Developing App for iXpand Flash Drive required MFI Program? - ios

I am looking to develop my IOS application to communicate with iXpand Flash Drive using lighting port. I am going to use iXpand SDK for that. The flash drive is defined in public database of apple. Does this need me to have MFI Program to deploy the app on App Store?

I can answer it well as I have deal with the same case:
You need not to have MFI License, as you are not manufacturer of
iXpand Flash Drive Hardware.
The SDK does not communicate with WesternDigital to get any information.
In my case, Apple Does not have asked for MFI details for iXpand. You may just need to provide details harware details for using lighting port.
At last but not least, we cannot 100% sure about apple review process. They can accept / reject with any reason but here you have good chances to accept it if you have valid reason to us external hardware.

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iOS and mPOS Terminals - Contactless Payment

Everywhere i am reading that it is not possible to write data in iOS Swift or ObjectiveC via NFC. What about handling a contactless payment process? Is this even possible without using Apple Pay? If not is there any workaround which enables “NFC Writing” for iOS, because NfCCore doesnt provide it yet?
Apple keeps the NFC functionality closed, so only Apple Pay is allowed to function. Other than reading NDEF tags, no apps can use the phone's hardware either to work as an NFC reader (for example to top-up balance for a public transit contactless card) or to emulate a contactless card, either purely in software or using the phone's embedded secure element.
As far as I know (Apple as always does not say much), the latest iPhones' hardware is perfectly capable of doing all of the above, but some commercial decision resulted in keeping it unavailable for third party developers.
Looks like it will be possible with iOS 13: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc/creating_nfc_tags_from_your_iphone

How does TeenSafe iOS App Access Text Messages?

Today I saw a news feature on the TeenSafe app. They showed features such as locking out an iPhone and eavesdropping on the text messages sent by a phone. I understand how this might be possible on Android but how can this be done on a non-jailbreaked iPhone?
This is interesting, but it sounds kind of scary though knowing someone else is tracking your every move. Anyway, I read their website and I saw this:
How does TeenSafe work
TeenSafe Control uses Mobile Device Management (MDM) Protocol, similar to the way corporations secure devices used on their networks in order to protect their network from Internet threats. An MDM certificate is installed on your teen’s iPhone and paired with the TeenSafe Control App on your iPhone, giving you the power to control it remotely. TeenSafe Control’s proprietary method of incorporating MDM makes it difficult for your teenager to disable or remove it. In cases where they find a way, we will alert you via email.
You can look up on Mobile Device Management to find out more.
Ok, I found out here:
http://www.bewebsmart.com/parental-controls/monitor-imessage-with-teensafe/
Basically, you need your teen's iCloud username and password and iCloud backup has to be enabled for the device. So no special magic here and it's not perfect.

iOS app using non-standard cryptography

I'm trying to submit an app to the App Store, but I got stuck with this question
Does your app implement one or more encryption algorithms that are
proprietary or yet to be accepted as standard by international
standard bodies (such as, the IEEE, IETF, ITU, and so on)?
The only cryptography the app is using is for the api requests that go over https.
What is the correct answer (Yes/No) in my case?
See https://itunespartner.apple.com/en/apps/faq/Managing%20Your%20Apps_Trade%20Compliance and note that "just using https" would be covered under "An app uses or accesses only encryption algorithms provided in iOS or Mac OS for its security features".
So you would answer No to the specific question you are asking about.

iOS app review process: app requires external hardware (connecting over WiFi)

We've written an app for our clients that connects to external hardware over Wifi (hardware designed by our client). My question is, how do we go about submitting this for review? The software won't do very much without the hardware. Just to be clear, the hardware does not connect directly to the iPad with a cable, it connects over WiFi only.
I just want to get some clarity on what we need to do to get this app through the review process and into the App Store.
Any insight will be appreciated.
I'm one of the authors of StageMix for M7CL, LS9 and CL and it has exactly this issue - the hardware it works with is a somewhat expensive dongle ;)
We added disconnected demo mode where all of the application's UI works - only difference is that nothing is remote controlled. This has the added benefit of allowing customers to try the app out when the hardware isn't handy.
Apple has always been happy reviewing the demo mode and presumably never tested it connected.
I do suggest that the iTunes Store metadata for the App - and if possible the user interface - is very clear about the external hardware requirements
One of my recent updates to DAQ-app failed approval with a note that I needed to show a video of it working with the hardware.
My demo mode let them test some functionality, and the video showed the connectivity. I just hosted the video as a private video on YouTube, and it was accepted quickly after I submitted the video.
The next update was accepted with the same video and a note that there were only minor changes, and no changes to the connectivity.
I emailed Apple this week to ask what their current policy on this is, and they said we have to ship the hardware to them. They also said they can return it if needed, but that we'd have to ship the hardware to them again for every future app update too.
I had same experience. our App is
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jia-jia-yi/id497092682?mt=8.
This app also works with a device.
But we was lucky, apple did not ask us to support the hardware to them.
Hope you are lucky too.
:)
Apple required me to send in hardware
We recently submitted an app that required our hardware to be submitted too. The address it was asked to be shipped to is:
Apple, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop, M/S: 124-2APP
Cupertino, CA 95014
USA
It's probably best that you submit the app first and let it get stuck on that process so when you send it in, you can direct it to the proper person in charge. As for FCC, you need to fill out this form if shipping from outside US:
http://transition.fcc.gov/Forms/Form740/740.pdf
Other notes provided by Apple:
A separate FCC Form 740 must be used for each different radio-frequency device or component in the shipment; however, a form is not required for subassemblies, parts, or components of radio-frequency devices.
The form may be completed by the shipper or recipient, but if the form is not sent with the original shipping documents by the shipper, the shipment may be delayed in customs.
Ensure all serial and ID numbers are available as well as the name and address of the original manufacturer.
I hope that helps!

How to connect an iOS device to a custom USB device?

I'm developing a custom electronic device - think of it as a special kind of data logger, and I need to connect a computer to it to configure it and to extract the data.
I know I can do this without too much trouble on a PC, but I'd like to use an iOS device to do this.
Two questions:
Can I do this with a regular dock connector / USB cable? Will the EA framework let me do all the communicating?
Once I have extracted the data, what's the best way to get that out of the iPad? Make an email with it, save to a dropbox or something?
Thanks!
Afaik, you need to join the MFi program to make USB accessories for iPad/iPhone. That will give you all the technical resources needed.
As for data transfer there are only "opinions", I say the more options of sending, the better. Just don't force the user to choose more than once, then make it changeable in settings.
If you're doing very light communication, you might be able to get away with using the headphone jack.
Apps communicate to the headphone port through the various audio frameworks on iOS. AVFoundation is a high-level abstract framework to do various audio operations, but for fine-tuning the communication to a device over this interface, you will likely be using the C-language callback-based Audio Queue Services framework to do audio I/O.
This is nice because your device can be cross-platform (iOS, Android, Mac/PC) as long as you write the corresponding software, and because you don't need to go through Apple's MFi approval program. Think like the Square credit card scanner.
You will have to write the communication stack between the device and your iOS device but yes, you can.
there's very few docs about using the EA.framework. All the juicy parts are in the Mfi program but Apple is very strict about giving access to it.
So if you succeed, sharing a tuto will make you a EA hero ;)
About sharing your data, imho, email + CSV is a winning combo.
If you want to plug something into the dock connector, you want to have a look at https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/

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