What are the options for desktop application metrics collection in 2013?
I know of Usermetrix and Deskmetrix, but surely they can't be the only ones? If you look at mobile analytics services the market seems to be a lot more developed.
Specifically I am looking for usage analysis (stuff like retention, crash reports, custom event reporting, version tracking.
EDIT: I should note that I'm aware of the similar questions but they're a few years old and was hoping to get an up to date picture, especially since the advent of the Mac App Store.
You should check out Trackerbird Software Analytics.
SDK is available for .NET/C++/Python and Mac OS X. Integration takes just a few minutes and apart from basic installation/usage tracking you can also use it for in-app marketing and conversion analysis.
Disclaimer: I am affiliated with the company.
While Deskmetrix seems quite nice, I ended up using Tapstream because it's free and Deskmetrix is pretty expensive.
Since Tapstream's main focus is evaluating advertisement campaigns its analytics feature is rather poor (compared to Flurry for instance). However, they allow custom event tracking.
When developing Mils, it was of great help that Tapstream supports both Mac OS X and Windows 8.
I've been successfully using Mixpanel (which has a free tier): they don't have an official Mac SDK (iOS only) but I've written a simple Obj-C wrapper for their APIs: https://github.com/swisspol/MixpanelTracker
Related
I notice that desktop support isn't mentioned in NativeScript's future roadmap any more.
Has this been dropped for good, or is it still on the cards?
If it is still on the cards, for when is it planned?
NativeScript under Progress ownership
While NativeScript was owned by Progress, desktop support was never a priority; developer surveys did not show strong enough demand for it, and the NativeScript Core team were stretched too thinly to tackle it as a curiosity.
Of interest, before the death of Windows Phone, NativeScript did get very far on implementing a Universal Windows Platform runtime for NativeScript: https://github.com/NativeScript/windows-runtime
The NativeScript iOS runtime (https://github.com/NativeScript/ios-runtime for JSC, https://github.com/NativeScript/ns-v8ios-runtime for V8) is also close to delivering Catalyst support, although it's essentially undocumented for now.
I spoke with the NativeScript iOS runtime team and they said it would be pretty trivial to generate JS bindings to macOS (AppKit/Cocoa), too – though one would still have to implement all the UI components as AppKit ones, so it would only be the start of the journey.
Unofficial support
Kamen Bundev (on the Progress/Telerik NativeScript team) has been building a Qt-based desktop implementation of NativeScript as a hobby project for a long time:
https://github.com/bundyo/nativescript-platform-desktop
It has access to Node.js's APIs rather than, say, the Obj-C runtime on macOS, however.
NativeScript under nStudio ownership
NativeScript was recently handed over to nStudio, who may have a different stance. This question did in fact receive an official answer recently on Twitter:
They have also expressed love for the idea of creating Windows 10 apps with it (the tweet links to this issue, https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript/issues/8643):
My personal speculation
Note that I do not work for nStudio, and the dust is still settling after the NativeScript handover, so everything from here is just speculation:
So I think there's no question that the passion is there – the real question is whether they have the resources to back it. I personally think that there won't be any movement on it anytime soon, as nStudio need at least a few months just to get used to driving the NativeScript ecosystem and sorting out the long-standing open-source frictions. I think that they'd absolutely welcome a community-driven effort on this, of course. I imagine that by 2021 they'll feel more ready to take on projects of that scale.
Maybe I have't looked hard enough, but I spent yesterday googling for a bit and found no relevant projects on hacking the DJI Phantom Drone in order to create new coordinating apps. This is besides the app for coordination DJI currently uses for their drone. I'm trying to see if there's a way to communicate with the Drone with a specific protocol in order to accept a set of procedures.
Any help would be awesome,
Thanks.
Great News for you and all us Droneys! DJI has launched their SDK since you asked this question. They released it last November and you can now apply for a license and write your own apps for the Phantom2 Vision+ using their SDK.
Check it out at https://developer.dji.com/
I am already building a project using the SDK - you can follow my progress on my blog / product site. I will also try to update it with good DJI related development links and tips.
This post is old but I think it is good to leave a foot print for others :)
There is this new company called NVdrones, which created a peace of hardware that you can attach to any drone (you need physical access to the flight controller), and once you do that you can use their SDK (Arduino, Java, Android and Javascript) to write your app without the need of hacking, soldering or anything else. It is just plug and play.
Another benefit is that you are not locked with a specific drone (DJI SDK or 3DRobotics SDK), you can use the board on anything you want. Which gives lots of flexibility.
The developer site is http://developers.NVdrones.com
Hope this helps.
This is a great topic!
You could check how to hack your copter here: https://github.com/flyver/Flyver-SDK/wiki/-2.2--How-To:-Flyver-Hack-a-Copter
By opening the drone, taking out the original controller, soldering a few wires and sticking an Android phone to it, you will have the ability to program your Phantom in a modern manner with an open source SDK and application based development. This means that you could add computer vision to it, automation or additional hardware. You could also use smartphones, web and other interactive devices for remote controlling the copter instead of using the standard remote controls.
The Phantom, however, is offcenter balanced due to the fact that most people use gimbal with it. Without the gimbal is a lot less stable from my experiments so you will have to put some extra work in center balancing it.
I have some knowledge of basic PHP developing however right now I am thinking about developing a phone app. I do however have a bit of a conundrum in that I love WP7 and I have so many ideas for features which can't be done on iOS and Android, however at the same time I am completely aware that my target users (filmmakers) generally have iOS or android phones.
Is there a way I can develop the app, which I will get a developer to do rather than myself, with WP7 as the lead platform and then make a relatively simple conversion to the other platforms or do apps generally have to be completely reworked for each platform?
Also, just to though it out there, any idea of where to go to find a freelance app developer?
Thanks
James
I think you have a few options, but the first question I would have is: where comes the data from. Are you the owner of the data, and do you already have a datasource from where you can get the data from? If not I would suggest take some time to write a decent 'backend' from which the different platforms easily can get the data from.
Also all different platforms have their own pro/cons which you cannot share that easily. If you build a WP7 app in silverlight/xna, you cannot directly port it to a ios/android variant, also functionality will probably look/react different. You will need different solutions foreach platform with this approach.
Another option would be to use an platform like phonegap which can create a solution that will work on multiple platforms. (It uses HTML5 to get it work on the different platforms)
Build your app on iOS and android first, and when you have an app to base WP7 development then contact a developer that has made similar apps to yours.
Apple has a corporate developer program with an elevated licensing cost, does Microsoft provide such a service for Windows Phone 7 developers?
This was asked at a recent MS event. You can assign (I think 5) phones to developer unlock them, then load application directly/bypass the marketplace.
Also, there were talks that they are hoping to soon allow beta/redemption codes to allow limited deployment of your application to non-unlocked phones, bypassing testing/marketplace acceptance.... But I do not know the status of this.
The best thing you can do at the moment is develop your application as normal and have a password/login screen at startup. This is a horrible approach, but it does work.
At the moment, the phone is very much targeted towards consumers.
I'm not sure what is provided in the Apple Enterprise version, but so far Microsoft only has the one registration process and no private app distribution: you can distribute apps on the market to everyone, or by giving your xap file to people with dev-unlocked phones, nothing in between.
The official line is NO, not yet.
Windows Phone 7 was created, first and foremost, for consumers, not enterprise customers.
That being said, LOTS of people are asking for this and Microsoft have said they will address this in the future. No timescales or details have yet been announced yet.
This will likely be related to the way that beta testing and home brew distribution are implemented. (Just my assumption.)
I don't know why I can't just comment on another answer in this thread, so my apologies for placing these remarks in an answer.
I think MS needs to really make this happen since it could be the saving grace for WP7. While I personally feel that my experience with WP7 and my Samsung Focus have been just as good or better than that with the second-gen iPod Touch that I have, there are a lot of people who aren't convinced. For better or worse, it really is the ecosystem that matters and MS has that within the corporate world.
What Windows Phone 7 demo/reference applications have you seen which really made you interested in developing for the platform?
I know of Scott Gu's Twitter example and Foursquare. Also see here for MIX10 demo apps.
Other than developing games and re-creating functionality already present on other mobile platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android), is there any good reference material and business benefits of developing for Windows Phone 7? Does the Silverlight dev environment really offer an advantage over what is already out there? My gut feeling is that this is definitely the case, but it will take some time for the platform to establish itself, if it does.
You can find a lot of examples and reference applications here www.reddit.com/r/wp7dev/ or search using the hashtag #wp7dev on twitter (full disclosure - some of my examples appear there).
There a examples of what people are openly working on, but one can assume it is a lot more - hopefully this is useful, as it shows what can be done, or is being done on the platform.
As a novice developer, other phone platforms came with a lot of overhead required to build even the simplest application. The fact that XNA will be available for game development is a huge thing for me, it means I can create simple games for me and my friends without having to spend time learning a new language or setting up awkward SDK's and deployment settings.
More advanced developers may scoff at that, but development tools that are already being used that can work right out of the box for the intended platform is important for the hobbyists. I think this will open up a huge arena for homemade games and apps just like XNA did for 360 development.
It should also help sales. I will buy a Windows 7 phone because of this, and I can imagine others will do the same. As it stands, I am going to port my existing XNA games over so I can play them on the go. It will be cool to show people at the office, airport, etc. projects I have made right on the spot, and even give them the option to play if they have the right hardware.