We’re excited that you’re thinking about participating in the Samsung Free the TV Challenge! Here are some resources to help you create converged applications on the Samsung Apps platform.
Converged Applications
Converged apps created for the Free the TV Challenge should run on a Samsung Smart TV plus at least one other screen, such as a phone, tablet or desktop computer. Your converged app should provide a seamless user experience that includes interactivity between devices — directly, via the cloud or through the MOVL Connect Platform.
Converged apps include the following types:
- Controller apps enable the use of a mobile and/or tablet device to control a TV app. These apps offer more flexibility for controlling a TV app, providing users with features that are not available on the remote.
- Companion apps let mobile and/or tablet devices provide secondary information related or unrelated to the content being viewed on TV. For example, companion apps can enable users to pull social information, reviews, images, trending topics, and so on.
- Interactive apps allow a TV to interact with mobile and tablet devices seamlessly. For example, an app might enable a user to watch a video on a smartphone and port it seamlessly to a TV with a swipe feature, or pause the video on the smartphone and resume it at the same point in a TV app.
The Samsung TV App SDK 2.5 is available through the Samsung Developer Forum. It is currently compatible with Windows OS only. To download the SDK, register at www.samsungdforum.com/us and visit the Dev Tools section. Be sure to use version 2.5 of the SDK (not 3.0 or any other version).
Be sure to review the FAQ for some helpful hints.
Samsung UX and Content Guidelines
We encourage you to review the Samsung TV Application SDK UX Guideline when creating your apps, in order to give the consumer the best user experience.
Please also review the Samsung TV Apps Content Guidelines.
Tutorials and Tools
We encourage you to review the FAQ; visit www.samsungdforum.com/us for additional tutorials, guidelines and sample code; and email us with questions at support@FreeTheTVChallenge.com.
The Samsung Mobile Innovator team provides details on products, SDKs, documentation and toolkits for mobile app development. For more information, please visit innovator.samsungmobile.com.
You can also get detailed information specific to Android app development.
App Testing
iOS
If your submission includes a companion iOS application that isn't yet available in the App Store, please add the following device UDIDs so we can test it on our end:
Device 1: 320dd 029be fba28 d6be0 fa90c 3cf76 4e3a9 64918
Device 2: 8c03b b18e4 279b3 132c3 baa24 e1273 7888f 7792d
Device 3: 40878 eac62 7b835 b33f1 d6542 6b31b 87e71 39c64
Device 4: ffd688 23613 941e2 fef16 8d029 48be9 4b210 9ac49
For more information about iPhone testing, review these articles:
Android
If your submission includes an Android app that isn't yet available in the Android Market, please declare the application as "debuggable" in the Android manifest. For more information, review Using Hardware Devices in the Android developer docs.
MOVL Connect Support for Multi-Device Operability
Samsung is partnering with MOVL, creator of WeDraw and winner of the 2010 Free the TV Challenge, to provide resources and support for developers. The MOVL Connect Platform is a free resource for participants in the Free the TV Challenge. MOVL provides open APIs that support multi-device operability (TV/mobile phone/tablet) when using the MOVL backend.
Use of the MOVL backend and the MOVL Connect Platform is optional. Developers can use other backends and the Samsung TV App SDK 2.5 resources to create converged applications.
For more information on the MOVL Connect Platform, visit connect.movl.com.
For MOVL API support, contact support@movl.com.