Top 4 Technologies Establishing the Existence of Mobile Apps

Gone are the days when technology was just for entertainment. It has come a long way more effectively with more usability, more features connecting the audience worldwide. Experts are pushing themselves beyond limits to create advanced technology and to productively use innovations for the betterment of human life.

Today, users love to access the content on smartphones while on the move. This habit of users of accessing online services has revolutionized the way they connect with the world over the web.

Every enterprise wants to create an identity in the race of developing mobile apps either for B2C or B2B operations. They want to serve their customers in a more intelligent way by introducing their own web and mobile apps.

For this, there are brands that opt for outsourcing software development rather than doing it in-house.  As they save them from the headaches of hiring skilled developers and managing the whole project on their own.

Most businesses are integrating their core business activities with the mobile app and web app technology.

1. iOS with Cocoa Framework 

• This technology best works for developing OSX and iOS apps. The Gulf areas - Europe and America-are where most users use the apps developed for this technology.
• Developers can write perfect code, which is highly dependable on this platform. This Framework supports most popular iOS programming languages – Swift and Objective-C.
• Cocoa Framework is used for developing iOS apps as it is dedicated to Apple devices.
• This platform is helpful in embracing excellent animation features in the apps. Moreover, the quality is guaranteed by Apple.

2. Xamarin

• Xamarin is the best platform to develop apps with a single codebase. If you are planning to            develop an app on cross-platform, that too in a single codebase that will save you money and time both then no other than Xamarin can meet your and user’s expectations.

• It is one of the most stable platforms because of it features, pattern and the level of standards that are helpful to develop cross platform apps effectively.
• Recently acquired by Microsoft, Xamarin is expected to advance more with frequent updates.
• It can reduce development time and complete the process in a more efficient manner. A recurring licensing fee is required every month to get a premium version of its features.

3. PhoneGap

• It is widely considered as one of the best cross-platform development tools. In this, developers only need to write the code once and can deploy across multiple platforms. 

• Supportive tool for those who want to create a simple and decent layout of cross-platform apps. It gives uniformity in user interface because with a single codebase, it makes your app look and feel the same on all platforms.
• PhoneGap development can be carried out by a developer who has knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

4. React Native

• Another cross-development platform is owned by Facebook, i.e. React Native. The developer can create an app once and can run it on different platforms.
• If you’re opting React Native for app development, developers must have an expertise in JavaScript.
• The prime advantage of React Native over others is its cost-effectiveness, which can reduce your development cost by approx. 50% and give you most budget-friendly business app.
• It is best to create bug-free apps; even the debugging process is quite simple to perform.
• React Native is one of the best tools to integrate high-quality animations in your mobile app.
All the above-mentioned technologies can create a difference on the basis of their pros and cons.

What technology you would like to opt totally depends on factors- like the vastness of your business, budget limits and flow of operations. Choose the one that best meets your business requirements and add to your revenue growth.

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What makes CakePHP The Ideal Framework for Agile Website Development

As the competition grows for earning the recognition and exclusive space on the internet, the web developers often have to walk a tightrope- with quality and performance on one hand, while the speed of development on the other.

Though there are many tools to help them in the process, choosing one that is both efficient and trustworthy is a tough call.

CakePHP is one such tool, a framework to be precise, that has caught the attention of developers due to the ease and fluidity it brings in the overall development process. Having been used to complete countless projects in possibly every domain, CakePHP is now the framework of choice for seasoned and mature developers. Apart from its open-source tag, let’s take a look at the few features that contribute to its immense popularity and efficiency:

#1. Auto-Configuration

The first thing you notice while using CakePHP is that you don’t have to spare additional time and effort for specifying the location of libraries or the URL of any file.  CakePHP is designed to configure such information automatically. All you are required to do is to connect your database, and you are good to go.

#2. MVC

Model View Controller is how the big projects are managed these days, owing to the flexibility it provides in separating logic from implementation. CakePHP is based on MVC pattern and proves to be a smart choice if you are looking to start a large website development project. 

#3. Modularity

If you want to customize your website with some little snippets or extensions, don’t look any further than CakePHP. It offers the developers an option to modularize their entire project and then customize them as per their requirements. 

#4. Reusability

Since CakePHP development is modular in nature, the modules you write for any project can be easily extended to other projects of similar nature. This means once you develop a considerably large library of such reusable components, the development time and costs for future projects are drastically reduced.

#5. Less coding

Writing codes in itself is a hectic task, but if every little detail of the product needs to be coded manually, not only does it bring down the productivity of developers, but also soars up the costs. CakePHP comes with many plug-in helpers and components that are ready-to-use without writing a single line of code for them.

#6. Security

Though an open-source framework, CakePHP has the reputation of being highly secure. Licensed under MIT license, the framework comes with a host of built-in security tools like XSS prevention, SQL injection prevention, among others.

#7. Custom test cases

While core tests are essential to check the functionality of the product as a whole, sometimes developers also need to test some specific functions. CakePHP gives them the liberty to create custom test cases to ensure that every aspect of the application is tested before deployment.

#8. Object-relational mapping

This is yet another feature that makes website development on CakePHP faster and effortless. Since it represents every table as a class, and once the relations are properly defined among them, the developers no longer need to write any SQL commands.

#9. Language support

Generally overlooked, this feature comes quite handy when the developer working on a project is not much comfortable in English- which is default in most of the other frameworks.

If you are looking to hire a CakePHP developer to build a website for your business, feel free to contact Konstant Infosolutions, a top rated CakePHP development company.

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Apple App Store Review Guidelines Revised- Here’s a Quick Look

Apple, the technology giant from California has altered guidelines for app review. Is it a bane or boon for developers? Let’s find out what’s revised- a must-read for iPhone app owners and iPhone developers.

Leading the tech market of the world on its own terms, Apple has changed the way people looked at the gadget sector a few years back. It took the world of technology to the next level with its revolutionary production of iPhones, all set to entice the world with iPhone 7 edition

Apple App store, being the governor of all the applications, has stated several guidelines for iOS developers to keep in mind while designing and developing their app. There are certain rules and clauses defined that an app should adhere to go live. These rules are widely known as App Store Review Guidelines.

The company has made several modifications to the stated terms in order to make the system clean, authentic and lovable by its users. According to Apple officials, there hasn’t been any major change to the store’s guidelines, but they have been modified to provide a clear context to its readers with better understandability.

An alarming notice was fired to all the iOS developers around the globe to make them understand the quality, authenticity and reliability that the tech maestro demands. The improvement process for Apple has already begun from 7th September 2016, which includes weighty concerns for the developers.

App store guidelines upgrade includes the following:

Removal of non-functional and sluggish apps

The company is crystal clear about its future agenda, which states that it will be removing all the non-functional apps from the store irrespective of its category. Plus, if your app crashes at the time of launch, it will be slaughtered straight away. However, other apps will get a repentance period of 30 days to release an update else it will be sent to thrash. The company added that the removal of the app from the store won’t affect its functionality for the users having it installed, but will prevent future customers from searching or downloading it.

With this move, Apple aims at keeping only quality apps on its store while dismissing the rest out of the equation.

App names should not exceed 50 characters

Next update which will give sleepless nights to the fraudulent or cheesy developers is the limitation on the app names front. It was noticed that developers were trying to fool the searching mechanism of the app store by using long and irrelevant app names. These long names were not displayed on the store and provided least or no value to the user. To overcome such an issue, Apple has decided to cut down the length of titles to 50 characters.

The new naming convention would certainly hamper development houses that tend to create keyword-specific titles for their apps. On the contrary, aforementioned upgrades will certainly improve the ecosystem of the App store by eradicating spam applications that currently prevail.

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Looking for Ways To Reduce Your Costs And Web Development Timeline? Consider These Factors

Today, the Internet is a full-scale virtual world- with multi-billion users, millions of services, unique virtual identity and of course, a highly prosperous economy. So, it is only plausible to say that online presence has become more of a compulsion than a matter of choice, no matter what service you provide or the what product you sell,

But since it is a major business decision with the potential to make or break the future prospects, you should trust only the top website development companies that along with their technical expertise, can also lend you the market outlook.

But here is the problem- though website development isn’t as expensive as app development, it isn’t also cheap either. Especially, if you get your website built by top web developers. And it is at this stage that most of the businesses begin to falter when their cost is judged against the quality they deliver.  More often than not, you end up making the wrong choice.

So, if you wish to make an informed move, you need to first realize that there are indeed two types of costs involved: 1. The one you save in the short run; 2. The one you have to pay in the long run.

To reduce cost and time of your web development, you can resort to:

1. Open-source development

There are many open-source web development tools that you can use to cut costs, which would otherwise be spent on propriety solutions. Some of the finest applications we use today are built using open-source tools like Magento, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal.

2. Third-party tools

Most of the common features you see in websites can be implemented using third-party tools and plugins, that along with being cost-effective are quick and easy-to-deploy. Using such tools is, in fact, the most feasible solution for those looking to hit the market at the earliest and aren’t much into customization.

3. Minimum viable product

This is possibly the only option you have in order to save considerable bucks while keeping the future prospects of a quality product open. The idea is to invest your limited resources into creating a high-quality small application than a low-quality full-scale web application.
But if you take that route to have short-term benefits, these are long-term costs that you may have to bear:

                Read More: How Much Does a Magento Website Development Cost?

 Scalability

A web application built using a myriad of different third-party tools is known to frequently break down. Scaling such application to serve larger audience than it was initially meant to, is simply very tough. The only solution you will have is to create a new application from scratch, that eventually will result in higher costs than you saved in the first place.

 Security

Thousands of websites are hacked each day. Do you think that the hacker visits each site individually to figure out its vulnerabilities and then breach the security? Absolutely not.

What they do instead is find the vulnerability in third-party tools and it is at this point that every website using that tool becomes susceptible to security attacks and they can do nothing about it unless that third-party releases a patch. So, unless you deploy custom solutions developed in-house, you will continue to run your business on the mercy of third-party.

 Patenting 

If you expect your business to grow on a large-scale, you would also want to secure your solution as an intellectual property. But if your solution itself is developed using different third-party tools, you have no protection against plagiarism, and anyone is free to copy your product and sell as their own.

In the end, it all comes down to individual preferences and how they wish to shape their business in the future. However, we suggest is that you should be sensitive about value-for-money because a free lunch is not something that you can rely your business upon. 

             Read More: How Much Does it Cost to Develop a WordPress Site?

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Android Receives a Major Security Boost by Google Play Protect

Android is generally perceived as not being one of the most secure platforms, and with over 2 billion active devices and frequent security breaches in the last couple of years, the perception isn’t entirely misplaced.

Though Google has been active in dealing with any security crisis by releasing quick updates and patches, it’s time for it to take the crusade a step further- preempt any security threat even before they happen. And for the purpose, Google in its latest I/O conference released a new feature for Android devices - Google Play Protect.

No, Google Play Protect is not any security app, but more like a three-stage security measure that will be default available on every Android device in the future. Google, after identifying the most common sources of security threats, has deployed the system.

Play Store

Though not as rigorous as iTunes, Google also does extreme vetting, especially for the security of every app before it is allowed in the Play Store. But that alone does not guarantee eternal security. For that purpose, the Play Protect seems an excellent service that will keep running 24/7 in the background to scan for any malicious or unusual behavior of any app. Poised to scan around 50 billion apps daily on all devices, the system has the potential to put a check on security vulnerabilities posed from apps.

Safe Browsing

The other possible source of security breach comes from browsing the web where just a single click on some dubious link can take users to any malicious website and put them at the risk of phishing or other security threats. To counter such instances, Google’s Play Protect enables safe browsing in Chrome that warns users before redirecting to such sites or even block them in some instances.

Find My Device

This is basically a repacked version of device manager with some added features. Not only can you track and ping your phone when you lose track of it, it can also be formatted to prevent any unauthorized access to the data within.

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PPT - How to Get 1 Million App Downloads

How to Get 1 Million App Downloads from Konstant Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd.

The evolution of mobile technology has made businesses to follow a canny approach to achieve their targets. Gone are the days when traditional methods took them to the apex of success. Mobile is the way now to move forward. Here we present an insightful read to rule the app store market by increasing the total number of app downloads.

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Why Accounting Firms Need to Have a Mobile App?

The role of cell phones has changed dramatically. Introduced to streamline and facilitate long distance communication is now a go-to tool for grown-ups, professionals, millennials and people knowledgeable enough to comprehend its functionality for accomplishing tasks, which once looked bleak to accomplish while relaxing at home.

The society has transformed and businesses have been asked to switch ways, courtesy- disruption caused due to mobile technology. According to a stat from the Office for National Statistics, around 61% of adults access the internet away from office via the mobile device.

The increasing dependency and time spent on mobile devices indicate that if you as a business owner need to excel, then you got to adopt modern ways of doing things and going mobile is one of the new trends disrupting the entire technology space.

However, with mobile, we don’t refer to generating a mobile version of your existing website, but an entirely new piece of your business in form of a mobile app. Although, the mobile version has its own importance and is easily accessible on multiple devices, but a mobile app takes your business to an altogether new level. Precisely, we point out why you need to develop an accounting app in this digital era?

A Mobile App Uplifts Client Satisfaction

There is no factor as important as the client satisfaction. And believe me, making the client happy is the toughest job. Gone are the days when you used to fill a form on the website and wait for days to receive a response. It’s mobile age and customer satisfaction is on everyone’s mind. The mobile app can help achieve this feat as queries would be solved quickly with features available at their fingertips while they are on the move. This not only adds value to customers but also helps to foster relationships.

A Mobile App Extends Your Reach

According to a study, an average adult in America spends about two hours thirty minutes daily on a mobile device. This increases the probability of your business to reach a maximum number of users as they tend to flip through multiple screens, accessing, researching individual apps and the app store. The visibility of your app and chances of users opening your app increases, which isn’t the case with mobile-ready websites.

A Mobile App Offers Features on the Go

The interface of your app and the features it packs within hold the utmost importance. Loading your app with crucial features that users use often and the ones, which your rivals aren’t targeting can add value, but remember you don’t overdo things. Easy access to the interface with a financial calculator, tax tables, important dates and more can help you in grabbing a piece of the pie.

A Mobile App is an Ideal Tool for Marketing and Engagement

With modern devices taking over, you as a business owner, need to look out for modern methods of marketing. One such method that can help you is pushing notification. With mobile app analytics, you can figure out your target audience and optimize campaigns accordingly before you send them through to your customers. It has been discovered that push notifications have the better open rate than emails and text messages. Hence, you can push daily updates, industry news and more information for maximum engagement. However, you need to be careful while using this feature as it could backfire if done over ambitiously.

A Mobile App Helps You Build a Brand

Today’s market is all about staying ahead of the competition. Owning an accounting mobile app separates you from the rest as still there are very few mobile apps under the CPA umbrella. So, having one can position you as a thought leader whose footsteps needs to be followed.

Final Words

Accounting apps are rare to find, but not the mobile app development agencies. It’s the right time to invest in mobile technology, consulting a potent app development agency that can build a reliable product and grant you the success wings to fly higher than your competition.

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