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Apps January 16, 2019

5 Essential Mobile App Development Process Steps

When you finally settle on the idea of an app, it becomes more than just important to know the 5 essential mobile app development process steps. With millions of apps in both stores, you have to come up with a special app to stay afloat in business.

Mobile App Development Process

Every other developer could generate codes for a mobile app over an afternoon or even overnight. It, however, takes much more time and effort to come up with a useful app. The research, planning, design, testing and development processes are simply irreplaceable. These are the 5 essential mobile app development process steps.

1. Research

Before you embark on the development of an app, you will need to conduct some research. This research validates your need to have a mobile app. It also highlights the specific challenges that the mobile phone app seeks to solve. Your app must add value to your potential end users.

A part from just solving existing problems, the research should determine what similar apps are doing and how it seeks to be different. Your research could extend to what end users are missing from the existing apps too. Also, you need to conduct a market research to establish what the market craves.

2. Develop a Blueprint

Right after the research step is the wire-framing step. Here, you outline the various aspects of your app. They may include the various stages of development, components of the app, features and software. Developing a blueprint not only helps you to get a rough idea of how the mobile app will look like but also keeps you on track.

Similarly, the blueprint ensures you coordinate all your development to deployment tasks according to schedule. This stage ensures that vital features, add-ons and suggestions obtained during research stage are applied. The blueprint helps you to fuse all your development ideas into a functional app.

3. Technical feasibility Analysis

Here, you analyze the functionality of whatever is put down on paper. While some ideas may be rosy and futuristic, they may lack in technical substance. In this step, you will have to determine whether the back-end solutions proposed are tenable, applicable and possible, or otherwise.

You will need access to public data via the Application Programming Interface (API) to determine the feasibility of your app’s functionalities. Through sourcing of public API, you also get to know the various requirements for your app depending on the OS and the formats involved. This stage is critical in that it gives developers an idea of what is achievable, what can be improved, and what is outright impossible.

4. Mobile App Design

This is often a more coordinated step than the rest. It brings together all the stakeholders involved in the mobile app development process. While the User Interface (UI) team works on how the mobile app feels and looks, the User Experience Team (UX) coordinate how different elements of the app interact with one another.

With a mobile app prototype on the side, this stage can be a breeze. Depending on the usage, number of users and budget of the client, the mobile app design can be completed in a couple of hours.

5. Development and Deployment

This is the last and perhaps the most essential mobile app development process step. Here, all the research, suggestions, feedback, processes, UI and UX are pieced together. As the developers engage in coding, the core functionalities of the mobile app are tested. Similarly, this step involves cleaning and streamlining of the app’s processes to ensure an interactive end user experience.

Application testing at this stage also includes tests for compatibility, usability, performance, interface and stress. It is advisable to conduct these tests earlier in the development phase to avoid incurring additional costs. Once the mobile app is finally cleared by a selected group of users, and has passed a beta test, your app is ready for the real world!

Conclusion

While it is easy for a developer to write codes of a mobile app overnight and submit it for acceptance into the app stores, it takes procedure to develop a successful mobile app. These 5 essential mobile app development process steps are sure to guide you right from the idea stage to the deployment step.

Mobile Phones March 3, 2018

7 Reasons to Upgrade Your Smartphone Today

Is your smartphone outdated? Are you missing out on the latest apps because your operating system is too old for the newest technology? A phone older than two or three years means missing out on a lot of new features, functions, and apps.

Upgrade Your Smartphone

Let’s take a look at new improvements in the world of smartphones.

Updated Look

Thinner and sleeker, new smartphones also offer bezel-less screens using the entire front surface area for viewing texts and images. Improved picture quality, larger data caches, and longer lasting batteries give the users more time on the phone and less time recharging. Plus, you can select from a variety of phones, screen sizes, and colors. Wireless headphone jacks with Bluetooth technology give you a better sound for music and movies, and they get rid of annoying cords. Choose a smartphone upgrade from T-Mobile, the network voted fastest overall by OpenSignal.

True Colors

Images on older phones often lack the sharpness and brightness. With a new smartphone, your picture quality rivals any point-and-shoot camera on the market. Experience vibrant images for photos, movies, and games. The new images make your selfies and other shots stand out from the crowd on Instagram and Snapchat. Don’t settle for the slightly blurry, off-color pictures from an older model phone.

Great Camera

Smartphones now have two cameras, at least 12 megapixels, and new editing capabilities. The second lens is telephoto allowing clear and sharp images of distant subjects. New smartphones offer better low light shots and truer colors. Some offer a portrait mode that simulates the shallow depth of field effect that happens on traditional cameras with a long lens and a big aperture. Or, try using a bokeh effect that lets you blur the background while keeping the subject of the photo sharp and clear.

Stronger Seals

Water is the number one enemy of mobile phones. New phones are not only splash proof but some smartphones withstand immersion in water up to 3 feet. It’s still not a good idea to swim with your phone, but if it accidentally falls into water, don’t panic. The tougher seal also keeps dust and dirt from reaching components.

Bluetooth Technology

No more headphones or earbud wires. New smartphones use Bluetooth technology when connecting with listening devices. With wireless devices, just plug in the USB adapter and the sound flows through your headphones and earbuds crisp and clear. Plus, Bluetooth wireless speakers let you bring sound to the entire party without a fancy stereo system.

Constant Internet Access

No matter where you go, the internet is as close as your phone. Today’s smartphones connect online without a wireless café or other internet hotspots nearby. If you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, switch your phone to the Wi-Fi hotspot mode and enjoy uninterrupted data. Plus, acting as your own hotspot lets nearby friends or colleagues connect to Wi-Fi through your phone. Next time you’re stuck in severe weather or lost on vacation, just check your phone for tips and maps to get you where you’re going.

Faster Processing

New apps seem to pop up every day. But, if your operating system is old, chances are you can’t load the new software. How fast your phone loads and how well it runs apps, games, and movies depends on the speed of the processing system. Many older phones can’t run new apps and downloading music and movies takes a long time. If you want better streaming quality or play the latest version of your favorite game, you need a new smartphone. As more businesses offer apps for customers and clients, keep your phone up-to-date and don’t get left out.

Manufactures offer new phones each year, but they only have major updates to operating systems once every three years or more. Keeping up with the new software is important if you want your phone to function properly. As phones age, many companies drop tech support for the older versions. That app you use every day might not work as well anymore. Invest in a new smartphone and keep your world running smoothly.

Apps September 19, 2017

Strategies for Taking Amazing Travel Photos from Your Smartphone

With the advancement of smartphone cameras in recent years, conventional cameras may as well be a thing of the past. Whether you’re exploring exotic locales or documenting once-in-a-lifetime experiences, why carry around that bulky old camera when your lightweight, easy-to-use smartphone can capture and instantly share astounding travel photos within seconds?

Amazing Travel Photos

Below are seven ways to help you get the most out of your smartphone:

Keep Your Image Straight and Steady

From an abandoned farmhouse in an idyllic country field to the game-winning score, a quality photograph is one whose main subject appropriately rests within the frame without so much as a tremor. The best way to carry out a well-framed photo with a smartphone is to access the camera mode’s gridlines. This tool allows you to create a balanced composition every time you use it. Consider the use of a tripod to achieve efficient steadiness of hand when shooting your pictures. In this way, even the most kinetic of conditions will produce a clear and stable image to admire for years to come.

Be Mindful of Lighting

Depending on the time of day as well as the specific event being filmed, outdoor and indoor settings have one essential detail in common: lighting. Using your smartphone’s flash feature will likely impart an unwanted glare within your finished work. To avoid this eventuality when shooting outdoors, take note of the time of day so as not to run out of adequate sunlight. When taking pictures in notoriously dark interior locations such as bars and indoor concert venues, be sure to do the best you can to get the most use out of nearby artificial light sources.

Use Your Phone’s Tracking Autofocus Mode

Certain phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 from a carrier like T-Mobile, have a tracking autofocus feature that is helpful when taking pictures of subjects such as wildlife that abruptly move without warning. The tracking autofocus mode keeps these subjects in focus despite the excess motion and prevents the movement from ruining the shot.

Go Panoramic

Your phone’s panorama mode is sure to come in handy when traveling to scenic destinations. How better to encapsulate these stunning views for posterity than to use this convenient feature when such an opportunity presents itself?

Augment Your Phone

One easy method to enhance the quality of your photos is to attach clip-on lenses to your phone. These allow you to really take your smartphone’s camera to the next level by adding to it a vivid range of versatility that varies dramatically from super wide-angle lenses to lenses that offer unique effects like the fisheye effect. There is a wide array of clip-on lenses available for a number of smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S8.

Employ Dynamic Photo Editing Apps

With the current lineup of photo editing apps available to smartphone users, shooting your photos is merely the beginning of the process. These apps contain many helpful tools that let you perform such basic editing tasks as cropping and rotating your photos, removing red eye, changing the image’s brightness levels, and adjusting the white balance as well as more advanced fixes that even include improving smiles. They also allow you to have some fun with your pictures with filters, saturation controls, and adding frames for your images.

Organize and Share Your Photos

Once you have finished editing your photos and like the outcome, you will need a practical method to organize, store, share, and generally manage all of your photos. There are a lot of apps out there that boast a plethora of user-friendly features and options that put you in total control of all of your photos.
As you adopt the above advice and explore the possibilities of your smartphone’s photographic output, you’ll likely find that your phone’s technical attributes greatly outweigh those of traditional cameras.

One last tip for taking amazing photos with your smartphone would be to remember not to be afraid of taking “bad” pictures. Always be willing to experiment throughout your travels. In time, you might just surprise yourself.

Image source

Mobile Phones August 21, 2017

How to Factory Reset Your Smartphone

Life is full of surprises — not all of them welcome ones. Here’s how Apple, Android and Windows let your phone ride the Wayback Machine back to a time before things went wrong.

Factory Reset or Rebooting

There are three solutions built into every smartphone that could get you up and running again; a soft reboot, hard reboot or a factory reset. Here are the details on how each method works whether it’s for a Windows, Android or Apple device.

Try Rebooting First

The first thing you should try is a ‘soft’ restart to resolve whatever is the problem; this is as easy as turning your phone off, waiting a while and then turning it on again. Here’s how to reboot phones using the three major OS’s:

Rebooting an Android Phone

Rebooting an Android phone is as simple as holding down the power button until the power off/restart screen appears, but what if your phone is frozen, goes blank or is completely unresponsive? You need a ¬hard reboot.

For most Android phones simultaneously pressing the power and volume down buttons for five seconds will do the trick. Motorola phones are an exception, and need to be handled differently. Instead of pressing the power and volume up buttons, you need to press the volume down button.

Rebooting an iPhone

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the slider appears. Now, drag the slider to turn the phone off. Once the phone is off, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button again until the Apple logo appears.

An unresponsive iPhone can only be rebooted with a forced restart. The steps to force restart your phone: Press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

Reboot Your Windows Phone

Press and hold the volume down and Power buttons until the phone vibrates, then restarts. If the phone has frozen or is unresponsive, Microsoft recommends just pulling out the battery, then turning the device on after reinserting it.

Restore Factory Settings

Restoring to factory settings will erase all data from your phone, including:

Accounts
Apps
System settings
Pics, music, videos, etc.

This is the best option if you’re selling your phone or as a last resort when something goes seriously wrong. Resetting is an irreversible process; please remember that a factory reset will wipe everything permanently!

Android

The range of Android devices means that each phone model will have its own specific steps to follow. All Android phones can be reset to factory default either from the settings screen or using the hardware buttons in cases where the phone is completely unresponsive.
Check out this quick guide to resetting the most popular Android devices to ensure that this process goes smoothly.

iPhone

Resetting your iPhone to factory default is a simple process consisting of four steps:

Go to Settings
Tap on General
Select Reset
Choose Erase All Content and Settings from the list of options

Your iPhone will be restored to its ‘out of the box’ condition.

Windows

Like the iPhone; a Windows phone is easy to restore to factory settings, just follow these simple steps from Microsoft support:

Tap Settings in the App list
Tap About, then tap: Reset your phone.
Now you’ll see two warnings: If you’re sure you want to restore the phone to factory default, tap Yes and then tap Yes again.

Image by Flickr

Mobile Phones September 29, 2016

Vinyl is Your iPhone 7’s Best Friend

Vinyl isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of cellular protection. But that’s about to change. Though most people aren’t aware of how well it can fit over smartphones and defend them against daily wear and tear, one day they will. It’s the perfect addition to slim devices like the iPhone 7 that can’t handle the unnecessary weight that harder cases always add. Vinyl that’s been processed into the form of thin, flexible, yet durable skins will hug the 7’s curves and keep it looking mint.

Skins, decals, wraps—it doesn’t matter what you call it as long you get a skin for your new iPhone 7 that’s been precision cut with your device in mind from 3M vinyl. This material offers superior protection against the typical hazards your 7 will see. Things like keys, spare change, pens, and other sharp objects it may encounter in your bag or purse won’t be able to penetrate its grime-resistant surface. As a result, the aluminium backing and bezels stay mark-free. Meanwhile it enhances the 7’s already water-resistant surface so it can survive an accidental dip in the lake or a less dignified toilet. But the chances of these spills happening are rare, as vinyl adds significant grip to the phone, making it easier to keep in your hands and away from liquid disasters.

With an iPhone 7 skin you’re protecting all of the features that prompted you to pre-order the phone in the first place. Things like the significantly upgraded 12-megapixel camera, the A10 chip with 64-bit architecture andM10 motion coprocessor, its new static home button, and the enhanced battery.

But it’s not all about protecting its function. After all, this is an iPhone we’re talking about, a device known for its style as much as its processing powers. The way the vinyl looks is just as important as it performs, as you can’t expect to wrap up the 7 in something that smothers Apple’s original designs. Luckily there are skins that let the foundations of its design shine through. You can find carbon fiber iPhone 7 skins that highlight the fact that it’s an Apple phone. The color or texture of its signature apple logo can take on a totally different look from the rest of the skin so it stands out and broadcasts to the world that yes, you’re one of the lucky ones to have the brand new 7.

Of course, you can always cover up the apple in a design of your own making if you prefer. That’s the advantage of choosing vinyl to protect your device. Its flexibility is just as important as its tailor-made fit and durable material. It’s the whole package: customization, protection, and functionality. And that’s why vinyl will soon become the obvious choice when it comes to cellular protection.

Mobile Phones March 15, 2016

Buy Now or Buy Later: the iPhone 6S vs. the 7

Even with the strong showing of competitors such as Samsung, LG, and HTC, Apple continues to be the trendiest toy on the smartphone block. With rumors constantly circulating about new innovations that the company is attempting to incorporate into its flagship product’s design, it seems as though that, even as the new version of the iPhone is released, consumers can’t help but immediately look forward to next one. With the holidays fast approaching and iPhone 7 slated for release in September of next year, Apple enthusiasts are faced with the conundrum of upgrading to the iPhone 6S right now or waiting until the 7’s arrival.

The Tale of the Tape

Before delving into the issue of whether or not one should scratch his or her Apple itch right now and go with the 6S or endure the agonizing nine months of not having the absolute best that the company has to offer, a veritable “tale of the tape” may just be in order to compare the actual features of the 6S to those rumored to be included in the 7.

The 6S currently boasts the following technical specs:

Advanced A9 CPU
2 GB RAM
Introductory 16GB storage space
5 MP front camera, 12 MP rear
5.5 inx4.7 in screen 3D Touch screen

The combination of these and other features already placed the 6S atop the smartphone food chain. Yet as ridiculous as it may sound, Apples’ continued commitment to innovation is already quickly on the move to rendering these advances obsolete.

As is so often the case with new releases, the iPhone 7 offers every benefit of the 6S with just a little bit more. It will feature an even more advanced A10 CPU with 3 GB of RAM of storage space. The base model will be offered with double the amount of storage space, while the front and rear cameras will feature wide angle lenses and image stabilization technology. The screen will introduce a QHC display with improved 2560×1440 resolution.

New to the iPhone 7

However, to any other than the most diehard Apple fanatic, the differences between these features may seem negligible. It’s the totally new aspects of the 7 that are truly going to make it a better buy than the 6S. While neither of these have been confirmed yet, these are two most prominent changes that users may see when the iPhone 7 hits the stores this fall:

A thinner body style: Early rumors are circulating that Apple might be scrapping the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack for a new lightening or USB-Type C port. This would allow them to design the phone to be among the thinnest and most lightweight on the market.
Wireless charging capabilities: After languishing at the back of the pack in terms of recharging, some are saying that the 7 will be the first iPhone to support wireless charging. Qualcomm’s recent announcement of having developed wireless charging technology that can work through metals (like the aluminum that comprises the iPhone’s frame) seem to support this belief.

To wait or not to wait; that is the question. The bells and whistles that the 6S offers right now still easily put it near the top of the pack of current smartphones on the market. However, with teases being thrown out about the potential that the iPhone 7 has to offer, the Apple-loving crowd is no doubt pulling their hair out in collective clumps right now, agonizing over this decision. This is Apple that’s being talked about here. The question could rightly be asked as to whether there’s truly a downside to either decision.

Mobile Phones January 30, 2016

Because if it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone

That’s a statement most Apple users often make, and there’s a hint of pride that comes along with it. Why not? When Apple strives to innovate with every new addition to its phone collection and give a reason to their loyal customers to be proud of. This tiny device (maybe not so tiny anymore) can do so much more. It is extremely user-friendly and users absolutely love them. A look at the Apple iPhone Prices will tell you this phone is not for just anyone.

Let’s look at the evolution of the iPhone and what it is that we are looking forward to with a new launch.

The First iPhone

Image by Carl Berkeley

Apple started with a small 3.5-inch screen. The first iPhone had a 2 MP camera and was priced at $499 for the 4GB version. It was launched in the year 2007. Almost a decade later the world waits for the seventh version of the same iPhone.

iPhone 3G

Image by Dan Taylor-Watt

Apple launched its 3G compatible phone in the year 2008. It came with a built-in GPS and offered more storage space. The new iPhone was cheaper than the earlier one. The iPhone 3G was priced at $199 for the 8 GB model. Around June 2009, Apple came out with the iPhone 3GS. With similar features to its predecessor, this one was said to be twice as fast!

iPhone 4

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Launched in the year 2010, the new iPhone came with the FaceTime Video chat feature and an all new iOS 4. The high resolution ‘Retina’ screen also made its debut with this version. The 4S launched in the year 2011 came with a dual core processor and this time, there was a 64GB version available too.

iPhone 5

Image by Sean MacEntee

With the iPhone 5 Apple increased its screen size from the original 3.5 to 4-inches. It was launched in the year 2012. This one was available in 8, 16 and 64 GB versions. The new 5C was supposed to be the less expensive iPhone. For the first time, Apple launched phones in different colours like blue and yellow too. The iPhone 5S was faster with a 64-bit A7 SoC. It also came with a fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone.

iPhone 6

Image by John Karakatsanis

Apple altered its screen size again increasing it up to 4.7-inches with the iPhone 6. It was packed with a new A8 processor. Apple launched this device as the next big thing, claiming that everything had changed with the new iPhone. A 6 plus version was also launched simultaneously. The iPhone 6 Plus consists of a 5.5-inch screen.

iPhone 6S and 6S plus

Image by LWYang

The 6S versions came with some really revolutionary upgrades, including a 3D touch technology and a 12-megapixel camera that could now shoot 4K videos. The 6S versions run on an A9 chip making them function even faster.

The iPhone 6S revolutionized the touch technology; it was something we had never seen before, and with so much innovation happening loyal iPhone users are now waiting to see what’s next in store.