinds of analytics: business analytics and app performance analytics. Google Analtyics, Flurry etc are good for business analytics but app developers are mostly interested in knowing when app crashes, being able to capture app logs, impact of network speeds and carriers on performance of their apps. For app performance analytics, take a look at http://apigee.com/about/mobile-analytics . You not only get real time performance anlaytics but also ability to do some configuration changes in real time.
I have a pretty basic challenge-based iPhone game, and I wanted to know what my options are for player discovery & matchmaking. I may end up rolling my own server, but if I don't have to, even better.
So far, I've found OpenFeint and Scoreloop, but I don't really care about the social part or discovering other games, I just want a simple system with matchmaking, win/loss, and global rankings. CocosLive has the global ranking part, but not the matchmaking.
Also just found RakNet.
Thanks.
Check out the Google App Engine for a free to cheap alternative to setting up your own server. It also has the added benefit of being Google, which to me spells reliability.
I expect that RakNet and similar companies will want a bunch of money for this solution - one of their clients is Sony Online Entertainment which to me spells money.
Also as you search around for solutions I would focus more on searching for open source code to put on your Google App Engine rather than a service. Online services require bandwith, which costs money. Information is free.
Good luck!