Hi everyone,
I'm currently developing an App that's about to hit the market (G:RSS). The next feature I want to add is push and tile notifications. The problem here is that I'll need to set up a server that regularly polls Google for every user of my app, checking for unread RSS counts, then pushes them out to the notification server.
As you can imagine, that's a lot of bandwidth. I'd like to toss out the idea and see if there are enough people interested in going in together on a Virtual Hosted Server who's specific purpose is to send push notifications for application developers here on XDA.
It would be a linux host, running PHP and MySQL, and I could set up SFTP accounts and a web management system for anyone interested in hosting their webservices there. I'm looking at a number of different hosts, all similar to Amazon's EC2 setup, though some as static VMs.
If you're interested, please post with what app you're developing and the volume of outbound requests to both the Microsoft Push Notification Server and external servers. If enough people respond, I'll put together a proposed budget for what it would take for us to get it up and running.
Any other suggestions are welcome, too, of course.
Thanks,
Ben
Just an FYI - Amazon ECS is offering a free "small" VM with new ECS customers - 750/hours a month. May be enough to get you started.
If you have MSDN / Technet or any of the Microsoft partner such as Webspark / BizSpark i believe MS offers free/cheap/VERY cheap Azure hosting.
personaly, i love the features of azure and the cost is really good considering the service level (and SLA). I currently have an azure extra small instance that costs 5 cents an hour but i also got 6 months of a free small instance through a webspark deal.
I guess my 2 cents is that MS has a TON of freebies if you sign up for webspark/bizspark or the technet or msdn options. I would recommend any wp7 developer take advantage of the products. Heck, even sign up for the Microsoft Partner network and pay the 350/year for 10 licenses of darn near every Microsoft product made and use the discounts from your partner program to get deals on azure/hosting/development tools. It pays for itself big time.. just too much to absorb I got 100 seats of exchange email through Office online and trying to get a few licenses for sharepoint so my phone will be fully integrated
** Edit: **
With that being said, i'll volunteer an Azure compute node with SQL azure access to get a few developers up and running. Can setup a paypal expense account to share any costs above and beyond what i get with my current service.
Related
I am working on a web service and thought it might be of interest to Windows 8 app developers out there, who might find the service useful and could even help testing it and offer advice on how to improve.
The product (codename Myelin, currently in alpha) brings powerful user feedback tools directly into your mobile apps. With just a couple of lines of code, you can integrate functionality that not only allows users to send comments directly to the dev, but also to track any replies and provide additional follow-up after the first submission. No private information (such as email address or account name) is ever shared, and no registration is required. It just works directly from the app.
Coming in the future are even more exciting features that make meaningful communication between the dev and the end user simpler and faster.
On the backend we have a feedback management portal that allows to monitor incoming feedback efficiently and manage any required follow-up in a bugtracking-like approach (think support tickets).
We have recently rolled out a client (== app plugin) for Windows 8 HTML apps, and would welcome devs willing to take it for a spin and give us feedback. BTW, XAML support is coming in the future; if you'd be interested, let me know and this work may move further up the priority list. XAML version for C#\VB Win8 apps is also available.
The service is currently free while it's in active development. While there are plans to eventually take it commercial, we will in any event be very accomodating to our early adopters.
You can read more at https://www.tfp0.com/s/windows8. If you're interested in learning more, reply here, PM, or just go ahead and sign up over at the website (we have plenty of spots available) to see what we have going there.
Below is a collage of various screens that the plugin introduces in the form of settings flyouts.
<= clickable
Since I've seen some offline interest in a XAML-based version, I wanted to note here that we did in fact roll out a version of the plugin for XAML.
In addition, both versions (HTML and XAML) are now available through NuGet as Timefork.DyneinXaml and Timefork.DyneinHtml .
Short version: I programmed a Windows 8 Oauth app. I didn't know where to post this, but it's mostly done in javascript and HTML so I figured this forum might be best. If others have time, I'd really appreciate it if someone would audit my code. Due to the nature of the amount my request, I thought it would be best to post a link to the GitHub repo. If this is wrong, please correct me.
GitHub: https://github.com/mepis/Windows8OauthAuthenticator
Long Version: I use 2-step for a lot of my accounts. The problem is, I'm lazy. I don't feel like getting up to get my phone after I set it down at night. I wanted a metro Oauth app for Windows 8. I looked on the store, but didn't recognize any of the developers. Due to the nature of Oauth, I choose to err on the side of caution and not use the apps. I'm not saying that other devs aren't well intentioned and good devs. I'm just saying that it's a better idea in the name of security that I not use the apps if I can't verify anything. So I decided to write my own.
That leaves another issue though. Due to the nature of Oauth, the token device shouldn't be on the same device you're putting passwords in. I'm choosing to ignore this a bit. I do recognize that tokens shouldn't be stored in plain text though in the Windows storage space. Instead, I push and pull the token from the Windows Credential Manager and the password vault.
I was thinking of running the tokens, labels, and account names through an AES algorithm and then storing that information in the credential manager. This would require a user password on opening the app though. I'm not sure I want to go that route yet, though it would be easily implemented later on.
The mission of this app is simple. I want to offer an Oauth app that is open source and able to be audited by the general public. I want others to have access to a free tool that they can trust and review. I will never charge for this app nor ask for donations. It's also posted under the GNU version 3 license.
At some point, I am thinking about porting this app to Windows Phone.
I'm very much a amateur developer though. I was hoping that others could audit my app, offer suggestions, and point out mistakes. I very much appreciate any help or time that any person is willing to offer.
While you may well get some takers, and some of them might even know what they're doing, you realize you're asking for something that is usually done by people who do this stuff professionally for hundreds of dollars per hour, right? It's like writing up a legal contract and posting it online and saying "do you think this will hold up in court?"
OK, training to be a security engineer doesn't take as long as training to be a lawyer. But there's *more* lawyers than there are security engineers, and our time is very much in demand (yes, I'm a security engineer; no, I will not audit your code for free unless I expect to have a use for it personally).
I'm not even sure what you mean by "OAuth app". OAuth is a standardized protocol (v2.0, RFC 6749, is more accurately described as a framework) for delegated authentication. For example, you've seen how a lot of web sites let you sign in using your Facebook account? That's because they use Facebook as an OAuth provider. The website delegates the responsibility of authenticating users to Facebook, which is handy for them because they don't have to handle passwords and so forth, handy for the user because many users already have FB accounts, and handy for FB because they gain information about what kinds of sites you visit and can use that to target ads. It also has downsides, of course; the OAuth client (web site) has to trust that FB knows what they're doing and to remain available, the user gives FB info they might not want FB to have and also ends up essentially re-using passwords across sites (a bad idea), and FB bears the cost and responsibility of managing all those logins.
Now, to make any authentication scheme (including but not limited to OAuth) stronger, you can multi-factor authentication (sometimes called two-factor auth or 2FA). The most common way of doing that is using Time-based One Time Password (TOTP, standardized as RFC 6238) security tokens, either in small hardware devices or in mobile apps. Is that what this is supposed to be? Because... that has nothing to do with OAuth.
I have a hard time imagining a situation in which I'd use a TOTP generator written by somebody who didn't know the difference between TOTP and OAuth.
Well, your response thus far has been excellent (I'm not being sarcastic). I need to read more about Oauth then. I must have my definitions and understanding a bit confused.
In actuality, to phrase it better, the application would be a TOTP app then - like Google Authenticator. I used Javascript provided by Google for the TOTP generation. The app itself is rather simple. My biggest concern though is the safety of the tokens. I used Windows Credential Manager to store the tokens on the device. I couldn't find much information about the security of Windows Credential Manager though. That's my biggest concern.
Other than that, thanks for the information. I'm going to do some more reading.
For what it's worth (and without having read your code), it sounds like you're doing OK; TOTP generators are not complex by themselves, and usually the only threat to them is in the secret storage (which you're addressing). Of course, most of them offer things like QR code scanning (as a way to load secrets more easily) and I don't know if you have anything like that or whether there are any security pitfalls there.
Heya!
I'm looking for beta testers for the new version of my app, Pill-Fill. A couple interesting features:
Simple: It automatically imports your medications, doctors, and pharmacies from your pharmacy or insurance company. Easily input other RX and OTC medications by linking against a database of with more than 2 million drugs, doctors, and other clinical records.
Smart: It links each of your medications with FDA information, the prescribing doctor, the dispensing pharmacy. Automatically warns you about potential drug interactions, recalls, dosing problems, and more.
Secure: Available on all of your devices thanks to a client-encrypted and cloud-synced profile- No one (including myself) can access your information without your master password. (similar to LastPass)
And all of that's free. I've recently done a major redesign of the UI and would really like some feedback about usability and some of the other rough edges I've inevitably overlooked (I've been looking at the interface so long I'm a bit numb to it!)
Full Disclosure: I also just added a few in-app purchases to help offset the cost of the backend servers. If you're interested, I'm happy to enable any (or all) of the these to anyone that'd like to help with testing, just PM with your username/account once you're set up.
Google Calendar Integration: Your medication reminders privately synced to your google calendar. See medication reminders in Google Now and get automatic email and SMS notifications- even makes interesting functions like "Automatic Phone Call Reminders" or "Blink the Lights" possible when it's time to take your medication (via IFTTT integration)
Doctor's Prescribing Information: Access your doctors' hospital affiliations and see what medications they most commonly prescribe
Multi User Management: Manage up to 5 user profiles at once- Keep an account for your children or elderly parent/grandparent. Share
If you're game and live in the US, I'm using the standard G+ beta community (Pill-Fill Beta Testers: /communities/103148439231670270726)- Join up and get to downloading! If you're outside the US (or just dislike G+) and still would like to help, PM me and I'll send you a copy of the APK- though the US only functions (Doctor/Pharmacy links, Automatic import) won't work obviously.
Thanks!
Michael
PREMISE
see mockup attachment. fyi, some minor details are left out to protect the premise.
the purpose of the app is to create a countdown clock. and we intend to have different sponsors.
FRONT-END REQUIREMENTS
when the clock expires, it will have beep and vibrate.
to make money, when someone brings up the app on their phone, they would see a coupon from a sponsor company. and upon the launch screen, if the person likes the coupon, they can request to have it e-mailed to them. there's two options to have at this point. a) the app sends me (the app business owner) an e-mail confirming that this individual has requested this coupon. and I'll e-mail it to them whenever I get a chance [but this could get messy if there is a ton of users] b) the app somehow automatically send an e-mail right then and there to the individual [this could be a Day 2 project].
regardless of whether or not the visitor has requested the coupon e-mailed to them, when they click the "ENTER APP" button, they should be transferred to the APP SCREEN.
BACK-END REQUIREMENTS
a. we will NOT store any customer data or e-mails or anything else. we will simply generate a one-time e-mail to that address and that's it.
b. we would like to track a) how many downloads so we can tell potential sponsors b) how often people use the app and how long it's open on their phone for.
c. needs to work on android, IOS and windows phones. we do not care about tablets or computers. smart phones users will be 99% of our audience.
d. we need some sort of back-end or web interface where I can enter in new sponsor names, logos and coupons.
QUESTIONS
1. I'm not going to learn to build this myself. i have no knowledge of how to build one and don't have the time to learn. i plan to hire an overseas freelancer through odesk.com. what program should I ask they use to build this? I've heard terms like swift, xcode, ruby on rails, twitter bootstrap, etc… ideally, is there one go-to popular program that creates a cross-platform compatible app? my fear is that if I have to drop a programmer in the middle of the project and pick up another, will the new person be able to pickup where the last guy left off?
2. how would I go about changing the coupons? and changing the sponsor banner ads? would there need to be some sort of web interface? would I need to purchase a website and hosting account and have some functionality built there? is there some dashboard somewhere else?
3. how big scale a project is this? roughly how many hours should this take a COMPETENT app developer? seems to me like one of the most basic apps you could build but what do I know.
4. at what point does an app get submitted to google play? apple store? windows whatever they have? or do I even need those entities or could I just let people somehow download it from a website? if so, what would I be missing out by not getting it listed under those marketplaces?
5. anything else I have not thought about that I should be aware of?
please advise. thanks in advance!!!
sixrfan said:
PREMISE
see mockup attachment. fyi, some minor details are left out to protect the premise.
the purpose of the app is to create a countdown clock. and we intend to have different sponsors.
FRONT-END REQUIREMENTS
when the clock expires, it will have beep and vibrate.
to make money, when someone brings up the app on their phone, they would see a coupon from a sponsor company. and upon the launch screen, if the person likes the coupon, they can request to have it e-mailed to them. there's two options to have at this point. a) the app sends me (the app business owner) an e-mail confirming that this individual has requested this coupon. and I'll e-mail it to them whenever I get a chance [but this could get messy if there is a ton of users] b) the app somehow automatically send an e-mail right then and there to the individual [this could be a Day 2 project].
regardless of whether or not the visitor has requested the coupon e-mailed to them, when they click the "ENTER APP" button, they should be transferred to the APP SCREEN.
BACK-END REQUIREMENTS
a. we will NOT store any customer data or e-mails or anything else. we will simply generate a one-time e-mail to that address and that's it.
b. we would like to track a) how many downloads so we can tell potential sponsors b) how often people use the app and how long it's open on their phone for.
c. needs to work on android, IOS and windows phones. we do not care about tablets or computers. smart phones users will be 99% of our audience.
d. we need some sort of back-end or web interface where I can enter in new sponsor names, logos and coupons.
QUESTIONS
1. I'm not going to learn to build this myself. i have no knowledge of how to build one and don't have the time to learn. i plan to hire an overseas freelancer through odesk.com. what program should I ask they use to build this? I've heard terms like swift, xcode, ruby on rails, twitter bootstrap, etc… ideally, is there one go-to popular program that creates a cross-platform compatible app? my fear is that if I have to drop a programmer in the middle of the project and pick up another, will the new person be able to pickup where the last guy left off?
2. how would I go about changing the coupons? and changing the sponsor banner ads? would there need to be some sort of web interface? would I need to purchase a website and hosting account and have some functionality built there? is there some dashboard somewhere else?
3. how big scale a project is this? roughly how many hours should this take a COMPETENT app developer? seems to me like one of the most basic apps you could build but what do I know.
4. at what point does an app get submitted to google play? apple store? windows whatever they have? or do I even need those entities or could I just let people somehow download it from a website? if so, what would I be missing out by not getting it listed under those marketplaces?
5. anything else I have not thought about that I should be aware of?
please advise. thanks in advance!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi i have read your long query,The app which you described and checking out the mockups seems to be pretty less complicated and i will give you some answers for it.
1) The best thing to do is make an app in popular cross platform frameworks better use html5 frameworks such a sencha touch,jquery mobile etc with phonegap. Look for developers in this category.
2)Changing the banner ads and coupons is simple.Just host that in your server,app will load those ads and banners whens it loads for the first time ,we can refresh the content later by periodic service calls
3) its a small scale project .Just building the app alone will take atmost 30 hours including creating for 3 platforms and excluding testing.
4) its always better to upload the apps their respecttive stores.Apple wont allow apps to sideload fro other sources.For getting listed on those stores you need to get developer licenses 100$ for apple store,25$ for google play store etc
5)Just be aware that the app should work on all ost of the devices ,gives timely updates etc
also you can track the number of downloads from the respective stores,also you can include some analaytic sdk like flurry etc to get the details like "how often people use the app and how long it's open on their phone for".
i am an Cross platform app developer.If you are interested we can talk in Pm. hope i helped
Hello all!
We inspired with other project and decided to completely sell our popular BitTorrent app (aTorrent) to somebody who want to care about and help to grow it.
Can you recommend on what websites we can post about the sale (for now we published at sellmyapplication.com only).
Few words about our project:
aTorrent - one of most popular BitTorrent app for Android looking for new owner.
Stable and modern. Supports phones, tablets, TVs, ARM, x86, Android 4.1 and up.
Translated to more than 30 languages.
> 13'500'000 total installs
+4'000-5'000 daily installs
> 1'500'000 device installs and growing daily
> 1'350'000 users and growing daily
> 700'000 active devices installs
We are inspired with other project and can not give enough time and attention to our aTorrent, so we are looking somebody who can care about it and help it to grow.
We have partially completed plan to dramatically improve revenue by In-App sales of VPN subscription to protect IP user address and bypass provider's restrictions. We already implemented Open VPN client inside aTorrent. You just need to connect In-App subscriptions with VPN user settings of some VPN service.
If you have VPN business (or friends who own one) then it is huge opportunity for you to have direct access to more than million of potential VPN customers!
Most popular in USA, South Korea and Russia.
Sale includes:
aTorrent Free Google Play account
aTorrent PRO Google Play account
Source codes of both Free and PRO
Ad Network accounts
Web Domains
Facebook page
Strategic improving recommendations
*Monthly revenue = Free version Ad + Free version in-app purchases + PRO version purchases