Microsoft Edge Updated with new Features for Android users

Microsoft has launched the preview of Edge browser in October 2017 for Android has yet again brought many improvements and features to the default Windows 10 browser. Microsoft later made the browser available for all Android users. After coming out of beta almost two months later, it soon surpassed one million downloads on the Google Play Store. Last month itself the application was updated to include support for adaptive icons, included support for upcoming Google Android Oreo alongwith other changes. The update also included sharing links support allowing users to share text from other apps via the Edge search engine. Now a new update has been made available to Edge for Android users, taking the app to version 1.0.0.1656 and bringing many interesting and useful changes.

Developers doing Android Applications Development keep a close eye on the new updates in Edge. The latest update has brought support for New Tab page newsfeed. This support allows users to see the news feed as per their preferred language and region. It means the New Tab will let users to have access to personalization of their newsfeed and preferred language.

Microsoft also made one more improvement in the latest update of Edge which is - now it allows users to set Microsoft Edge as a default web browser. Microsoft has updated the improvements in the settings for enabling the option for default web browser.

Other than these, this update also fixes many set of bugs and has done performance improvements to the Edge browser on all Android devices. This latest Edge browser for Android is now available for download in the Google Play Store. Right now this popular browser holds a rating of 4.3 starts out of 5 on the Play Store based on user ratings.

VIPER Architecture Pattern for iPhone App Development

Having knowledge of Software architecture in the software industry is very critical and it is important to design the code so that each of its piece is easily understandable, has a specific purpose and fits together with other pieces of code in a logical manner. The code should be easy to maintain, scale up and should be high in quality.

When you are following iPhone App Development and developing an iOS app then it is important to decide about which iOS project architecture you will use. Here in this article, we will talk about VIPER architecture, one of the most popular alternatives to MVC which keeps your code well organized, improves your development process and has many benefits. 

What Is Viper Architecture?

VIPER stands for View, Interactor, Presenter, Entity and Router. This architecture is based on the Single Responsibility Principle which leads to a very clean architecture and a better structure for your iOS project. VIPER is actually a design principle which implements separation of concern paradigm. It follows modular approach. One function, one module. For each module VIPER has five different classes with different roles and No class go beyond its basic purpose. These classes are as follows:- 

View: This class has all the code to show the app interface to the user and get their response. After receiving the response View alerts the presenter. 

Interactor: This class is the backbone of an application as it contains the business logic which is described by the use cases in the application. The interactor is actually responsible for fetching data from the model layer and its implementation is not dependent on user interface. 

Presenter: This is nucleus of a module. It gets user response from the View and work accordingly. This is the only class which communicate with all other components. It calls the router for wire-framing, Interactor to fetch data(network or local data calls) and View to update the UI.

Entity: This class contains basic model object used by the Interactor. It has part of the responsibilities of the model layer in other architectures.

Router: It has all the navigation logic for describing which screens are to be shown when. 

In VIPER architecture, each block corresponds to an object with specific tasks, inputs and outputs. The main aim behind this architecture pattern is to isolate your app’s dependencies and  balancing the delegation of responsibilities among the entities. Basically, VIPER architecture divides your application logic into smaller layers of functionality, each of them with a predefined responsibility. This makes it to test the interactions at the boundaries between layers easier. It also fits well with unit testing and makes your code more usable.

Benefits of VIPER Architecture:-

• It simplifies complex projects. In VIPER as modules are independent hence it is good for large teams.

• It makes the project scalable by enabling developers to simultaneously work on it as smoothly as possible.

• It decouples the code for reusability and testability.

• It divides the application components based on roles.

• It sets clear responsibilities.

• It makes it easy to add new features.

• It makes it easy to write automated tests as the UI logic is separate from business logic.

• It creates clear and well defined interfaces which are independent of other modules. 

• It makes it easier to track issues via crash reports due to the single responsibility principle. 
•  It makes the source code more cleaner, more compact and reusable.

Conclusion
Although VIPER architecture has lots of benefits but it is better to use it only for big and complex projects. As there are so many elements involved hence this architecture causes an overhead when starting a new small project. Hence it may not be appropriate to use VIPER for small projects which do not aim to scale up. VIPER architecture is a great solution for building working software and this is reason to cheer about for iOS apps. No doubt so many iOS developers will continue to use VIPER architecture due to its so many benefits.

Hidden “Color Tints” setting for better night vision in iPhone

Every time Apple launches a new version of iOS, eyes are ‘stuck in awe’ on the new and exciting features that come with the new versions. 

Changes in the layouts of the iPhone screens (like merging of the notification center and control center, remember?) and addition of the new features as well as enhancements in the old features surely are meant to raise your adrenaline levels and make you addicted to your iPhone all the more than ever before.


Efficacious Night vision with Color Tints in iOS 11:Efficacious Night vision with Color Tints in iOS 11:
The mind blowing features pave way for some new apps by every iPhone app development company and how to enhance the user-experience of the cult fans of this highly demanded smartphone. iOS 10 has brought with it some of the most useful features you can use instantly with just a click.

There are no second thoughts about the fact that iPhone application development is always influenced by the new features launched in the new versions of iOS. Latest version iOS 10 as well as iOS 11 came up with similar Night Vision Features.


But why it is still unknown to most of the iPhone users?
Unfortunately, they remained more or less hidden from the iPhone users and little does anyone knows how iOS came up with some awesome features to aid the iPhone users who suffer from night vision challenges! 

Can we expect this kind of advanced feature from someone else than the industry giant, Apple Inc? 

No. 

Apple Inc. has always come up with the most unexpected features to the core. 

The Color Tints or Color Filters we are going to talk about here remains buried deep in the Settings app. If you just dive deeper into the Settings app of your iPhone, you will be surprised to know that you can actually invert the colors of your complete iPhone or iPad screen, making it all the more cool and exciting. 


Why should you use this?
It will help make your eyes naturally adjust to the screen in complete darkness and reduce the strain on your eyes.

Use the Color Filters and Color Tints from Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations and select Color Filters in your iPod or iPad or iPhone:

Here is the step-by-step tutorial on how to use this feature which is completely different from the Night Shift mode and an amazing aid for people with night vision challenges or color blindness.

What does Color Filters actually do? 
The display of your iPhone is completely changed with a different look on everything on your screen whether these are pics or movies. You can use it when needed whenever you seem to have problems with your night vision. These settings are to be turned on at night, it’s recommended.

There are 4 pre-set filters you can actually use according to your type of vision disability you may have.

• Grayscale

• Red/Green (Suitable for Protanopia)

• Green/Red (Suitable for Deuteranopia)

• Blue/Yellow (Suitable for Tritanopia)

As you can see from the pictures above, there are 3 types of color tints you can give to your display screen according to your need. Swipe through the left or right to see the preview of rainbow of colors starting with red, yellow, green, blue, purple, to brown.

Not only this, you can adjust the color intensity of color tint, once you have chosen the hue from the color filters from the ‘Adjust color intensity’ and ‘Adjust Color Tint’.

How to Replace “Alexa” with “Ok Google” in Amazon Fire?

Amazon Echo 2nd generation has already entered the era of the smart wireless speakers. While some are just peeping into the new advancements slowly taking over the world, it will be not difficult to find the cult Netflix fans going gaga over the FireTV Sticks, Echo devices and voice controlled remotes!

Amazon Echo 2nd generation has already entered the era of the smart wireless speakers. While some are just peeping into the new advancements slowly taking over the world, it will be not difficult to find the cult Netflix fans going gaga over the FireTV Sticks, Echo devices and voice controlled remotes! 

Movie and music streaming in seconds with Amazon Echo devices!

For many of the users, it is their dream discovery of course. Movie streams, Netflix, Hollywood and Bollywood songs, Gaana and all the content you have in your Amazon account can be streamed with the help of FireTV Stick in no time! Of course, you need a an HDMI TV =for it to work, but that’s not a big deal today. You can use the Fire TV stick with a high-speed data connection. 

What’s more to this?

We can easily do the guesswork and say that Android development has come a long way because you can even download your favorite Android apps using the Amazon devices.

But what actually fascinates a customer who buys the devices from the Amazon range is actually the ability to ask the remote to do the things.


Amazon Alexa: Another “Siri” in the row?

Like “Google Assistant” and your very own “Siri” there to help you (and have fun with you!), there is Amazon’s own Alexa- a voice controlled function to do the things for you. Ask Alexa to streamline your favorite music or movie, it will find it from the Amazon Prime content you have and play it for you.

• How does Amazon Alexa works?

Like Google Voice Assistant, Amazon Alexa is a cloud-based voice control system. The generic function of a voice assistant is letting the users of the device interact with the device to follow the orders said in natural language. The device recognizes the natural voice and follows the orders. 

Fire TV, Fire Tablets and Amazon Echo Series and a handful of other devices are powered by this. This may come as a shocking fact for some but did you know that the Fire OS , used to run Amazon devices is actually a step higher than Android development. It is actually based on Android and as a matter of fact, you can even run Android apps on those devices if you purchase them. It is a fact of delight for any Android development company as well. Isn’t it?

Steps to enable ‘Ok Google’ in the Amazon devices
Let’s move on to the steps that are essential to disable Amazon Alexa and enable Ok Google in your Amazon Fire and Echo devices. Make sure that you are trying this for only Amazon Fire 7, HD 8 and HD 10 tablets.

Prerequisites to follow the steps further:

• First of all, you will need to install Google app to get the process started.      

• Also, to take the process further, you will need to be able to plug the device you have (that is Amazon device) into a computer so that you will be able to run commands with ADB (Android Debug Bridge). 

The following APK links will help you in installing the Play Store for different devices:
1.Google Services Framework
2.Google Play Services
3.Google Play Store
4.Google Account Manager


1. After you have setup the Google APKs to install the Google App, you will need to install another app from the Play Store which is ‘Settings Database Editor’. Now, let’s move on to the next step.

2. Next you will have to plug the Amazon device to your PC. After you plug in the device, just open a terminal. This is also called Command Prompt Window (CPW). You just need to type the command as written below:

adb shell pm grant by4a.setedit22 android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

3. By now, you have installed ‘Settings Database Editor’ which you will have to open now. Click on the “Secure” tab from the Menu of this editor and search for the below written code as following:

Voice_recognition_service
Can you see the value to the right hand side of the code line as:

com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/com.google.android.com.google.android.voicesearch.serviceapi.GoogleRecognitionService


4. Moving on to the next step, you will now need to add the following lines of code in the ‘Settings Database Editor’, Click on Add new setting in the Secure tab.

And start typing in the first box:

Assistant

5. This is what you will need to type in the second box:

com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/com.google.android.voiceinteraction.GsaVoiceInteractionService


6. Sixth easy step here would be find the below line of code:

alexa_enabled

If you see here, you will notice that the value on the right of the above line says ‘1’. 

Just click on the settings and change the value of 1 to 0, then save it. Saving this new value will disable Alexa. 

7. But there are a couple more steps to be followed in the bottom of the Secure tab: 

Voice_interaction_service

Add the following code of line to the right of the above line of the code which was otherwise empty.

com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/com.google.android.voiceinteraction.GsaVoiceInteractionService

EndNotes:

The above steps will successfully lead to activate and enable the Ok Google Voice Assistant now. To make sure, just log into Google and download other apps also. Try to say Ok Google and say your search query to check the results.

Google launches Assistant Go for Entry level Smartphones

Android Go is a light weight Operating System which has been designed for entry level smartphones having low RAM. Google has released this OS few months ago for entry level smartphones and it runs and works smoothly and efficiently for your tasks. Now Google has announced a new Google Assistant Go app which work smoothly on any entry level smartphone which is running on an Android Go platform. As Android One needs low memory taking apps which will work smoothly on the low RAM smartphones therefore Google has been launching their popular Go apps one by one so that people can use them on their Android One based mobile phones having low RAM.

More and more people Hire Android App Developer as they know Android smartphones and Android apps are popular not among premium smartphone users but also among entry level users. You must be knowing that Google’s Assistant is the world’s most popular Virtual Assistant which can help you as your companion. People who are using entry level Android devices are also wanting to use the same Assistant on their affordable devices. Now the Android One users will be able to use the same Google assistant on their affordable smartphones using the new Google Assistant Go App. This new Google Assistant Go app is created to work on Android One platform. Good news is that you can now download and install the Assistant Go App from the Play Store if you are an Android One Smartphone user. The app is available free of cost and also it doesn’t need anything else from the users.

If you are using an Android one smartphone and also have installed the new Google Assistant Go App on your device then you can now ask your queries to the Assistant Go App and get your proper responses from the Assistant Go for your queries. You can use your own voice to give commands and it will work fine. It just requires a one time setup on your phone for your own voice and after that the Assistant will Work by your voice commands. As Google Assistant Go is for lighter phones hence it don’t have all the features which are available in the original version of Google Assistant although the Assistant Go has features like reminders, supports for actions and other smart devices etc. Right now Google Assistant Go App is available only in English language. In future Google will add more languages support so that more people can use it on their Android one based smartphones.
Google is best company when it comes to taking care of the users who can’t afford a premium smartphone. Just to update you, Google has already released many Android Go Applications earlier. Still so many people around the world use simple and entry level smartphones therefore Google plans to cover more users through this Google Assistant Go app. For more information about this app and to install it on your Android One smartphone just go to your Google Play Store on your Android phone and download and install Google Assistant Go App and enjoy its services and features.

An introduction to Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps

Technology is changing quite fast. Websites now are very different than what were they in 1990 when first website was released. Also, the mobile phones we now use are much capable of what they did in their initial days of launch. Now we don’t use browsers to only access web pages but also web apps, while the apps we load on our mobile phones can be either native or hybrid. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) term was first used in 2015 to describe the combined use of latest technologies, design concepts and web APIs to provide an app like experience on the mobile browser. They run inside modern web browsers and they don’t need to get downloaded from an app store.

As the process of Mobile application development evolved many new concepts came into existence. The concept of progressive web apps was first introduced by Google in 2015. As we are now in 2018, we can see the progression in the implementation of progressive web apps. In PWA, the design and programming is relatively easy and it is bound to provide the best user experience. That’s why Progressive web apps have become increasingly popular. The name progressive web apps can suggest that it is something related to web apps but this is actually the future of mobile apps.


Growth of Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
Now most of the latest technologies are directed to work with the essence of web and mobile apps, which is the building block for any PWA. Or we can just assume a website that has been designed and developed using the best of latest web technologies, but becomes an app, offering best user experience.

If you are running a Mobile App Development Company then you must be knowing how technology has evolved over the years for mobile app development and for web app development. In recent years there has been a lot of improvement and innovation in the browser capabilities and service workers, push APIs and Cache which allow the users to get the web apps installed on their home screens, while working offline with options to receive push notifications. The good thing about progressive web apps is that it has a huge developers community along with large web network and latest plugins. Also the deployment and maintenance of a website is very easy as compared to the apps in the app stores.


Advantages of Progressive Web Apps (PWA):-
For Developers:-
Most of the developers are looking for easier ways of deploying and developing apps across the web and mobile, while offering a smooth and an intuitive flexible user experience. With PWA, you don’t need to worry about developing different versions of your code for various platforms, browsers or devices, as this is programmed to run across the mobile and web with no variance in the platform or browser or OS. The main benefit here is that the time taken to build a PWA is less and the efficiency of the APIs which don’t need any backward compatibility as in the case of apps, is great. Also there is no requirement of version fragmentation here and you will enjoy the deployment and maintenance that PWA offers compared to native apps.

For End users:-
As the developers get many benefits of PWA app development process, the end users also get some advantages. The native apps that you have in your app store has been losing about 20% of its users. There are many phases involved in app use process. Starting from the first interaction of the user with your app to user starting to use the features of your app which sometimes lead to abandoning of the app. The various phases are finding an app on the app store, downloading, installing and then finally opening and running it. In between all of these stages, many a time the users leave the app store, abandon the action and never return which is a loss. The reason can be many like the waiting time. But with PWA we can delete all these unnecessary stages including downloading and installation which goes on in between, allowing the user to start using the app instantly with an option to upgrade it to a full screen mode. In the apps which we download from the app stores, the mobile apps are best as they take less data and are faster which is an advantage that has been implemented inside PWA. Therefore it helps in improving the user experience, increases user retention and performance of the app.

How are Progressive Web Apps different?
Enhancement of the web apps continued even after the introduction of Ajax. JavaScript continued to mature and evolve and the introduction of JavaScript frameworks and libraries helped web apps to become even more dynamic than before. Web apps were used alongside mobile apps. More and more people started using mobile devices than desktop devices and the limitations of web apps exposed.

The main difference initially was that native apps, the apps designed for iOS and Android - offered a better user-experience. They can be accessed faster and the performance was more smoother than that offered by a web app on a mobile device. Although many native apps can still be used even if there is no internet, can still update information even when running in the background and with use of push notifications - can bring higher engagement rates.
With continued evolution of CSS3, JavaScript and arrival of HTML5 along with more powerful browsers and processors gave the way for hybrid apps leading ultimately to Progressive Web Apps. Progressive web apps differ from native, hybrid and regular web apps in these points:-

• PWAs work on any mobile device with a supported web browser, regardless of operating sytem and even with slow internet.

• PWAs need not to be downloaded and installed via an app store.

• Although PWAs are not native or hybrid apps still they can still be added to your home screen.

• Unlike regular web apps, they continue to update information even when running in the background.

There are also some criteria for web apps in order for them to be considered PWAs:-

• They should originate from a secure origin and sent over SSL and they must not include any mixed content.

• They must be able to load while offline. Means PWAs require service workers.

• They should reference a manifest with at least the following properties:

1.   name
2.   short_name
3.   start_url
4.   display with a value of standalone or full screen

What makes Progressive web apps awesome?
There are many reasons for progressive web apps being so awesome that they are becoming so much popular now a days. These reasons are:-

• PWA cost less are are faster to develop and deploy than native and hybrid apps. Most PWAs can be implemented using your current web framework with almost no need of additional programming languages and technologies.

• The app will be easy to expand with new functionality if needed. Many of the key features like pinning to home screen, push notifications, offline functionality, syncing in background - are to emulate an app like experience and an app like look and feel.

• PWAs are cross platform hence there is almost no need to change it for different devices, especially if you have given more focus to responsiveness.

• PWAs are fully supported by Google and other key browser developers are also supporting it fast.

• You can get your app to market faster as there is no need to first submit it to Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

• They are fully indexable by search engines hence no need for extra app store marketing.

• Need less efforts in getting users to use the app.

Conclusion
Although Progressive Web Apps is a new technology but it has already shown immense benefits including lower development cost as compared to native apps. If you want to reach your full audience with a native app then you need two apps, one for iOS and one for Android hence requires more cost. Add to that the cost of ongoing maintenance to ensure it works with each new OS version along with some backward compatibility for users with an older OS. With a PWA you only need to develop a single version of your website or web app. And as we have just discussed PWAs has immediate benefits for both you as a developer or business owner and for your customers as well.