

AWS Device Farm adds support for iOS - impostervt
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2015/08/aws-device-farm-adds-support-for-ios-test-your-ios-android-and-fire-os-apps-against-real-devices-in-the-aws-cloud/

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AndrewKemendo
We found it hard to find reliable testers for iOS without building your own
team or doing it all on your own devices. Maybe Amazon will come through, but
we'll see.

I'd love to see a service where one super tech just tries to break your
application on every supported device for a couple hours. A room full of
toddlers might also work.

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i336_
I think it would be a truly viable startup idea to connect app developers with
"naive" people - soccer moms who simply haven't got the time to learn tech
properly, 70-year-olds who've never used a smartphone, 3 year olds, etc.

Being able to get your website or app (or even good ol' desktop program!)
tested by people who have <specific metric> exposure to <granular list of
options> wrt. technology would be invaluable, I think.

I consider it sad that this either doesn't exist, or isn't yet a standard part
of the common consciousness/culture.

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didgeoridoo
Applause.com does this kind of "in the wild testing" with testers of all
levels of expertise. Definitely worth checking out.

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JDeArte
We created an Android AND iOS farm for automated game testing. You don't need
to root iOS to get it done - it's just a PITA to do it right. You end up
needing an attached Mac running XCode to send commands & you can't use the
internet connection through the wire so we set up a local secure wifi network.

The only devices we had to "root" (aka put in developer mode) were some
android devices that wouldn't allow us to change the HOSTS file otherwise ;-)

I'm glad that AWS is now offering this type of service, I can't wait to try it
out.

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i336_
This is admittedly definitely the kind of thing I'd love to see a "making of"
about.

Actual real devices?! I would _really_ like to get a bit of a behind-the-
scenes on how they managed _that_. :P

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gruez
Did they work with apple to create a custom version of iOS to integrate with
amazon's service, or did amazon jailbreak the devices and installed their own
hooks?

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NateLawson
More importantly, what do they do to keep users from jailbreaking the device
via software? Especially with Android, there are a lot of software root flaws
and the privileged surface area is a lot bigger than the hypervisor AWS uses
for EC2.

The summary makes it sound like they only wipe your app from the device, not
reinstall the OS between users.

~~~
jakozaur
I believe it doesn't matter for 95%+ of users.

EC2 is used to run production services with sensitive data.

Most Android/iOS testing is done with made up data, without privileged access
to production. So even if it get compromised, it probably not much different
from installing an app on jailbreaked device be end user.

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srikz
It says first 250 device minutes free. How much does it cost after that? There
doesn't seem to be a direct link to the pricing page.

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itsmeduncan
"Pricing is based on device minutes, which are determined by the duration of
tests on each selected device. AWS Device Farm comes with a free trial of 250
device minutes. After that, customers are charged $0.17 per device minute. As
your testing needs grow, you can opt for an unmetered testing plan, which
allows unlimited testing for a flat monthly fee of $250 per device."

From the FAQ[1] which albeit was a bit buried.

edit: It is also at the bottom of the landing page now.

1: [https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/faq/](https://aws.amazon.com/device-
farm/faq/)

~~~
sandis
> a flat monthly fee of $250 per device.

That's a bit steep? You could recoup any iOS device in <= 3 months.

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bitmapbrother
I believe Google already provides this service to its developers for free.

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sinatra
Wait, Google doesn't support iOS devices (whereas, this announcement is
specifically about iOS), right?

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bitmapbrother
For Android devices only.

