Firmware Update via Phone

Now that iPhone has USB-C and so do Android phones as well. Majority of phones have embraced USB-C. I think it would be great if the Camera Firmware Update Software can be ported to the phones as an app. Then we could update firmware from our phone.

Even better at the beginning of each shoot day we can quickly plug our phone into the camera to get date and time correct on the camera before attaching a Timecode device. Much easier than connecting to a laptop at the start of each shoot day.

Who else would love for this convenience? Wouldn’t you like to get the advantage of using a phone for firmware updates on the camera?


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Both are good suggestions and shouldn’t be too demanding to develop.

I don't think that Apple's App Store is in the business of delivering firmware unless it's for a substantive app. Nobody appears to be doing anything analogous. In any event, Apple isn't a charity. What's in it for them?

Hmm?
BM has a software that you download to your computer, from which you then update your camera's firmware via USB.
It's completely up to BM to make a similar app for the iPhone. What has Apple got to do with this other than authorise the software for their shop?

What has Apple got to do with this other than authorise the software for their shop?

That's a rather big "other than" Kinda begs the question.

Apple has an image for the App Store, and the image is pretty important. That's why it talks regularly about the number of apps. The whole concept is that the apps are substantive. I suspect that there would be big pushback within Apple if somebody started talking about turning the App Store into a utility.

As far as I know, nobody is using the App Store this way. Why?

Well, they have authorised DR Studio for their shop, which can probably update the SE firmware.
And they have authorised the free Chinese software supervising our solar energy installation, which can update the firmware in their inverter plug-in connector, even wirelessly. And there are many others, like Chinese surveillance cameras or home automation power plugs. Not that substantial.

Well, they have authorised DR Studio for their shop, which can probably update the SE firmware.
And they have authorised the free Chinese software supervising our solar energy installation, which can update the firmware in their inverter plug-in connector, even wirelessly. I'd assume there are many others.

DaVinci Resolve is a substantive piece of software. I don't know anything about your Chinese software, but "supervising a solar installation" suggests rather more than a firmware utility.

Sorry, you answered while I was editing. But maybe the Chinese own more Apple stock than we expect

And the solar surveillance software is just displaying the data from the inverter.

If anybody's actually interested in this, they should read Apple's criteria for approving an app and find out what it would cost to do this if it was approved.

My gut feeling is that Apple is not going to let people use the App Store, and the Apple brand, to do nothing more than deliver firmware. There is zero value-added in that for Apple. It also assumes that Apple is interested in going into direct competition with, for example, Amazon, for commodity internet services.

If BM adds the TC/date update feature and is asking a dollar for it, I'm sure Apple will like it – and many users of BM cameras too.
They have hundreds, if not thousands of 99,- cents apps in the store.

But it's all up to BM, anyway. Bye.

Well, maybe, if Apple is so specific about the apps in the App Store, then Blackmagic could include the firmware update feature as part of the Blackmagic Camera App they already have on the phone. It becomes capable of recognizing a BMD Cinema Camera when connected via USB-C and can deliver the firmware update that way. And, at the same time take care of that Date/Time when you don't need to do a firmware update.

If BM adds the TC/date update feature and is asking a dollar for it, I'm sure Apple will like it – and many users of BM cameras too.
They have hundreds, if not thousands of 99,- cents apps in the store.

But it's all up to BM, anyway. Bye.

I don't even understand why Blackmagic would want to pay Apple to do that.

In any event, it's pretty easy to find out what Apple's App Store criteria are and what its fee schedule is.

Well, maybe, if Apple is so specific about the apps in the App Store, then Blackmagic could include the firmware update feature as part of the Blackmagic Camera App they already have on the phone. It becomes capable of recognizing a BMD Cinema Camera when connected via USB-C and can deliver the firmware update that way. And, at the same time take care of that Date/Time when you don't need to do a firmware update.

It isn't obvious to me that users of the Blackmagic Camera app would want that bundled with the app. They are completely unrelated products. What are you going to do, shove it down their throats? Do it surreptitiously, which is kind of how your post reads?

Anyway, I'm just talking off the top of my head. For an informed discussion about this, you really need to know what Apple's criteria are for apps and how the revenue works.