DeviceAnywhere Rocks
Update: Feb 8, 2008: See Justifying DeviceAnywhere – On cost structure, application types and applicability.
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Update: 8/18/07: Let me update this entry, as I have received or read a couple of negative comments related to this blog entry. Perhaps I should have been a bit more clear on my post. Let me start by saying that there is no substitute to true handset testing; always test on real handsets right on the palm of your hands; have low-end, mid and high-end handsets on your test handset pool. But when it is time to move and test across other handsets and network carriers that you don’t have access to, DeviceAnywhere rocks. Because DeviceAnywhere is a remote solution, obviously the latency and thus performance is impacted, but there is no surprise there for me. Using a tool such as DeviceAnyhwhere truly is about economics and accessibility to hundreds of handsets as well as network carriers that you typically can’t have access to; the alternative is to buy all the above handsets, and have people testing across the globe, which for many companies it just doesn’t makes any sense, or is just impossible. Cheers.
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What a great, cool tool DeviceAnywhere is; it is “Remote Access To Real Handsets In Live Networks” that works. If you can afford it, I totally recommend it for your testing… support for hundreds of handsets and most of the wireless carriers… 
(Click to enlarge image of Edigo micro-learning application, developed by Artemis Wireless Werks for Edioma)
DeviceAnywhere is “CEO approved” 
Pending the comments made on Update Feb 9 above.
ceo
I don’t have your optimism. -)
I evaluated Mobile Complete solution about 2 years ago and found a lot of problem in suggested solution. F.e. it was impossible to create program in text editor, work with remote graph editor was uncomfortable, work with video (non-sprite based video, f.e. opengl) and audio was very bad, impossible to work with local connections (com/usb/bt) and so on.
Maybe now problem already fixed, i don’t know(but I don’t believe). -)
I think this service is not created for regular quality engineering tasks, only for ‘concept’ testing.
Granted, I haven’t used all of their offerings and I have to get deeper into it, yet, it still rocks, with access to so many handsets and carriers… You said you evaluated it 2 years ago… Have they addressed some of the issues you have brought? As I use and learn more about DA, I will post updates… Thanks,
ceo
Completely agree. I thought their idea was awkward and bizarre back when they came out, but I was at a larger mobile dev shop that had hundreds of handsets in-house. Now in a shoestring startup, I don’t think we could get anywhere near the quality and coverage of our work without them.
Audio I haven’t had too much of a problem with — video playback and high-speed animation is a little laggy, but it’s fine for our testing needs. Kudos to them for coming up with such a creative solution to one of mobile’s biggest annoyances.
We use device anywhere sometimes too (for our http://www.cotopia.com games) and it is really great. Its quite expensive for us. Do you know about some similar service which would be cheaper? regards tomas zeman
I too tried the service. it was horrible on one computer and excellent on the other. Turns out my connection was the problem.
I have never heard of anyone other that yourself that tried to create a program with text editor directly from a handset. That seems like the really long route to go.
I also work with video which i thought was bad however I tried using the DVR as suggested by the sales guy and when played back to myself, worked perfectly.
ummm I too tried the local connections by USB port and I’ve had no problem on well over 30 different deviced.
“program with text editor directly from a handset”
Not sure what you mean with the above…
ceo
DeviceAnyWhere is an excellent tool for mobile software developers. When real device testing was all a dream for developers, DeviceAnyWhere came up with something amazing. But its little expensive for indie developers and small companies. Especially for developers who concentrate on advergames. We develop multiplayer mobile games (http://m.smackall.com) for free and sometimes use their service for teting.