5 ms·

That part of the post-mortem is inaccurate. I was looking recently for a solution to display a status board for a small business on an HDTV. 40" TVs can be fou

by copperx 10y ago

That part of the post-mortem is inaccurate. I was looking recently for a solution to display a status board for a small business on an HDTV. 40" TVs can be found for $180 (you don't have to spend $3000 to have something useful), a mount is $20, and the app is $10. You've got most of the components for $210, but then you have to stomach the $200-400 to buy an iPad which will sit unused taped behind the TV just to display the status board. Not to mention you have to secure it to prevent theft if the TV is on a high traffic area. The idea that you have to sacrifice an iPad doesn't feel right to me, even though you could get an Apple TV for roughly the same price (< $150), but the Apple TV would provide more functionality (e.g., the Apple TV could be used as an impromptu projector through AirPlay). They chose the wrong platform for the app. They should have developed it for the Apple TV.

voltagex_ 10y ago
https://panic.com/blog/the-future-of-status-board/#comment-627326 https://panic.com/blog/the-future-of-status-board/#comment-6... is why it wasn't ported to Apple TV.
- CameronBanga 10y ago
  Apple TV doesn't support WebKit, which I bet is pretty important in Status Board.
- rbritton 10y ago
  It could be ported if the potential revenue was high enough, even if it meant rewriting the functionality that used WebKit to use something else. Instead, I think it was more likely the state of the App Stores themselves. The tvOS App Store market is even worse off than the macOS one, and I doubt they would have recovered even a small percentage of the cost of development had they chosen to pursue it.
toomuchtodo 10y ago
They should've sold HDMI dongles (think Chromecast or Roku), with the app baked in, for ~$100. Its easy to monday morning quarterback though; This idea could've failed as well.
- hrktb 10y ago
  Basically a Raspberry Pi zero ?
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Basically, but turnkey. Just like I'd pay twice as much for a Chromecast before I'd ever consider spending a moment of time on a Raspberry Pi.
    - chei0iaV 10y ago
      So a Raspberry Pi in a case with a pre-inserted sdcard running the app? :)
      - marcosdumay 10y ago
        Yes. For $500 (not $100). make it a pretty case, and be sure to include a charger.
- pryelluw 10y ago
  I currently do that for in-store displays. Its easy to setup because you can do a nice GUI with a powerful enough board and habe access through SSH if required. I sell it to small businesses as a turn key solution (just add a tv) for less than four hundred dollars. Most have enjoyed good success with it because it allows automatic upsells. Ive yet to use one as a status board but I might give it a try.
  - corobo 10y ago
    There's definitely the market for it, it was part of a job I had in a previous life. (Almost) every company has an IT department and they and their managers like to see cool status displays. It's a pretty easy sell.
    - pryelluw 10y ago
bhaak 10y ago
I agree that they chose the wrong platfrom. They couldn't port it to to Apple TV because there Apple dropped WebKit from tvOS. So they not only chose the wrong platform but also the wrong programming environment for that product. I didn't even suspect that the panic board was iOS based, that sounds so obviously the wrong choice I can't even image how they originally came up with that choice. Of course, if the board would have worked as OSX application (in fullscreen mode or also as webserver serving the board as HTML), you would still need a pricey piece of Apple hardware to run it. Relying on Apple hardware for a product will likely fuck you over sooner or later but I can see that as a company that only does Apple targeted products, they were either too myopic to chose something else or (IMO more likely) they didn't have the resources or skills to do it otherwise.
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  > Relying on Apple hardware for a product will likely fuck you over sooner or later The company I work for feels exactly the opposite, we develop a SAAS POS solution that only runs on iPad. It's a lot easier, because we have a consistent environment, everyone runs almost the same hardware, and the same OS version, unlike Android, where everyone runs different versions of android and different hardware. Relying on Apple may fuck us over in the future, but Android would be fucking us from the start.
  - egeozcan 10y ago
    > Relying on Apple may fuck us over in the future, but Android would be fucking us from the start. Sometimes having it tough from the start is good, especially if it forces you to build something more flexible. Not so good if you go on a crusade to fix every edge case specifically. I'm speaking generally and definitely not "defending" Android here, as the platform does need too much edge-case-fixing which is usually overwhelming for small shops.
    - reitoei 10y ago
      > the platform does need too much edge-case-fixing which is usually overwhelming for small shops Do you mean that by simply choosing Android as a platform, you're automatically incurring a ton of technical debt?
reitoei 10y ago
Should have developed it to run on a $10 Chinese HDMI Android dongle and sold it as a plug-and-play "dashboard in a box" for $300 a pop.
- rmc 10y ago
  Nothing stopping you doing that.
  - reitoei 10y ago
    Someone got in before me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061517 Agree with the sentiment, very easy to 'armchair quarterback' something like this.
- corobo 10y ago
  The market's definitely there. I used to work at a place that did that. http://xibo.org.uk/ http://xibo.org.uk/ was another player in the field, open source.
joshstrange 10y ago
> They chose the wrong platform for the app. They should have developed it for the Apple TV. They developed and released it years before the Apple TV even had 3rd party apps...
mikeash 10y ago
That part seems to be describing what some companies actually did, rather than describing the requirements. If they say companies would buy a $3,000 display, I imagine that's based on some of their customers saying they bought a $3,000 display for the app.
sharemywin 10y ago
why not a Raspberry Pi?
leejoramo 10y ago
For those saying they choose the wrong platform, beware of several facts: 1. They released the iOS version in April 2013, long before the Apple TV was open to apps. 2. As mentioned by other's, Panic built the iOS version using web views that are not available on Apple TV. 3. Status Board originated in 2010 as a web app that targeted a Samsung display with embedded Windows XP on which they loaded Google Chrome. I would not be surprised that Panic is moving their internal Status Board tool back an modernized version of what they used in 2010. If Panic felt there was money in it, they could certainly port Status Board to other platforms. Links about 2010 version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177227 https://panic.com/blog/the-panic-status-board/ https://panic.com/blog/the-panic-status-board/

by copperx 10y ago

voltagex_ 10y ago

https://panic.com/blog/the-future-of-status-board/#comment-627326 https://panic.com/blog/the-future-of-status-board/#comment-6... is why it wasn't ported to Apple TV.

CameronBanga 10y ago
Apple TV doesn't support WebKit, which I bet is pretty important in Status Board.
rbritton 10y ago
It could be ported if the potential revenue was high enough, even if it meant rewriting the functionality that used WebKit to use something else. Instead, I think it was more likely the state of the App Stores themselves. The tvOS App Store market is even worse off than the macOS one, and I doubt they would have recovered even a small percentage of the cost of development had they chosen to pursue it.

toomuchtodo 10y ago

They should've sold HDMI dongles (think Chromecast or Roku), with the app baked in, for ~$100. Its easy to monday morning quarterback though; This idea could've failed as well.

hrktb 10y ago
Basically a Raspberry Pi zero ?
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Basically, but turnkey. Just like I'd pay twice as much for a Chromecast before I'd ever consider spending a moment of time on a Raspberry Pi.
  - chei0iaV 10y ago
    So a Raspberry Pi in a case with a pre-inserted sdcard running the app? :)
    - marcosdumay 10y ago
      Yes. For $500 (not $100). make it a pretty case, and be sure to include a charger.
pryelluw 10y ago
I currently do that for in-store displays. Its easy to setup because you can do a nice GUI with a powerful enough board and habe access through SSH if required. I sell it to small businesses as a turn key solution (just add a tv) for less than four hundred dollars. Most have enjoyed good success with it because it allows automatic upsells. Ive yet to use one as a status board but I might give it a try.
- corobo 10y ago
  There's definitely the market for it, it was part of a job I had in a previous life. (Almost) every company has an IT department and they and their managers like to see cool status displays. It's a pretty easy sell.
  - pryelluw 10y ago

bhaak 10y ago

I agree that they chose the wrong platfrom. They couldn't port it to to Apple TV because there Apple dropped WebKit from tvOS. So they not only chose the wrong platform but also the wrong programming environment for that product. I didn't even suspect that the panic board was iOS based, that sounds so obviously the wrong choice I can't even image how they originally came up with that choice. Of course, if the board would have worked as OSX application (in fullscreen mode or also as webserver serving the board as HTML), you would still need a pricey piece of Apple hardware to run it. Relying on Apple hardware for a product will likely fuck you over sooner or later but I can see that as a company that only does Apple targeted products, they were either too myopic to chose something else or (IMO more likely) they didn't have the resources or skills to do it otherwise.

toomanybeersies 10y ago
> Relying on Apple hardware for a product will likely fuck you over sooner or later The company I work for feels exactly the opposite, we develop a SAAS POS solution that only runs on iPad. It's a lot easier, because we have a consistent environment, everyone runs almost the same hardware, and the same OS version, unlike Android, where everyone runs different versions of android and different hardware. Relying on Apple may fuck us over in the future, but Android would be fucking us from the start.
- egeozcan 10y ago
  > Relying on Apple may fuck us over in the future, but Android would be fucking us from the start. Sometimes having it tough from the start is good, especially if it forces you to build something more flexible. Not so good if you go on a crusade to fix every edge case specifically. I'm speaking generally and definitely not "defending" Android here, as the platform does need too much edge-case-fixing which is usually overwhelming for small shops.
  - reitoei 10y ago
    > the platform does need too much edge-case-fixing which is usually overwhelming for small shops Do you mean that by simply choosing Android as a platform, you're automatically incurring a ton of technical debt?

reitoei 10y ago

Should have developed it to run on a $10 Chinese HDMI Android dongle and sold it as a plug-and-play "dashboard in a box" for $300 a pop.

rmc 10y ago
Nothing stopping you doing that.
- reitoei 10y ago
  Someone got in before me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061517 Agree with the sentiment, very easy to 'armchair quarterback' something like this.
corobo 10y ago
The market's definitely there. I used to work at a place that did that. http://xibo.org.uk/ http://xibo.org.uk/ was another player in the field, open source.

joshstrange 10y ago

> They chose the wrong platform for the app. They should have developed it for the Apple TV. They developed and released it years before the Apple TV even had 3rd party apps...

mikeash 10y ago

That part seems to be describing what some companies actually did, rather than describing the requirements. If they say companies would buy a $3,000 display, I imagine that's based on some of their customers saying they bought a $3,000 display for the app.

sharemywin 10y ago

why not a Raspberry Pi?

leejoramo 10y ago

For those saying they choose the wrong platform, beware of several facts: 1. They released the iOS version in April 2013, long before the Apple TV was open to apps. 2. As mentioned by other's, Panic built the iOS version using web views that are not available on Apple TV. 3. Status Board originated in 2010 as a web app that targeted a Samsung display with embedded Windows XP on which they loaded Google Chrome. I would not be surprised that Panic is moving their internal Status Board tool back an modernized version of what they used in 2010. If Panic felt there was money in it, they could certainly port Status Board to other platforms. Links about 2010 version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177227 https://panic.com/blog/the-panic-status-board/ https://panic.com/blog/the-panic-status-board/