CEO here. We are running on Mac OS X and you can run multiple simulators by using multiple user accounts. This is a part of our approach but not all of it :)
Its a shame that it is so slow, especially when its pretty amazing to be able to do this in a browser. Perhaps whilst the HN storm is taking place a less intensive demo could be implemented.
Dude have some respect, the just got HN'ed, it's okay. Check them again some hours or a day later. I guess they will add more bandwith when they have more customers to pay it.
It does run on Mac Mini servers. We don't use VNC, but rather our own approach to make it work. We used to be called Kickfolio, and this Quora thread has a nice response from one of our other co-founders, Chris. http://www.quora.com/How-Does-X-Work/How-does-Kickfolio-work...
I just tried it, and it is currently rather slow, but I suppose that is the HN effect. I signed up for a free account nevertheless, because as luck would have it, I'm working for a project right now, where this might come in handy.
However, I couldn't find any documentation on that, but do you also support iPad apps? I can see that that would be a tad more difficult due to the higher streaming data bandwith.
CEO here. Thanks so much for the feedback. Yep, we are currently being slammed. Glad to have you on board. We do support iPad - checkout http://docs.app.io for a few options and ways you can use the service.
Ah, thanks, I found it under the API -> device page. You should put that on the front page somewhere, that it runs on iPhone & iPad. I may be a bit slow but since the demo was iPhone and since it is streaming, I supposed iPad was out of the loop.
FYI emdowling (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=emdowling) from app.io is replying to comments here with useful info but his account seems to have been hellbanned. You can turn showdead on in your HN profile page to read what he wrote.
If you're looking for more feedback: I got a homepage that was very clear, and immediately intrigued me. I clicked "Try now." That took me to a signup form at which point I immediately closed the window.
You should try to make some kind of demo available for the user without having to do anything except click once.
Hi there, Co-Founder/Designer here. Thanks for that feedback. The iPhone right in the center of the page is an actual demo of an app using our service. You can interact with that straight away as you land on the page. In this case I will take that feedback on board and work to make that much clearer in the future with new designs. Much appreciated!
Hi Ronald. It's mostly for context. We enable 'try before you buy' for mobile apps, in which case hinting to the user that this is an iOS app increases the likelihood that that user will download the real app. (We actually have two core use cases: early beta testing, and marketing apps). Point taken though; thanks for the feedback.
Imagine you write an app for a customer and want quick feedback without him having to install it on his device (if he even has one). Really helpful if you do freelancing for non-technical customers or big enterprises.
Hi, Co-founder here. Thanks for the honesty. We have found that people are drawn to our service for one or two big reasons. The first is the ability to quickly share a test build of an app amongst the team for feedback and iteration. No downloads, no installs - just a URL.
The second is the ability to market your app to your clients or fans via your website or through Facebook, to get instant engagement (vs a banner/screenshot) to drive downloads. We've found it to be highly effective and the average app play is about 1:30. Hope that helps!
Could have been a bit more diplomatic, but I agree that I didn't think of either of the two uses that diesellaws mentioned. Couldn't let go of my desktop mindset.
I can't believe that Apple hasn't come up with some excuse to release the hounds. Few good deeds go unpunished with those guys.
Hi, Co-founder here. The Pro plan allows you up to 5 apps and 20,000 app plays per month. The Business plan allows you up to 20 apps and 100,000 app plays per month. More info can be found here: https://app.io/#pricing
Hi, co-founder/designer here. The iPhone on our home page is actually a live demo of Prismadrop (using App.io). Appreciate the feedback - I will work to make it clearer in the future so everyone is aware it's a live demo.
Just try this on my Android phone, it shows the desktop web page... If it gives the webpage that suits for Android phones, I think this would be more useful.
Hi, Designer/Co-founder here. Ed (our CEO) is currently working on a branch called feature/mobile-optimizations...so expect big things in the coming weeks. :)
Great work! It was super easy to set up a project and it just worked. It just worked, I love it when I can say that.
A couple of feedback points:
- If the simulator could be more responsive, it would be great
- Seems like even though you are simulating an iPhone 5, it doesn't use Retina images (I'm on a MacBook Pro Retina and the images look pixelated)
- I think being able to set up a password should be available on the free plan as well
Also, for cost:
- Are you thinking of also implementing a (cheaper) "freelance" payment plan? Someone that can have up to 5 apps, but only needs a maximum of 5,000 views/month. I think the $109/month is a bit too much for a freelance developer
Agreed. Something in the $30-$50 region with a lower usage allowance and the ability for more (private) apps than the free allowance would be much more palatable to me as a freelancer.
That would be better for me (in the short-term), but supporting a large number of low-value customers is probably not going to be sustainable for them.
Thanks for the suggestions! This is a hot topic internally, so we'll have some more announcements in the coming months. Keep an eye on the blog/twitter.
Very cool - I notice it works well on iOS Safari too.
Any plans for a native app or mobile optimised interface? For some apps, being able to touch is going to make the demo experience much better, and hopefully convert more users to paid installs.
Hi, COO here. Thanks for your feedback. Coincidentally, we have a mobile-optimized version being finished off shortly! We agree that a native app would be great. More on that in the coming months.
Do you plan on integrating with cloud storage / sourcecode providers ? Something like a github instant preview, either directly on the project's home page, or in the source browser.
Or, an HTML widget to enable developers / companies to embed previews of their work directly on their blog / homepages.
I can see a pretty bright future for your company, congrats.
The good folk at Jenkins actually created a plugin for the CI platform which we love: https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/App.io+Plugin. We have an API so if anybody is keen to integrate with GitHub we'd gladly welcome it! Embedding into blogs and on homepages is possible today via a simple iFrame and is one of our core use cases. Thanks for your feedback and positive outlook on App.io's future.
Wondering how the streaming works. It seems to send a bunch of GIF images which hold the diff from the last frame when something is moving.
The framerate is quite low at the moment, but that's probably because of HN?!
Edit: it also sends full JPEGs of the screen when there's much going on. I believe my JSMPEG[1] would really be a viable alternative for this use-case. Streaming support is in the works :)
Hi there, COO here. I wrote a good response on this when we were branded as Kickfolio: http://www.quora.com/How-Does-X-Work/How-does-Kickfolio-work.... You're quite right - we stream diff'd GIFs and JPEGs at different times. We did originally try encoding with FFMPEG and other technologies, but surprisingly this works best! We're constantly improving the algorithm. I'm just about to push up another change this weekend :)
;) Quite right - we have two patent applications in the works! So unfortunately I can't provide a whole lot more detail at this point. Feel free to email me though if you're interested to chat offline. Great job with JSMPEG by the way.
Hi there. It shouldn't take too long to process. I suggest clicking 'Support' from the dashboard and we'll investigate further. It may be an .IPA instead of an .APP (we require the simulator build), or we may need to reprocess your app manually. Sorry for any inconvenience.
I'm not hearing anything, I guess audio isn't emulated yet? This would be great with web audio. Having a podcast app, I can't unfortunately get much use from it in the absence.
Anyway, congrats. I hope Apple's okay with it because the concept is crazy-awesome for users and developers.
Are they okay with it? Apple has always seemed like the type of company that wouldn't want to dilute the "Apple Experience". I'm quite impressed they're aware of it and haven't asked you to shut it down. Kudos.
110 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 169 ms ] threadGood idea, but slow like this, not acceptable.
However, I couldn't find any documentation on that, but do you also support iPad apps? I can see that that would be a tad more difficult due to the higher streaming data bandwith.
Nevertheless, great app, I like the idea.
[EDIT no longer hellbanned]
You should try to make some kind of demo available for the user without having to do anything except click once.
This made it very difficult for me to understand the concept: I wondered if you were showing me a web app that accessed native hardware.
a popover or floating arrow or something might be a decent way to solve some people not getting it.
For example, (picking a random paid app) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VUCAVO
The second is the ability to market your app to your clients or fans via your website or through Facebook, to get instant engagement (vs a banner/screenshot) to drive downloads. We've found it to be highly effective and the average app play is about 1:30. Hope that helps!
I can't believe that Apple hasn't come up with some excuse to release the hounds. Few good deeds go unpunished with those guys.
If iOS apps can run in a browser absolutely any application for ant platform could run from within a browser window.
This will also be great for us android users to see what all the hype about certain apps is all about.
A couple of feedback points:
- If the simulator could be more responsive, it would be great
- Seems like even though you are simulating an iPhone 5, it doesn't use Retina images (I'm on a MacBook Pro Retina and the images look pixelated)
- I think being able to set up a password should be available on the free plan as well
Also, for cost:
- Are you thinking of also implementing a (cheaper) "freelance" payment plan? Someone that can have up to 5 apps, but only needs a maximum of 5,000 views/month. I think the $109/month is a bit too much for a freelance developer
We haven't forgotten about the indie devs! :)
Any plans for a native app or mobile optimised interface? For some apps, being able to touch is going to make the demo experience much better, and hopefully convert more users to paid installs.
I can see a pretty bright future for your company, congrats.
The framerate is quite low at the moment, but that's probably because of HN?!
Edit: it also sends full JPEGs of the screen when there's much going on. I believe my JSMPEG[1] would really be a viable alternative for this use-case. Streaming support is in the works :)
[1] https://github.com/phoboslab/jsmpeg
I would have liked to see a more in-depth explanation, but I understand if you don't want to share it at this point.
Anyway, congrats. I hope Apple's okay with it because the concept is crazy-awesome for users and developers.
http://www.appsurfer.com/ does the same for Android, but it feels definitely more sluggish than this.