

Flurry Notices Cupertino-based Users Testing Apps on Apple Tablet - cwilson
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/01/24/breaking-flurry-notices-cupertino-based-users-testing-apps-on-apple-tablet/

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ryanwaggoner
There's something weird about this report. The only actual detail that they
shared regarding it being different from an iPhone was that it's running OS
3.2. How do they know it's not the next-generation iPhone? Or even just the
current 3G S being tested with the next version of the OS? And if they have
other info, like screen resolution, memory, CPU, camera resolution, etc, why
aren't they sharing it?

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mrshoe
From Peter Farago, Flurry's VP of Marketing, in the blog comments:

 _This is a fair question. We feel confident that we are looking at the tablet
device for two main reasons, that I can share with you. Also note that, as a
company, we have experience tracking new Apple hardware devices in the past.

1) If this were an iPhone we were looking at, the hardware would tell us when
we ask it (via the software). So we can rule out that this is an iPhone. Also,
we already see verified iPhone devices testing OS 4.0 and these leave (Apple's
Cupertino, CA) campus, whereas this device does not. This makes sense given
the secrecy around the new tablet device as the launch event nears.

2) The apps being tested match up to what the devices is supposed to feature
(e.g., news, books, etc.). We cannot share further detail here due to Terms of
Service agreements we have with customers that use our service, but feel that
if you were able to see the data we see, at the level of granularity, it would
be clear to you as well.

Of course the truth will be revealed on Wednesday, but we wouldn't publish
such a report without a high level of confidence.

Flurry is not interested in building a business on rumor, but rather
authority, credibility and accuracy._

Point (2) seems less than rock solid, but (1) lends a bit of credence,
especially since they've already seen iPhone OS 4.0 devices. It could just be
that they're doing less testing of apps on 3.2 iPhones, however.

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greendestiny
I really thought it would be unlikely that Apple would let iPhone Apps run
unmodified on the tablet, its going to have a larger screen and resolution -
that just sounds like a recipe for ugliness especially for games.

~~~
ugh
Little app windows?

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greendestiny
Maybe, I don't think that would be easy from a graphics chip point of view.

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pmjordan
Actually, given that Cocoa Touch is all just drawn to textures which are
rendered by the 3D chip, it's trivial.

Not sure about apps that directly use 3D, but in the worst case they can draw
to a restricted viewport.

In light of this, even scaling should be pretty straightforward considering
Apple's iron grip on the APIs.

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Groxx
This makes me want to change my browser's user agent string to something that
includes "Apple Tablet". Just to screw with companies / bloggers like this.

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MaysonL
Orignal source: <http://blog.flurry.com/>

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cwilson
What I'm wondering is, what is it that's telling them these analytics are from
a new device?

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blasdel
Flurry provides a phone-home library that gets linked into your application.

Apple seems to have been careful to avoid press over a new User-Agent showing
up in logs, but I guess they didn't bother spoofing syscalls or using an app
firewall.

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tptacek
Is the idea here that Apple has _just now_ started testing the new product
with actual iPhone apps?

If the idea of the new product is that it runs iPhone apps, it would have been
doing so in the shop for many, many months now.

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DenisM
Might have been their own test suites in the first stages. Besides we don't
know if they are going to actually ship the product or only announce it.

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csmeder
So does this mean the Apple Tablet is basically an iPhone the size of a
kindle?

.

Doesn't this mean it's capabilities will be about the same as an iPhone? Or is
it that a slightly bigger screen does make a huge difference?

~~~
cmelbye
I think the idea is that "iPhone OS 3.2" will provide interface changes that
will make it more usable on a larger screen. As the article says, no one would
want a 15x15 grid of icons.

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timvanloan
Fascinating- it'll be interesting to see if this story pans out to be true-
and how Apple will use/avoid Flurry for future product launches.

