Ask HN: how do you demo apps running on an actual phone in presentations? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: how do you demo apps running on an actual phone in presentations?

2 pointsfocuser7 comments

I want to demo apps running on the actual phone in presentations. No emulators please since that doesn't feel real at all. I want to show the live view of my fingers touching the phone. Most venues would only have a projector -- no luxury of a separate video camera like the guys at Google I/O.

So my requirements are: 1. It has to be portable - the equipment should nicely fit into a bag that can be carried around. 2. It shouldn't take more than a few seconds to set up and switch from slides to live view 3. The video needs to be clear enough for the audience to read the text on the phone when being projected.

My best solution so far is WebCam + desktop Tripod + Quicktime Player + Webcam Settings app on Mac (to enable manual focus). However, I tried a few high-end webcams (e.g. Logitech C920) and couldn't really find one with good enough quality.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone here in this situation. What are your gears?

I carry an HDMI cable with me to meetings and show the phone on an overhead projector. Although you don't have the benefit of seeing your fingers, it's a readable and digital solution.

In the developer options on Android theres a setting "show touches", though I'm not sure if that'd show up on an external display or only the device...

yeah, but that's still different, especially when you want to show something like shaking the phone, or switching devices.

For iOS devices we use airplay and airserver on the computer side. Unfortunately this doesn't show touches, so you need to be creative and implement it part of your app.

Visualizers (seemingly aka document cameras) have been the tool used in any presentations of this type that I've seen. Portable versions appear to exist.

For Android, there are some remote-control applications which stream the device screen to your computer using wireless or USB. Maybe check this out?

To give a realistic impression, I wanted to show my fingers too, not just the device screen. One other way I could think of is to use two phones, one for running the app to demo, the other shooting the video and projecting it via the HDMI cable... But it's a bit difficult to setup - switching projector cables is often quite painful.

The problem with my original approach is that I couldn't find a good webcam that records videos as well as the phone.

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