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Having a custom sync server and a custom font are both surprising decisions to me. I suppose they both have to do with a certain design quality they wanted with

by allenu 10y ago

Having a custom sync server and a custom font are both surprising decisions to me. I suppose they both have to do with a certain design quality they wanted with the app. I'm not that familiar with the features of the app, but the reason I question the former is that the Day One journaling app has had a great sync model that uses Dropbox from the get-go. No custom server needed. For simple notes, it seems trivial to be able to piggyback on an existing file service like that. (I do note that their comments mention wanting to use iCloud but it not having everything they needed.) For fun, I'm writing my own task management app and I made sure to avoid my own cloud service just because I know I didn't want to pay or maintain it. The custom font decision is also interesting. They must've been fairly certain of their profitability level to go down that route.

oarsinsync 10y ago
> the Day One journaling app has had a great sync model that uses Dropbox from the get-go. No custom server needed. Agreed. Unfortunately, they're not the best example as they then withdrew the "Classic" app from all stores, and released a new app that forces to use their custom sync servers. They also include really misleading text about the nature of the encryption being used, and whether or not they can read your data. http://help.dayoneapp.com/day-one-sync-faq/ http://help.dayoneapp.com/day-one-sync-faq/ > In its currently available form, Day One Sync encrypts the data “at rest” on our servers and securely transfers the data from our servers to the Day One app (the same level of security that Dropbox and iCloud provide). Following our 2.0 release, our 2.1 update will provide full end-to-end encryption. Our encryption features will utilize the user’s private key to encrypt all entries before they reach the server. In short, the server will have no access to the user’s unencrypted data. Neither iCloud nor Dropbox currently provide this level of security (see: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 and https://www.dropbox.com/help/28 https://www.dropbox.com/help/28, respectively), thus making Day One Sync even more secure than these other sync/backup methods. Translation: We currently encrypt your data after you send it to us, so we can read it. We may offer pre-transmission local encryption in future, and only for our own service, and this makes our service superior to the alternatives that we could (but have chosen not to) offer this level of encryption for too. So yeah, they're a terrible example to use, unfortunately. Their original app was beautiful too. I didn't get around to buying the Mac app before they withdrew it, so my options are either manually extract my data, or risk giving them a copy (and pay them for the privilege). Massively disappointed in Day One.
- deleted 10y ago
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BooneJS 10y ago
Double-edged sword. 1. Running your own sync service [can be, is] expensive. 2. Relying on [Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.com, Amazon Cloud Drive] is less expensive but devastating if they vanish. So many iOS developers jumped on Dropbox that when iCloud Drive finally appeared it had a lukewarm response. Dropbox has been in startup mode since 2007, with plans to IPO, but what if Amazon/Microsoft/Google were to have killed it?
- allenu 10y ago
  Good point about it being a double-edged sword, but I think strategically it's better to rely on an existing service (allow use of multiple services to diversify the risk). If the services disappear, yes, you're a bit SOL but I'd deal with that when it happens. Better to get something working first and get customers and not worry about running a sync service. This is all under the assumption that your app doesn't require something beyond basic file sync, of course.

by allenu 10y ago

oarsinsync 10y ago

> the Day One journaling app has had a great sync model that uses Dropbox from the get-go. No custom server needed. Agreed. Unfortunately, they're not the best example as they then withdrew the "Classic" app from all stores, and released a new app that forces to use their custom sync servers. They also include really misleading text about the nature of the encryption being used, and whether or not they can read your data. http://help.dayoneapp.com/day-one-sync-faq/ http://help.dayoneapp.com/day-one-sync-faq/ > In its currently available form, Day One Sync encrypts the data “at rest” on our servers and securely transfers the data from our servers to the Day One app (the same level of security that Dropbox and iCloud provide). Following our 2.0 release, our 2.1 update will provide full end-to-end encryption. Our encryption features will utilize the user’s private key to encrypt all entries before they reach the server. In short, the server will have no access to the user’s unencrypted data. Neither iCloud nor Dropbox currently provide this level of security (see: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 and https://www.dropbox.com/help/28 https://www.dropbox.com/help/28, respectively), thus making Day One Sync even more secure than these other sync/backup methods. Translation: We currently encrypt your data after you send it to us, so we can read it. We may offer pre-transmission local encryption in future, and only for our own service, and this makes our service superior to the alternatives that we could (but have chosen not to) offer this level of encryption for too. So yeah, they're a terrible example to use, unfortunately. Their original app was beautiful too. I didn't get around to buying the Mac app before they withdrew it, so my options are either manually extract my data, or risk giving them a copy (and pay them for the privilege). Massively disappointed in Day One.

deleted 10y ago
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BooneJS 10y ago

Double-edged sword. 1. Running your own sync service [can be, is] expensive. 2. Relying on [Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.com, Amazon Cloud Drive] is less expensive but devastating if they vanish. So many iOS developers jumped on Dropbox that when iCloud Drive finally appeared it had a lukewarm response. Dropbox has been in startup mode since 2007, with plans to IPO, but what if Amazon/Microsoft/Google were to have killed it?

allenu 10y ago
Good point about it being a double-edged sword, but I think strategically it's better to rely on an existing service (allow use of multiple services to diversify the risk). If the services disappear, yes, you're a bit SOL but I'd deal with that when it happens. Better to get something working first and get customers and not worry about running a sync service. This is all under the assumption that your app doesn't require something beyond basic file sync, of course.