Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2015
Runscope Offers New Service To Test Live API Calls For Improving The Quality Of Mobile Apps
Runscope, which develops tools that monitor API traffic, has launched a new automated API and backend service testing tool to improve the quality of mobile apps.
The new Runscope Radar service, launched at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, is designed to alleviate the concerns that come with changing backend APIs. It allows app maintainers to verify that their backend services are returning the data their apps expect with the intent of reducing the frequency of app crashes. But testing can be a fragile process that if it goes wrong can cause a poor experience for the customer. Runscope Radar is designed to help customers change their apps’ backend services without breaking it. The intent is to provide ways to improve the service without disrupting the customer experience.
With Radar, a developer starts with a list of requests and sets the parameters to determine if the API is working. The tests are based on real requests made from apps for high-fidelity recreations of real-world situations.
A customer receives notifications based upon the completion or failure of any test. The service integrates with services like CircleCi, GitHub, Heroku, Jenkins and TeamCity to run API tests on commits, builds or deploys.
For example, a developer consuming an API just wants to make sure that it is not affecting the end-user experience. If an API breaks it disrupts the communication.
“Broken services, broken apps,” said John Sheehan, CEO of Runscope, to me at the conference after his presentation. “Even internal services powering your apps need to be always available.”
APIs are now widely used by developers but reliability is still an issue, as there can be any number of issues with the numerous devices and platforms people use.
There are still few ways to manage API reliability. Companies go through a process of checking with API providers to determine if they can be counted on.
Runscope is a company that offers a service that will become more in demand as APIs become ever more common. The process to test APIs is for the most part a manual one that needs to be more automated. This is especially true as more startups emerge that are pure API services offered as mobile apps.
Data source: via TC (By Alex Williams)
Origine souorce: Runscope
Friday, April 3, 2015
Top 10 Best Trending Apps for iPhone of 2014
If you own an iPhone and seeking for free apps, then here is the list of best 10 iPhone apps that will guide you towards new feelings. These 10 apps listed in our blog have displayed an outstanding performance across the world and they are completely "FREE".
Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe Photoshop Express provides you the freedom of editing any photograph in a small mobile space. It is a free photo editing app for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad. It is a perfect application for simple edits to your photographs on your iPhone.
Download from iTunes
Dashlane
Dashlane is password manager and a digital wallet back-up app. When you purchase anything online, it automatically saves your information and keeps them encrypted unless you unlock your app. The apps basic functionalities are free, but to get more functionalities, you need to upgrade it to premium account.
Download from iTunes
Flipboard is your own personal magazine. It is the best app to get the news on-board that you like. Amazing news from around the world from several news magazine and turns your magazine pages into digital pages.
Download from iTunes
IMDB
IMDB is one of the best and handiest movie reference website on the planet. If you want to know the name of a movie by a particular actor or actress, then IMDB is your first choice, as it never fails when it comes to movies and TV series.
Download from iTunes
Kayak
Currently Kayak is among the best iPhone app for traveling information and and bookings. Kayak provides every detailed information for flight, hotel and car reservations. Using this app, you can get the best deals on airfare and other treveling arrangements.
Download from iTunes
Onavo Extend
Onavo Extend is a free app that compresses your iPhones data automatically to reduce the usage of it on your iPhone. It save your limit, when you are about to extend it. Its very helpful for those traveling a lot, as in that situation it limits your data usage.
Download from iTunes
Smartr Contacts
Smartr Contacts provide a great deal of search functionality including iPhone contacts, Facebook friends, Linkedin contacts and Gmail. The interface is user-friendly, and its designed more like a search app rather than browsing.
Download from iTunes
WebMD
WebMD is a medical app, but it is helpful in more than just diagnostic. As you input the symptoms that are causing you problems, it will show whats the ailment. Its the one medical free app that you must have in your iPhone.
Download from iTunes
Cloze
If you have a big friend circle on social sites, then Cloze is the app for you as it collects data such as tweets, emails, facebook posts from different social sites and prioritizes them on your list whom are more relevant to you.
Download from iTunes
Converter Plus
This is not just a simple calculator app, but it is an all-in-one app providing nearly all types of conversions including currency conversions, loan-interest rates, measurements for temperature and more.
Download from iTunes
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Let me know your views on these iPhone applications. Please share your thoughts below.
About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.
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Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.
Follow Anna Harris On
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Android apps make their way to Chrome OS
Google announced availability of the first set of Android apps for Chrome OS. The list of four applications includes Vine, Duolingo, Evernote, and Sight Words.
The apps’ availability is a result of project App Runtime for Chrome (Beta). The latter was announced during this year’s Google I/O.
Going forward, Google will expand the list of available Android apps by working with select developers. You can also request which apps you want to see available on Chrome OS over here.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
The best apps for the S Pen
If you are the lucky owner of a Samsung GALAXY Note II then you need to check out our video guide to the best apps to make the most of Samsungs innovative pressure sensitive S Pen.
The real beauty of the Samsung GALAXY Note II is the fact that it opens up a whole new world of apps that work even better with the S Pen. Check out the video above for a run through of our current favourite apps on the Google Play store that make the most of the S Pen.
If you want to create something really spectacular on your Note II, then an arty app is a good place to start. LayerPaint makes the creative process even easier by allowing you to work with different layers.
There are loads of handy tools available to help perfect your masterpiece, including brushes, bucket tool, gradation and hand tool.
Once youre happy with your creation, you can even export your work as a Photoshop file to pick up where you left off on your laptop or desktop computer.
An app thats essential for any keen photographers out there is Touch ReTouch. Using your S Pen, you can tweak and edit your GALAXY Note II photos in great detail quickly and easily. You can remove shadows, ghosts and flare, touch-up facial tone and even remove whole bridges and buildings from a background.
Then if youre unsure of the changes, theres an unlimited undo/redo feature and you always keep the original image resolution.
Maze Racer is hand drawn and looks beautiful. It was originally created for a Best S Pen app competition, so is perfect for the S Pen.
The aim is to draw a line from the word start to the word finish, with lots of obstacles getting in your way.
Youre even encouraged to draw your own levels and send them in – which is made infinitely better using the S Pen.
Angry Birds isnt an S Pen specific app, granted, but we reckon its even better to play with one. The precision of the S Pen is loads better than clumsy fingers and you can swipe your catapult across much faster too.
This time the eponymous Angry Birds and the enemy insolent swines find themselves floating in a strange new galaxy. But of course the games built on the same principles as before – launch your birds to destroy as many pigs as possible. This version has 140 levels to complete too, so should keep you busy.
Read more »
The real beauty of the Samsung GALAXY Note II is the fact that it opens up a whole new world of apps that work even better with the S Pen. Check out the video above for a run through of our current favourite apps on the Google Play store that make the most of the S Pen.
LayerPaint
£1.99If you want to create something really spectacular on your Note II, then an arty app is a good place to start. LayerPaint makes the creative process even easier by allowing you to work with different layers.
There are loads of handy tools available to help perfect your masterpiece, including brushes, bucket tool, gradation and hand tool.
Once youre happy with your creation, you can even export your work as a Photoshop file to pick up where you left off on your laptop or desktop computer.
Touch ReTouch HD
£0.62An app thats essential for any keen photographers out there is Touch ReTouch. Using your S Pen, you can tweak and edit your GALAXY Note II photos in great detail quickly and easily. You can remove shadows, ghosts and flare, touch-up facial tone and even remove whole bridges and buildings from a background.
Then if youre unsure of the changes, theres an unlimited undo/redo feature and you always keep the original image resolution.
Maze Racer
FreeMaze Racer is hand drawn and looks beautiful. It was originally created for a Best S Pen app competition, so is perfect for the S Pen.
The aim is to draw a line from the word start to the word finish, with lots of obstacles getting in your way.
Youre even encouraged to draw your own levels and send them in – which is made infinitely better using the S Pen.
Angry Birds Space
FreeAngry Birds isnt an S Pen specific app, granted, but we reckon its even better to play with one. The precision of the S Pen is loads better than clumsy fingers and you can swipe your catapult across much faster too.
This time the eponymous Angry Birds and the enemy insolent swines find themselves floating in a strange new galaxy. But of course the games built on the same principles as before – launch your birds to destroy as many pigs as possible. This version has 140 levels to complete too, so should keep you busy.
How Little Changes Can Have Big Impacts on Apps and Services
Sometimes, something as simple as the design of an Order Now button can drastically affect the success of your big idea. Should you trust your intuition and hope for the best, or carry out test after test to figure out what the customers want? At a Nasscom panel to discuss customisation and integration - moderated by NDTV Gadgets Editorial Head Kunal Dua - we discussed this and more with various industry experts.
According to R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, intuition is what you use when you run out of data, and that good business requires both data and intuition. "Intuition will tell you what the options are, while data can tell you which one works best," says Chandrashekhar.
Tanuj Mendiratta, Co-Founder and CEO, Appiterate, provides an example that underlines Chandrashekhars point. Appiterate is a company that allows developers to do A/B testing of design on live apps, with India-based taxi company Olacabs as one of its clients.
"Olacabs wanted to turn usage into referrals," says Mendiratta. "They had been trying to make sense of data to increase their footprint on mobile, so they partnered with us in order to strengthen their data science and leverage it to improve user acquisition."
One of the options that the company tested involved a small change is the design of the invite button that resulted in a 55 percent increase in invitations being sent out, and a 33 percent increase in user acquisition, Mendiratta claims.
Emphasising the importance of design in success - or failure - of products, Muki Regunathan, Founder and CEO, Pepper Square, described how the same experience that Olacabs had, is equally true on the Web.
"We used an analysis backed approach, and on one of the projects that we were working on, all we did was change the shape of the call to action button. This one small change led to an increase of 250,000 tickets."
Testing design and content features is a well-established field, and there are several companies that work in this area now. Appiterate - which received VC funding earlier this year - is just one of them, but the Gurgaon-based company already has an impressive client roster, including Spice Labs, Ibibo, Reviews42, Taxi for Sure, and of course Ola.
The company claims to be the only A/B testing product that has a simple drag and drop interface that any business can use to easily test its apps. These changes can be made to live apps, so that the testing is done in real market conditions, and real user behaviour can be studied to gain data.
However, real change to the user experience will only come once this data is shared between different apps, leading to a greater degree of personalisation, instead of customisation, says Ravi Gururaj, Chariman, Nasscom Product Council, and Chairman and Co-Founder, Frictionless Ventures, a funding and incubation company with a focus on cloud, mobile and big data software product ventures.
"The new customisation is going to be personalisation," says Gururaj, "And what will happen is that you will get app-like experiences inside apps. Youll have containers, that bring together a lot of different functionality instead of needing lots of disparate apps."
One roadblock in India towards this end is the slow uptake of API use by developers. Chandrashekhar also points out that as long as companies try to control linkages, developing new ideas will remain a challenge.
"Real growth will come through organic partnerships," he says, "with people who you have never even heard of."
"People are not open to opening up," says Gururaj. "But integration is the norm. No one can make an end to end product now. Even the phones you use, they come from so many different vendors. Then there is the app ecosystem, which is in turn supported by more ecosystems. [People need to] learn to grab and deliver value to the ecosystem."
Friday, March 27, 2015
Google Play may offer trials of Android apps
Google is reportedly planning to offer portions of paid applications for free in order to encourage Android users to part with cash on the Google Play Store.
The company is considering a trial program, which would offer ‘micro apps,’ for free, so users can see what they’re getting for their cash before committing to buying the full app.
The scheme, reported by The Information website, would be akin to a console game demo, or the limited amount of articles often offered by a website before the paywall kicks in.
Wednesday’s report comes as Google continues its attempts to replicate the success of iTunes and the App Store on its Android platform.
Although Google has surpassed Apple in terms of operating system market share, that dominance hasn’t been replicated in sales of apps, movies, music and more.
Apple leads the way in what it pays out to developers (and thus leads the way in the cut it pockets) and also does a roaring trade in in-app purchases. Android users tend to prefer their free apps.
The goal of the try-before-you-buy scheme would be to give users enough of a taste they’ll then commit to buying.
The trial would also users to save their data allowance by only downloading a portion of an app rather than the full fat version.
Would such a trial, that enabled you to fall in love with a slice of an app, convince you to open up your wallet more often on the Google Play Store? Let us know below.
Read more »
The company is considering a trial program, which would offer ‘micro apps,’ for free, so users can see what they’re getting for their cash before committing to buying the full app.
The scheme, reported by The Information website, would be akin to a console game demo, or the limited amount of articles often offered by a website before the paywall kicks in.
Wednesday’s report comes as Google continues its attempts to replicate the success of iTunes and the App Store on its Android platform.
Although Google has surpassed Apple in terms of operating system market share, that dominance hasn’t been replicated in sales of apps, movies, music and more.
Apple leads the way in what it pays out to developers (and thus leads the way in the cut it pockets) and also does a roaring trade in in-app purchases. Android users tend to prefer their free apps.
The goal of the try-before-you-buy scheme would be to give users enough of a taste they’ll then commit to buying.
The trial would also users to save their data allowance by only downloading a portion of an app rather than the full fat version.
Would such a trial, that enabled you to fall in love with a slice of an app, convince you to open up your wallet more often on the Google Play Store? Let us know below.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Best PDF Reader Apps for Android Both Free and Paid Apps
Below is a list of the best free and paid PDF Reader apps for Android. It turns out finding a good Android PDF reader is harder than it sounds.
Running a search for “PDF Reader” or “PDF Viewer” in the Android Market turns up hundreds of results, and finding one that has all the features you’re looking for can take a lot of time and research, especially when the search results seem list anything with the word PDF in the title or description.
This list isn’t by any means all the PDF Reader apps for Android, just the best ones I’ve tried over the past year on various Android tablets, and even on the rooted Nook Touch ebook reader. Feel free to add your own PDF Reader app suggestions in the comments section below.
I’ve included links to the Android Market so that you can jump over and read the reviews and download them if you want, along with the Amazon Appstore when available. You can probably find most of them at other app stores like SlideMe and GetJar too, and websites that host apk files like Freeware Lovers.
Adobe Reader – This app used to be really basic until Adobe updated it, and it’s now one of the best PDF apps for Android. For features it has search, text re-flow with variable font sizes, pinch zooming, on-screen markup, notes, highlights, a sharing feature for sending the file to email or another app like Google Docs or Dropbox, and more. Free at Android Market and Amazon.
EBookDroid – This is a nice basic PDF viewer that is a little smoother and quicker than some of the other free apps. It has pinch zooming, a zoom dial, go-to-page with location slider, table of contents, night mode, option for 2 page landscape, and a few other misc settings. Free at Android Market.
Aldiko Book Reader – Aldiko is more of an ePub reading app, but they added support for PDF files awhile back and it does a serviceable job displaying PDFs. It doesn’t have any advanced features like it does with ebooks, just search, table of contents, pinch-zooming, and go to page. It has on-screen functions for copying, sharing, and looking up words in the dictionary, but with PDFs this feature tends to have a hard time detecting the beginning and ending of a word properly. Free at Android Market and Amazon.
Bluefire Reader – Like Aldiko, Bluefire is more of an ePub reader but serves as a decent PDF viewer as well. For features it has table of contents, a page slider, night mode, pinch zooming, and different page turn settings. Sometimes you can bring up the on-screen functions for copying text and adding bookmarks, which double as highlights and text notes, but this doesn’t always seem to work with PDFs. You can still add bookmarks and notes to individual pages, though, so that makes it the best option as a free app for notes and bookmarks. Free at Android Market.
APV PDF Viewer – A decent free PDF viewing app with on-screen zooming icons and different zoom settings, go-to-page, you can change to various text and background colors, search, and some other advanced settings. Free at Android Market.
ezPDF Reader – Whether it be a tablet or a hacked Nook Touch, ezPDF is my PDF Reader app of choice, and it’s the most popular paid PDF app for Android. It has a ton of features, including text re-flow, fit text to column, pinch zooming, text-to-speech, play embedded video and audio, active hyperlinks, thumbnail view, bookmarks, add notes, highlights, on-screen annotations, and plenty more. Costs $1.99 at Android Market and Amazon.
RepliGo Reader – I haven’t used this app personally but have heard good things about it. Plus it seems to be the most popular and well-rated paid PDF Reader app aside from ezPDF Reader. Has lots of features, especially when it comes to annotating: Add highlights, cross outs, underlines, sticky notes, arrows, lines, ovals, rectangles, freehand drawings and text boxes. Integrates with Gmail, Dropbox, and Evernote. Costs $4.99 at Android Market and Amazon.
Mantano Reader – I briefly tried the free trial version of this app and it has a fair amount of PDF features. It’s kind of expensive, though, so make sure to try the trial version first. PDF features include pinch zooming, margin removal, adjustment to one column for multi-column documents, TOC, word selection with a long press, copy, TTS, dictionary, search, add notes, highlights, bookmarks, on-screen scribbles. Costs $7.49 at Android Market and Amazon.
Read more »
Running a search for “PDF Reader” or “PDF Viewer” in the Android Market turns up hundreds of results, and finding one that has all the features you’re looking for can take a lot of time and research, especially when the search results seem list anything with the word PDF in the title or description.
This list isn’t by any means all the PDF Reader apps for Android, just the best ones I’ve tried over the past year on various Android tablets, and even on the rooted Nook Touch ebook reader. Feel free to add your own PDF Reader app suggestions in the comments section below.
I’ve included links to the Android Market so that you can jump over and read the reviews and download them if you want, along with the Amazon Appstore when available. You can probably find most of them at other app stores like SlideMe and GetJar too, and websites that host apk files like Freeware Lovers.
Best Free Android PDF Apps
Adobe Reader – This app used to be really basic until Adobe updated it, and it’s now one of the best PDF apps for Android. For features it has search, text re-flow with variable font sizes, pinch zooming, on-screen markup, notes, highlights, a sharing feature for sending the file to email or another app like Google Docs or Dropbox, and more. Free at Android Market and Amazon.
EBookDroid – This is a nice basic PDF viewer that is a little smoother and quicker than some of the other free apps. It has pinch zooming, a zoom dial, go-to-page with location slider, table of contents, night mode, option for 2 page landscape, and a few other misc settings. Free at Android Market.
Aldiko Book Reader – Aldiko is more of an ePub reading app, but they added support for PDF files awhile back and it does a serviceable job displaying PDFs. It doesn’t have any advanced features like it does with ebooks, just search, table of contents, pinch-zooming, and go to page. It has on-screen functions for copying, sharing, and looking up words in the dictionary, but with PDFs this feature tends to have a hard time detecting the beginning and ending of a word properly. Free at Android Market and Amazon.
Bluefire Reader – Like Aldiko, Bluefire is more of an ePub reader but serves as a decent PDF viewer as well. For features it has table of contents, a page slider, night mode, pinch zooming, and different page turn settings. Sometimes you can bring up the on-screen functions for copying text and adding bookmarks, which double as highlights and text notes, but this doesn’t always seem to work with PDFs. You can still add bookmarks and notes to individual pages, though, so that makes it the best option as a free app for notes and bookmarks. Free at Android Market.
APV PDF Viewer – A decent free PDF viewing app with on-screen zooming icons and different zoom settings, go-to-page, you can change to various text and background colors, search, and some other advanced settings. Free at Android Market.
Best Paid PDF Readers for Android
ezPDF Reader – Whether it be a tablet or a hacked Nook Touch, ezPDF is my PDF Reader app of choice, and it’s the most popular paid PDF app for Android. It has a ton of features, including text re-flow, fit text to column, pinch zooming, text-to-speech, play embedded video and audio, active hyperlinks, thumbnail view, bookmarks, add notes, highlights, on-screen annotations, and plenty more. Costs $1.99 at Android Market and Amazon.
RepliGo Reader – I haven’t used this app personally but have heard good things about it. Plus it seems to be the most popular and well-rated paid PDF Reader app aside from ezPDF Reader. Has lots of features, especially when it comes to annotating: Add highlights, cross outs, underlines, sticky notes, arrows, lines, ovals, rectangles, freehand drawings and text boxes. Integrates with Gmail, Dropbox, and Evernote. Costs $4.99 at Android Market and Amazon.
Mantano Reader – I briefly tried the free trial version of this app and it has a fair amount of PDF features. It’s kind of expensive, though, so make sure to try the trial version first. PDF features include pinch zooming, margin removal, adjustment to one column for multi-column documents, TOC, word selection with a long press, copy, TTS, dictionary, search, add notes, highlights, bookmarks, on-screen scribbles. Costs $7.49 at Android Market and Amazon.
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