

TestFlight Owner Burstly Acquired By Apple - coloneltcb
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/rumor-testflight-owner-burstly-is-being-acquired-by-apple/

======
novum
Bummer...but also exciting, since Adhoc/Beta distributions and access could be
massively improved by being handled first-party by Apple. Maybe now it will
be!

I've long been using TF for adhoc beta distributions of my iOS apps. Looks
like there are only two options left for that:

    
    
        * Hockeyapp, starting at $10/month
        * Host your own IPA on S3 or elsewhere. 
    

The downside with the latter is where TF added value: per-build access
settings, notifications, teams, and feedback. You'll have to approximate this
now by mucking with which devices are listed in your provisioning profile.

I open-sourced my iOS build script recently. It'll take care of everything for
you -- downloads your provisioning profile from Apple's dev center, builds,
codesigns, archives, and uploads to S3.
[https://github.com/splinesoft/SSBuild](https://github.com/splinesoft/SSBuild)

~~~
MProgrammer
There's a third option: Continue to use TestFlight. There's no indication that
they are going away.

~~~
novum
They already have gone away for Android. On iOS, it looks like they won't
allow new apps to be created but existing apps may continue to upload new
builds.

~~~
MProgrammer
I don't see how TF removing Android support has anything to do with them going
away. I just this moment created a new TF app for iOS and got a new app
token/etc. Where are you seeing this "won't allow new apps to be created"?

~~~
novum
Hard to say. Sounds like you have until 2/26, at which point something(?)
happens:
[http://help.testflightapp.com/customer/portal/articles/14527...](http://help.testflightapp.com/customer/portal/articles/1452760)

~~~
MProgrammer
It says on that page what happens; they'll stop accepting builds with old
SDKs, or if you haven't used the SDK before. It doesn't say at all that they
will be closing their service, or not accepting builds at all. Just looks like
they are deprecating their SDK.

Incorporating the SDK has always been optional.

------
k-mcgrady
This could be great if Apple really improves distribution of adhoc builds but
I wouldn't hold my breath. After 5 years iTunes Connect still sucks. The
dropping of Android support is annoying as I use TestFlight to distribute iOS
and Android apps and it made things so much smoother, especially when working
with non-technical people.

------
LordIllidan
First time I've heard about it too...and I found Testflight invaluable for
sending betas to customers, the experience for both developers and end users
was second to none.

Damn, I really hope Apple doesn't screw it up. But if they can integrate it
into their iTunes connect platform, I'll be a happy developer.

------
kclay
So that explains why they dropped android support.

~~~
mikeevans
Android now has first party testing support via the Play Store. I'd imagine
it's hard to compete with that.

~~~
ben1040
It's great for distributing to wider group of external beta users but sucks
for internal testing, especially if you want an API that can be used by a CI
system.

At my workplace we use TestFlight integrated with Jenkins. We commit to the
repo, Jenkins builds the APK, and submits to TestFlight. Then our QA team can
pull the latest build onto their device and test, and we get crash reports if
things go south. That tight loop is not as easy with the Play beta testing.

~~~
smtddr
My workplace is __exactly__ the same.

Bummer about Android Support. But on the flip side, installing apks outside of
PlayStore is actually very easy on Android. Compared to the provisioning-
profile stuff involved with iOS.

I guess I'm about to write a small in-house nightly web-server that just has
APK urls for download & install.

------
ctdonath
Also resolves the FAQ question about how they expected to make any money when
not charging anyone for such a useful service.

------
michaelmior
If anyone happens to be interested, I have a PoC OTA deployment solution I
built when I got tired of being asked for regular app builds. It's a Web
service designed to run on a Mac and pull from a GitHub repository, run
xcodebuild, package the IPA, and let you install it on your device.

I abandoded this because I longer have access to a Mac since I stopped iOS
development a while ago, but ping me if you're interested and you want to try
to get it to work. It doesn't come close to the features of something like
TestFlight, but was designed for in-house use by a team who needs access to
bleeding edge builds without developer intervention.

~~~
alecsmart1
Can you email me. I can't find any info of yours online. Would love to use
your solution.

~~~
michaelmior
Odd. I'm the only person with my name who comes up when I search on Google and
my email address is on several of the links on the first page, including my
GitHub profile.

------
dirkdk
OK, my main question to Apple is still, please get rid of the 100 device
limit, such a pain that Testflight or any other service didn't have a
workaround for. Enterprise licenses is still an uncertain thing to do

~~~
LordIllidan
Agreed, and you can't even revoke them, they need to be active for a year.

------
siavosh
Wow, interesting news--hopefully for the better. Testflight really made adhoc
distribution not completely insane. Excited to see if the partnership with
Apple will make it even smoother.

------
eddieroger
Wow, if these comments have taught me anything, it's that there are more OTA
installer services than people who will miss TestFlight. Maybe I should even
open source mine.

------
pirateking
I wrote my own simple set of shell and ruby scripts (based around xcodebuild)
that have helped me automate deployment back since the iOS 3 or 4 days. With
some upgrades, they still work perfectly well with iOS 7.

I remember trying TestFlight when they first launched, and going back to my
own deploy script instead. Hopefully, this acquisition means an integrated
"Deploy" Xcode Action (or maybe even a Bot now?) and easier device
registration / removal.

------
BenSS
Funny that I tweeted @ the author this morning since they've written about
TestFlight before, wondering if they knew what was up. One way to get an
answer when the company isn't talking!

I hope Apple keeps the essentials here, and integrates it with iTunes Connect.
They seem to be more interested lately in making it useful!

------
Aqua_Geek
Somehow I don't really see Apple integrating TestFlight into the iTunes
Connect mess of an ecosystem.

~~~
joeld42
maybe they'll integrate itc into testflight instead. :)

------
mvelie
It could also be that apple wanted the other part of Burstly which did
advertising, to help support their iAd platform.

------
sidcool
I sometimes wonder if all these acquisitions are done out of paranoia rather
than business shrewdness.

------
elwell
Ok fine. Just don't buy PhoneGap.

~~~
MBCook
Non-native apps? I think that's about the last thing Apple would do right now.
I'd bet they'd acquire Tesla and shut the company down only keeping their
battery technology before they bought PhoneGap.

