Google offers tool to bridge Android and iOS app development

Recently, the Google released the tool with the aim to make it easier to port the software between two major smartphone platforms, by converting Java code for Android into Objective-C code that can be compiled to run on Apple iOS devices.

Google’s Tom Ball in a post announcing the tool declared that J2ObjC is not a Java emulator but instead converts a Java classes to Objective-C classes that directly use the iOS Foundation Framework.

The tool doesn’t claim to make writing mobile apps a completely cross-platform affair. Developers who use it to translate their apps will still need to write the UI code in Objective-C using Apple’s iOS SDK. However, the developers can code their core non-UI functionality in Java, then compile versions of those portions of their apps for both Android and iOS from the single code base, rather than maintaining a separate code tree for each platform.

In fact, Ball revealed that they can use the same Java code to develop the web-based versions of their apps using the Google Web Toolkit, which can translate Java Code into JavaScript to run in the browser. Code functionality would remain same for all versions because they would be based on the same source code. Google also revealed that j2objc works with the most build tools, including Xcode and the translation from Java to Objective-C, is totally automated. No additional editing of the tool is necessary.

J2ObjC supports the full Java 6 language and the key runtime features include exceptions, generic types, threads, reflection and their anonymous classes. It even does the perfect job of modeling Java-style memory management in Objective-C.

To build and use the system, developers will need a machine running Mac OS X 10.7 or higher with Xcode 4 or higher and JDK 1.6. As for now, the project is running between alpha and beta quality with the initial release given number 0.8 as an indication of its release status.

5 Simple Hacks to make your iPhone storage last longer

With its non-expandable memory, one of the major bugbears for iPhone owners is the storage capacity. Dreaded message “Storage Almost Full” will pop up at an exactly wrong moment when you have got 16GB or 64GB. It is always a great practice to try and tread lightly on your memory in the first place. There are few easy tricks to try and make your iPhone’s storage capacity last as long as possible.

Don’t shoot everyday video in high resolution

It may be essential to shoot video with their iPhones in the highest resolution possible, for most people’s everyday cute kitty clips a lower resolution will suffice. You can change, how the iPhone capture film footage by clicking to “Settings”, then “Photos & Camera”, then look for where your phone gives you the “Record Video” options. Click on this to select 720p at 30fps. Change it back simply when you want higher quality footage.

Don’t keep messages forever

By default, your iPhone saves all your text and multimedia messages forever. It’s unlikely you really want iMessage, SMS and MMS correspondence going back years, so there is a way to have messages automatically delete after a sensible time frame. In the menu of Settings, scroll down to see the “Messages” option. From here look for the “Message History” section, tap it and then you choose to delete messages after 30 days or a year.

Don’t keep all the photos when shooting HDR

The camera of the iPhone is in “high dynamic range” and a setting is a clever tool when used correctly, but can be a real memory hog if used it often. This is because it takes multiple exposures before combining those snaps into the HDR version. You can make your phone only save the final HDR pic rather than save down all the exposures. Find this option in “Settings”, then Photos & Camera,” then scroll down to see the option to “Keep Normal photo.” Toggle it to off to save some storage space.

Don’t automatically download purchases made on another device

There is a default setting that sees all purchases across all devices automatically downloaded to every device linked to that iTunes account, if you have multiple Apple devices. While there will be apps and content you want to double up on, this is almost certainly not the case for every single purchase. To stop your iDevice doing this, go to "Settings," then "iTunes & App Store." Here you can toggle off to stop the automatic download of music, apps, books and audiobooks and updates.

Don’t keep high-resolution photos on your iPhone

You can choose to enable a setting that saves you a ton of photo storage space if you've activated the iCloud Photo Library service. The option to "Optimize iPhone Storage" saves your pics and vids to your Camera Roll as per usual, but in a smaller format. The full-res originals are stored in iCloud, ready to access whenever you might need them. If you go to "Settings," then "iCloud," then "Photos" and select "Optimize iPhone Storage" you'll be all set up.

Google makes it easier to switch from iOS to Android with Google Drive backup tool.

In the Play Store, Apple has a switch tool which helps the Android users to switch to iOS. Unlike Google, this would be approved by the Apple bots in the App Store. With this, one can take the backup of your iPhone data to Drive, then restore it all on Android.

One can check out the new backup option in the iOS Drive app which is found under menu > settings > backup. On uploading all the backup on the Drive, it can grab your contacts, calendar events, and photos/videos. If you have lot of media files with more GB’s it will obviously take a lot more time to upload. For that Wi-Fi is needed for the backup to take place and the Drive app has to stay open. Unfortunately, there’s no option for backup.

The data from iOS will automatically be accessible in the corresponding apps, when one logs into their Google Account on a new Android phone. Unlike Pixel exclusive cable transfer tool, this process works with any Android phone.

Android users are more humble, honest than iPhone owners - Report

It was also revealed that women were twice more likely to
have an iPhone than Android!

According to a recent report, people who use the Android Smartphones may have higher level of honesty and humility and iPhone users.

Heather Shaw from the Lincoln University in United Kingdom revealed that this research provides a great insights in the personality types between different types of smartphones.

Insights into personality

Smartphone is one of the amazing thing that has happened to the mobile ecosystem. It is the choice of the most basic level and tells a lot more about the user. According to the report, two researches were conducted between iPhone and Android. In the first analytics, 240 people participated and they were given the questionnaire on the characteristic they associate with the users of each smartphone brand. And in the second research, they tested their stereotypes against actual personality traits of 530 Android and iPhone smartphone users. And they found that, Android users are quite open, have great level of honesty and on the other side iPhone users are less extroverted.

Heather Shaw revealed that this study provided a new insights regarding the personality difference between two phones.

Smartphone choice is the most basic one to differentiate the personality of the users. Today, smartphones have become mini digital version for the user. It can reveal much about us, even if some one takes our phone for some-time

Mobile Apps development - In-house or Outsource?

Today, in an internet connected era, mobile application development is just bounded with the developers or the players, novice people, startups, small-sized business has also begun with the development of applications. Since the mobile was developed, one can definitely say that mobile technology has propelled a long way. If you feel that customized application can help your business, next step you need to choose is that, by which means you will go for the development of the application.

If you work for the small sized business, the organization can appoint the external specialist source to develop the application from you. If you choose to work for the huge organization, in-house is quite better as it offers a number of benefits. You can keep a watch and make changes whenever you need. In almost every comparison, it makes more business sense to utilize a faithful, outside mobility expert to construct your application instead of keeping it in-house, even for huge enterprises.

Mobile Apps development: In-house

Advantages

• Manage the whole project very efficiently
• You can save extra pennies by using the present resources
• You can put up with extra resources, for the faster development
• No worries about who owns a source code
• You will always have the options for the developers that exactly knows your requirement
• You can select the best technology, which is best suited for you

Drawbacks

• It may cost more, to set up the infrastructure
• There is a sharp learning curve if you wish to switch from the web to mobile web development
• It may not turn out cost friendly if you wish to get all the needed licenses and certificates for tools, code, and software
• You need to find the project manager or manage the whole project on your own
• If your in-house developers get stuck somewhere, you would need to find the additional resources like developers, tester, seniors and more.
• If the developers are on hiring cycle, again and again, it is necessary to keep the app up-to-date with all the updates
• Generally in-house resources are shifted to other profitable projects

Mobile Apps development: Outsourcing

Advantages

• You can get the developer experts by selecting the best enterprise
• Static Budget is defined for every department
• The firm has different people with different departments so that one remains always focused on different task
• Experts can leverage the experience from the other projects
• Outsource mobile app development companies have tools and components on hand which will decrease the development time
• It reduces risk, as fixed monthly salary and related monthly expenses are involved
• Holiday benefits in case of some reasons

Drawbacks

• You lose your control on your services
• There is no IP ownership
• Small changes take much time to implement
• You get the less control over the prioritization of resources
• It becomes high risk if you select the incorrect development firm

Today, in the smart digital world, mobile applications are the most regularly accessed. Customers, CEO, employees are the most utilized by the customers. They provide enormous usefulness, communication capacities, better probability and much more.

Individuals or companies who seek for the whether they should outsource mobile app development or appoint a professional mobile app developer, the perfect answer actually relies on the circumstances. If you know the individual who is an expert and can spread technical knowledge without much of efforts and also have a good hand in coding associated with hiring outsourced workers, it may be the best solution.

iOS 10 has some great features but downloading it, may make your phone obsolete

Apple recently released its beta version of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra operating system which can be downloaded by anybody. If you are the fan of Apple and are fascinated by its latest features of stickers, maps, notifications and more, you can download iOS 10 from the Apple’s website.

But, according to the report though you are the tech savvy of the digital era, you should hold off until the bug-free fully tested version of operating system are released in fall.

Some reporters of wall street journal had pointed out that, it will leave you in huge problems, if at all your phone is captured by any bugs with the new software. And to revert to the older version will leave you with the much of hassle. You need to remove the beta version from your iPhone and again restore the backup from iTunes.

There are the chances that, if your download beta versions of your iPhone it may crash the operating system as this OS is still unstable and also it can make your phone unexpectedly useless. So why to take a risk? Additionally, if your iPhone’s or laptops are much older than, chances to crash the operating system is quite high. 

Though if you didn’t find any bugs in the new operating system iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, it would not be compatible with all the apps that you are always looking for. Developers are working on it, but sill it is better not to update until the last and latest build release in fall. Best is, everyone should hold off from downloading to avoid risk.

But still, if you can’t hold off your patience, you need to register with Apple as a public beta tester and the company will send you the instructions on how to install. Anyways, you can wait for the few months until the final tested software gets ready.

How will the Pokémon Go affect the future of mobile app development?

Pokémon Go is the augmented reality location based game developed by Niantic for Android and iOS. This game earned in millions of dollars in a very short period of time and has become much hyped among the teenagers to youths to oldies. Pokémon Go is the real episode that made everybody addicted. This game enables you to travel between real world and virtual world and helps you to discover the whole new ecosystem in the completely new world. The Gaming platform is developed in such a way that, it uses the real location to search for the Pokémon in the real world. It catches hundreds of species of Pokémon as you explore more and more surroundings.

This phenomenon was not at all believable before 6 months ago. It has fundamentally changed the way of thinking – “Technology interacts with the environment”. Isn’t that great? 

Though its security is not so high according to the critics and as this app has been downloaded by millions of people there are issues of crashing servers. This has surely done the magic in the mobile app development industry and it is quite predicted that many app developers would surely be constantly focusing on developing the replica of Pokémon Go.

So let’s check out, what is exciting about Pokémon Go? Why has it got so much buzz in the mobile game industry?

Augmented Reality

This is one of the seamless virtual reality of the Pokémon Go and the reason for a high buzz. With this game, players can see the animated Pokémon on their mobile display, as they walk away to the surroundings. Additionally, users can get the Poke stops on the real physical places like monuments, landmarks and more. They can get out in the competition with other players by collecting the “Gyms”.

The Augmented Reality of this game depends on the GPS technology which is coating the instances of the existing world. This game happened in the “real world” is itself one of the biggest achievements and the reason for app popularity. Hence, in the coming era, there would be such type of augmented reality games, with just local check-ins to gain more power on this powerful feature.

In future, you can expect something unbelievable. Today developers presented an augmented reality by adding coats to the real world. The next generation might see the virtual reality (VR) where the new fancy world would be presented before your eyes.

Gamification

Gamification is the concept to be applied in designing the game to engage, motivate, and encourage people in achieving the goals. In Pokémon Go’s, when you walk at different landmarks and new places, it becomes the game and in this way, you can earn rewards and catch out the new Pokémon as you move along. Because of the gamified element, Pokémon Go game has been able to integrate the real and virtual world. And in future, there are high chances that developers would work and put high efforts in running this kind of application.

Unlimited Potential

There are many potential mobile apps with unlimited levels, amazing graphics and much more things to explore. But Pokémon Go is quite different from the other potential games. It literally keeps you addicted, engaged and keeps the users interested. The future of app development is quite clear from this scenario. It would be tailored, expanding and with practically unlimited potential, which keeps the users interested.

Perfect Learning Curve

Pokémon Go is the ideal learning curve for many developers and users. The standard learning curve is one that is easy to use, rewards user for investing their energy and discovering many complex mechanics. And Pokémon Go fits into this bracket, enabling the new users with the easy pickups, and rewards to the players who invest their time in learning the complex strategies. If you develop an app that is much simple, users might bounce your app. If much complexity is involved, users would run away and user base would never grow. In future, it is highly expected to see the amazing provisions.

Transactions

This is not the new concept for developing the game app in mobile. But Pokémon Go has taken some different approach in making it unique. In general game application, you can purchase the coins to get the lucky eggs, incentives and more. But this type of bonuses is not present in Pokémon Go. It is developed in such a nice way that, people would likely invest dollars as it has given the game they always love to play. Giving people what they want was always the first priority of the Pokémon Go game.

Whether you are using Pokémon Go or not, it has removed the boundary between real and virtual world. It has quite addictive features that increase users engagement. Some of its elements are to be expected to see featured in popular apps in near future. If you are looking for developing a mobile app or a game with unique and innovative features, you should approach a professional mobile app development company to achieve your goals!

“Microsoft flow” launched on iOS

Microsoft Flow is a work management tool which company recently launched and is now available on iOS play store. Microsoft Flow is an amazing tool that helps you to automate the file synchronization, alerting, data organization and much more. It offers an interface which allows you to merge two or more cloud services to create the smooth work flow.

IFTTT are the greatest competitor and they have been around longer and offers a larger list of supported connections. Office365, Dynamics CRM, PowerApps, Yammer are the Microsoft’s own business tools and it does more focus on it. Tools that are used in organizations like MailChimp, GitHub, Salesforce and others are not less concentrated. 

Microsoft Flows has many automated features like getting text msgs whenever anyone mails you, saving the result of the search on social media sites to an excel files, copying files from OneDrive to SharePoint and from Instagram to Dropbox and many more.

With Microsoft flow, you can even manage your previous created flows from your smartphone. This does means that you can navigate in the apps, check out the properties, history reports. It also checks out that there are no errors and they are performing smoothly.

Activity Feed is another feature, where you can check out last flow action. Flows that are not manageable, you can even configure the app to send you push notification. You can check out the issue in real time when something goes wrong, just launch the app. This is very much important for getting alerts when any important flow is taking place at that moment.

The company has reported that, in some interval of time they will expand the app which will include flow creation on mobile, triggering, and even the flows that take advantage of mobile signals. Microsoft added that, they are planning this app for Android too.