3rd party iPhone, iPad and iOS app now available

[alistair]

All,

After almost a year long labour of love, my iPhone / iPad / iPod touch app for Vitamin D is now live in the App Store.

I wanted to provide an optimal mobile user experience, which requires transcoding the video VitaminD produces, together with some more advanced functionality like push notifications and full mobile access. As such, I also had to write an app that will need to run on your Mac alongside VitaminD to provide mobile services.

To offset the costs and considerable effort this took - I am charging for the app, but I'm providing a full 14 day trial before you pay anything. If you think there's something missing, or not behaving the way you'd like - please let me know, I'm keen to make this the perfect mobile addition to an awesome video analytics platform!

Useful links:

App Website (docs, download links etc): http://www.ivdv.net
Link to app in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ivdv/id617512124?mt=8
Link to server download: http://cloud.ivdv.net/insecure/iVDVServer.zip

I hope it's useful to a few of you!

Best,
-Alistair

[MrYellowDuck]

Since you've asked: I'm concerned about security here. The only solutions I will consider will not require connections to anything other than my equipment and my choice of providers of other services. I don't want to connect to your cloud for two reasons: I can't judge security and technically this is not needed for a solution in my situation (I have a dedicated server on a known static public ip address).

I get most of what you're offering already (I could be getting more actually - does your solution do #2 below):
1. I achieve push notification by having a dedicated icloud email account just for alarm alerts.
2. I get video alerts backed-up near instantly into the S3 cloud by FTP to my local server (so copying to a local directory on the same machine the software is running on) and then I use syncovery to encrypt and move data to Amazon.
3. I run a VPN server so that I can access my server from the internet and I find a remote-desktop application works fine for controlling VitaminD Video e.g. for cameras on/off and so forth.

All of my cameras sit on an ip range that is blocked from internet access - the only way in/out over the internet is over the VPN tunnel running on my server. All of these cameras want to connect to the cloud associated with the camera manufacturer but I don't allow this.

Your solution may well be fantastic - it's just for me it has to be bomb-proof in terms of security and that includes that all pathways to my cameras / video must be under my exclusive control.

I couldn't see what your solution costs either. I'd only be interested in a one-off payment - anything subscription based would not appeal to me. To me this seems like a $10 value.

[alistair]

Well.... after a year of coding in free time it's a tad disappointing that the very first public feedback anywhere is a "Your solution won't work for me because...." post, but that's the way life goes, I suppose

Firstly, the cloud service component is entirely optional. You don't need it to browse clips, playback video, explore rules etc etc. The cloud component was intended entirely to solve the main part of the problem you yourself described - that you need to have an overly configured VPN system to be able to interact with VitaminD remotely. Not everyone is that technical, and that wasn't the primary target demographic of the VitaminD software.

The cloud part does three things:

1. Processes inbound email from VitaminD, parses it into its composite components, and generates push notifications.
2. Provides a readily locatable endpoint for customers to connect back to their home machines (without VPN)
3. Provides a consolidated endpoint for encrypted inbound connections from home servers to satisfy #2.

I'm concerned about security too - which is why your video is not stored on the cloud server (entirely why I didn't want to provide video backup functionality). Video resides only on the VitaminD machine, is transcoded on the VitaminD machine, and moves through the cloud server only while the iOS device is connected remotely to it.

My end goal here was to build a solution that I, my friends, and other people who enjoy VitaminD "just working" could use to access video alerts and content without resorting to a Remote Desktop connection to a Mac somewhere. As a tech nerd myself (I'm not representing a big corporate entity here, this solution was all created from a bedroom in Seattle during my evenings and weekends) I considered supporting people with their own VPN endpoints, which may well still happen, but concluded that would be a small percentage of the overall audience for this sort of application (which isn't going to be large to begin with).

Either way - I appreciate the fact that you took the time to read the original post, and share details of the sort of solution that'd work for you

Best,
-Alistair

[ryan]

Hiya Alistair,

I tried registering an account, but it said something about not being able to connect to your server to complete the registration. I'd tell you exactly the error, but now when I hit the "Login or register" button it takes my browser to http://cloud.ivdv.net/insecure/registrationTerms.html (which has no forms or buttons) rather than an in app window.

[alistair]

Hey Ryan

That obviously shouldn't happen - a new one on me

Shoot me an email - support AT ivdv DOT net, and I'll work through it with you, if that's OK?

Best,
-Alistair

(Edit: I just uploaded an updated server version, 1.0.5, that'll hopefully force the web content to open inside the registration wizard. Hit the update button and let me know if that solves the problem)

[DLANDINO]

How do you get a user name and password for the app please?

Thanks in advance
Dave

[DLANDINO]

Can you please tell me how to get a password for the app? I have downloaded it to my iphone and it seems my email address is the user name. Thanks.

[ryan]

I was able to register an account with the new version, but when I try to select my computer in the iPhone app I get an unable to connect to location error. I'm on the road but can message you later if that is helpful.

[alistair]

I was able to register an account with the new version, but when I try to select my computer in the iPhone app I get an unable to connect to location error. I'm on the road but can message you later if that is helpful.

Hey Ryan,

I made a couple of small updates to the server code this morning, it's up to 1.0.6. This message shows up if your Mac has lost its connection to the cloud reflector service.
1.0.6 adds a feature that checks for a valid cloud connection and reconnects automatically if it's been lost. That should, hopefully, solve the problem.

Let me know?

Best,
-Alistair

[alistair]

Can you please tell me how to get a password for the app? I have downloaded it to my iphone and it seems my email address is the user name. Thanks.

I should probably add some more UI to explain that

Once you've got the app installed on your Mac, click the camera icon on your toolbar, and choose "Login or Register" then follow the wizard to create yourself an account.

Best,
-Alistair