I'm running BOINC on both my Windows machine (Win 8.0) and my iMac (Lion). I also have an iPad 2 and would like to know if BOINC has or might develop software for the iPad 2 (iOS 7 or later).

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Apple has locked down their app store too much, and charges a fee to list apps in their store. Until Apple changes their policies for applications like BOINC, it is unlikely that an app will be released for the iPad.

Is this still the case? How much of a fee? I am interested in kicking this off and taking care of the funding.

That said, hosting an app doesn't cost anything per my prior experience. Please elaborate? Thank you, Mark

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You may want to send a message to Dr. Eric Korpela. I think he will be able to tell you more.

You may also want to pass by https://developer.apple.com/programs/start/ios/ on what Apple considers requirements to produce and distribute applications via their App Store.

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Apple has locked down their app store too much, and charges a fee to list apps in their store. Until Apple changes their policies for applications like BOINC, it is unlikely that an app will be released for the iPad.

Not really that accurate.

It only costs 99$/year to develop on ios. If your app is free, that 99$/year IS ALL THAT YOU PAY APPLE

YOU ONLY pay additional money if your app costs something, then apple takes 30-40%

So I see no reason why the boinc client can't be coded for ios so people can use it to monitor boinc processes on PC, mac, linux, etc....

TBH, the ipad (even the ipad 5 - air) really lacks the cpu/gpu and memory to actually crunch boinc projects. I know the Ps3 was capable.. and technically the ipad 5 is more power in the CPU, GPU and double the ram of a ps3...so technically you COULD crunch.. but apple has STRICT background policies.. so crunching in ios would not be practical unless you left the client 100% foreground..

but .. the cost to put it on ios is next to nothing ... 99$ a year.. and with that you get ALL the dev tools you need to code for ios... all you need is a mac.. 99$/year.. and that's it..

I code free apps all the time.. I don't pay any "fees"

Now if I charge .99c for the BOINC client app, apple takes, I think 30%... so either make boinc free.. or charge 99c to cover the cost of porting it.. and who cares if apples takes 30%.. if 100,000 people download it.. (let's round).. that's 100,000$ minus 30K... and the boinc project ends up with 70K in funds to help further the project...

And since I have made 13 ios apps... both free and paid.. someone is going to have to show me a VERY compelling cost argument that putting something on the apple store is cost prohibitive

So sorry.. I gotta call BS on the reasoning here... It's a win / win be it a free or non free app.

I forwarded your question to Charlie Fenton, the BOINC developer for the Mac, he just answered me:

Hi Jord,

I don't think the cost is an issue. However, Apple has strict guidelines which apps must meet in order to be permitted in the App Store, and there is some question whether we can meet all those requirements. At least, it might take some work to modify BOINC to pass the tests, though I suspect that some of the same issues arose in the Android port.

For example:
> Apps that download other standalone apps will be rejected.


Cheers,
--Charlie

Which means that you can easily port BOINC to iOS, but then that BOINC should come with all the science applications for all the projects included, since the application is not allowed to download them from the project servers, due to the above restriction.

If you still call BS, then there's nothing standing in your way to go port BOINC and many of the project science applications to iOS and whichever CPU is required, since BOINC is Open Source, as are most project applications. Only requirement under the GNU Free Documentation License is that you have your source code available for download by others.

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If the goal is a BOINC GUI for iOS, and someone is willing to develop it, that's a no-brainer - BOINC would be happy to pay $99/year to put it on the Apple app store.

Porting the BOINC client as well as the GUI would be a bit more work, and we'd want to discuss it with Apple in advance. I'm fairly sure that, if their guidelines preclude downloading executables, they'd make an exception for BOINC. This probably isn't worth worrying about until the devices become more powerful.

-- David