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9 Great Apps for 2015

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development

Earlier this year, Digital Trends created a list of 208 exciting apps for 2015. While a comprehensive list of this nature is an exciting feat, sometimes too many choices makes choosing harder. So here is a much simpler list to just give you a taste of what is out there.

9 Apps You Should Be Using in 2015

Here are nine especially great apps to start checking out, one from each of Digital Trends’ various categories.
  1. Entertainment: Endless TV
If you like watching TV, but don’t like watching commercials, then this might be the app for you. People watch TV online as much as they watch it in more traditional modes. For many people, online TV is more popular than traditional TV.

However, while online TV options are great, there are still many commercials and buffering to contend with. Endless TV is designed to eliminate both of these problems.

*** If you are a Comcast / Xfinity customer – then Xfinity TV GO app is really nice for plane trips as you can download some networks show like Showtime’s – Ray Donovan!
  1. Work and Organizing: Slack
Slack allows you to communicate better with your co-workers. It encourages inter-office communications and then allows you to save and organize your files and messages in one place. Along with real time messaging, you have options to file share and have group conversations. If you work at a software development shop like I do, then you will love the integrations with Jira, GitHub, Bitbucket, Drive, Heroku, Jenkins, Papertrail, Trello, Stripe, Zapier and many more.

All this, and you can sync the app across multiple platforms including the Apple Watch.
  1. Security and Utilities: MyScript Calculator
The MyScript Calculator is more than just the standard phone calculator. It actually recognizes your hand writing and turns it into equations. Because this works similar to a notepad, you can copy the info to the clipboard in order to save it.

It is also easy to erase, undo, and redo parts of the equation. Basically, it gives you the ease of writing out formulas on paper with the convenience of having technology do the math for you.
  1. Around Town: Drync
Drync helps you remember the name of the wine you are drinking when you know you will not be able to remember it later. Scan the bottle, and it will track it and let you order it. You can read reviews, learn about various wines, and find new wines to try.

If you are or would like to be a wine connoisseur, then getting an app like Drync could be great for you.
  1. Social and Chat: Brewster
Brewster allows you to combine all of your contacts across various platforms and puts it into one database. This way, no matter how you know them, you can more easily keep track of all of friends and acquaintances. Having a one stop source for this information can help make organizing contacts much easier.
  1. Fitness and Health: Mimi Hearing Test
If you are unsure how well your hearing is, but you do not want to make a trip to the doctor to get it tested, then the Mimi Hearing Test app could be great for you. It allows you to test your hearing and then shows you the frequencies you can hear as well as how well you compare to people your own age.  If you have young children this is a nice app to have.
  1. Travel and Maps: MotionX GPS Drive
The MotionX GPS Drive app allows you to view real life traffic maps while it gives you turn by turn navigation. It is set apart from other similar apps by its large, easy to use buttons and its lane guidance. In addition, it has a parking spot meter.   This app is still missing police and traffic camera warnings like Waze which many have come to rely on.
  1. Photos and Creativity: Flic
The Flic app allows you to look at your pictures in a Tinder-like scenario. When you want to get rid of pictures, it allows you to search through your gallery and swipe right keep the photo or swipe left to delete it. This makes it much easier to clean out your photo stream.
  1. The Dark Arts: Cydia
For those who are a little more interested in breaking some rules and who are a little more tech savvy, there are apps you can use when you jailbreak your phone. For those of you who fit into this category, Cydia is an alternative app store where you can find many cool apps within.

If You Don’t Like Any of the Options …

Of course, if you want something specific and nobody else has created it yet, you can just make it yourself. Innovation is always welcome and needed in our society. It is going to be a great year for new and exciting tech.  

GoPro Hero4 Session vs. Hero4 Silver Face-off

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Technology Tips & Tricks

The GoPro Hero4 Session is set to hit the shelves in less than a week.  <sarcasm> This is extraordinary timing, since I bought my Hero4 Silver less than a week ago. </sarcasm>  Being the tech nerd that I am and in the mobile app development industry, I had to start digging into the content GoPro has put out on the new camera to see if I should return my Hero4 Silver to grab a Hero4 Session.

This is what I found out and my personal opinion on why I will be sticking with the Hero4 Silver.

GoPro Hero4 Session – PROS:

  • Small
  • Waterproof without a housing
  • Light weight – 35% lighter than a regular Hero4
  • Pivot mount (ball joint) – more versatility from single mount point
  • Internal gyroscope that auto-rotates video when mounted upside down
  • More aerodynamic / hydrodynamic shape
  • Two microphones

GoPro Hero4 Session – CONS:

  • Lens – the lens is not protected by an external housing; beware of scratches!  I tend to ski trees in deep pow, hit my camera all the time off branches and such.
  • Battery – internal battery; no extra batteries here 
  • Settings – can not change settings on camera w/o smartphone app or wifi remote (no onboard settings button)
  • Image Features – less resolutions and frame rates than regular Hero4
  • LCD – No preview / touch screen LCD
  • Image Quality – less image quality than Hero4 Silver when compared side by side
  • Lens – water droplets seem to stick to Hero4 Session lens more than regular Hero4 Silver

It came down to three (3) major factors on cons list that confirmed my decision to stick with my Hero4 Silver:

  1. Internal battery – if I run out of juice, I’m screwed the rest of the day.  I currently have three batteries for my Hero4 Silver
  2. Scratch potential for main lens.  I love the fact that I can scratch the main external waterproof housing for my Hero4 silver and just grab a new one pretty cheap.  If you scratch the lens on the Hero4 Session, you might be buying a new camera instead of a housing.
  3. Image quality.  The sensors seem more mature and better in the original form factor.  I imagine this will get better in future versions of the Hero4 Session thereby leveling the playing field a bit possibly for the second version of the Session (Hero5 session)

If you would like to see the Hero4 Silver vs the Hero4 Session reviewed on image quality, check out this video review on wired.com – http://www.wired.com/2015/07/new-gopro/

I hope this was helpful for those caught in temporary GoPro envy.

How to Tell the Difference Between UI and UX Design

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in User Experience & Interface Design

Anyone with any type of design knowledge is aware of UI and UX design. But for those without a design background, developing a solid grasp of what you want from a designer can make the job much easier and more to your liking.

Valerie Chang included a very informative infographic on how to become a UI/UX designer on her article for Design Taxi. The infographic is very helpful, but for those who are more interested in using a UI/UX designer than in being one, this how to is for you.

Know the Basic Difference between UI and UX Designs

According to the infographic discussed above, developers spend 50% of their time fixing things that could have been avoided by proper implementation of UI/UX concepts. So you see how important these design methods are. But what is the difference between the two?

One of the first things you should learn is the basic differences between these two design styles.
  • UI (User Interface) design is more about the looks of a site. How are things set up? UI works on the front end side of the site. Where is the content displaying? How are the visuals appearing? This is what UI is all about.
  • UX (User Experience) design deals with the journey itself. How easy is the site for users? UX designers deal with human interaction within the site. This style of design is one that is more frequently misunderstood. UX is important because the harder it is for a potential customer to use a site, the less likely they are to come back. UX design is geared towards creating the best site possible.
Speak the Languages

If you are not a designer, you might hear designers throwing out terms that you have no idea about. It can sound like gibberish. When you speak with your designers, you do not need to first obtain an advanced degree in web design. However, you should start to grasp a few basic terms and concepts in order to communicate better with them.

Once you grasp the basics of their language, you can start to grasp their purposes, how they operate, and why these are two different design styles, which in turn will help you work together to create the site that you have always envisioned but did not know how to create.

There are several types of things that would be helpful to learn.
  • Tech. Designers use different types of technologies, and while you do not need to know how they work, it is a good idea to learn their names. The big ones might already be familiar to you. HTML5, CSS3, Twitter Bootstrap, JQuery, and XML are all programs frequently used by designers.
  • Tools. Similarly, the tools designers use are all likely somewhat familiar to you. These include the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and Sketch.
  • Tasks. One of the best ways to learn the difference between UI and UX is to look at the type of tasks being assigned. Do you need to create a visually appealing homepage or mobile app? Are you trying to create a sitemap or app map? Learning the types of tasks each set of designs require and then figuring out which set of designs each task applies to will help you understand the importance of both as well as how they differ.
Step 3: Do Your Research

If you are really interested in learning more about what goes behind UI/UX design do some research. There are lots of ways for you to learn as little or as much as you want.
  • Ask the people who are currently doing the UI/UX design for your site (this is often one person, but if you do not have at least one person, you should think about getting one. Some things just need to be done right.)
  • Read a book or an article. However, if you do this, just keep in mind that anything to do with web design or technology is constantly changing. By the time you finish a book, it could already be outdated.
  • If you really want to know a lot about this field, take a class.
Now that you know how they differ, you are a step closer to getting the website or mobile application that you want and need.  

5 Places the ‘Internet of Things’ Is Changing

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Technology trends

Technology is everywhere. More than just our phones, tablets, and computers are being created equipped with incredible features all spurned from the technological advances of recent years. As Internet functionalities have made its way into more and more devices, it becomes harder to pass a day without using some sort of smart feature.

What Is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of things is a term for the growing trend of putting the Internet into non-computer/phone objects. In other words, it is the act of literally connecting the Internet to things. A good example of an Internet of things device is the Apple Watch. It is a form of wearable technology, which falls under this category.

5 Places Being Changed by the Internet of Things
Here are five day-to-day places that are already greatly influenced by the Internet of things.
  1. Smart Houses
In today’s environment, even houses have to have a high IQ. As technology grows, homes are getting smarter and smarter. Technology for homes has created many incredible devices that can be monitored and run from a smart phone.

There are many examples of smart house features, with more being added all of the time.
  • Lights can be turned on and off and dimmed from a phone with smart light bulbs.
  • Temperature can be controlled through phones or computerized monitors to ensure it is the desired temperature at the right times.
  • Security features are added to many homes so that it can be remotely monitored at any given time.
  • Doors are being equipped with keyless entry that senses a smart phone when it is near.
  1. Customer Management
The Harvard Business Review wrote an article that shows just how much the Internet of things has changed customer management. Take Disney’s MyMagic+ as an example. With this service, Disney can track guests through a bracelet that lets them schedule their day. Then, with the tracked information, Disney can tell them a place to take a rest if they are ahead of schedule or what they might want to skip if they are running late. It also allows the guests to enter their hotel rooms with the bracelet.

This is just one example out of many that shows just how this phenomenon has entered the customer management market.    
  1. Wearable Technology
Some of the most well-known advances in the ‘Internet of things’ arena is wearable technology. From the Apple Watch to Fitbits to Jawbones, everybody seems to have some sort of wearable technology to show off.

These tech gadgets allow you to monitor physical activity, see how much you are sleeping, and stay connected to the digital world around you.

On top of all of that, even pets can get in on the action. Devices such as smart collars allow owners to track the whereabouts of pets from a phone or computer.
  1. Cars and Other Modes of Transportation
After wearable technology, cars and other forms of transportation are probably the next widely known type of technologically advanced devices. Standard car features now include traffic-equipped GPS devices, built-in Bluetooth capability, cameras, monitors, and alarms. And those are just the standard features.

New cars on the market today can tell you when you are starting to drift in another lane; stop you before you run into something; tell you if anything is behind you; and make it easier to connect hands-free to social networks. There are also cars that make it easy to track if it has been lost or stolen.
  1. Health Care
Even health care is being effected by the Internet of things. Set aside all of the technology being used in doctor’s offices and hospitals, let’s just look at personal health care options.
  • You can monitor and check your temperature and blood pressure through devices that you can connect to your phone.
  • You can find doctors and book appointments when you need to do so.
  • You can check your symptoms and be connected to doctors in real time in order to have consultations.
It has never been easier to check and monitor your health without needing to go to the doctor.

Change Is Everywhere

As the Internet of things grows and prospers, more and more of our day-to-day activities will be centered around these objects.

Closing the Security Gap in Mobile App Development

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development, Software & App Sales

You know there’s an issue when the very industry that promotes standards related to security, is having an issue with security vulnerability.  Internet of Things (IoT) systems are being easily compromised by hackers. A recent study  by HP found that one of every 10 popular Internet-connected security systems – as in systems implemented to increase your security and peace of mind and reduce your risk like cameras and locks – had significant security vulnerabilities that allow for hackers to access them and ultimately control them.

There are a growing number of major Fortune 500 companies developing mobile apps that have security issues as well.  These are companies we really want to trust, like banks, health care and online retail organizations handling our billing and personal health information. The hackers themselves have reached a new level of attention in the eyes of the public.  60 minutes featured a story with hackers selling the malware that was used to hack into Sony, now widely available to anyone who has the ability to pay for it.

It is concerning to discover that cyber security experts say over 40 percent of companies developing mobile apps do not scan their apps for vulnerabilities before releasing them to the public.  Some test only a portion of their apps or never test them at all.  Corporate budgets often don’t include funds for testing.   We are seeing only the beginnings of regulations being put in place to deal with this reality.

Serious data breaches can cost companies millions of dollars. The issue causes firms to invest in securing their IT networks, computers and servers linked to them.  But strangely, not the mobile apps that are brought into the workplace on worker’s mobile devices.  With mobile devices and the amount of data growing at a rapid pace, the opportunities for hackers are growing as well.  Companies will be forced to take action and protect themselves from mobile data breaches from unverified apps downloaded by personnel on work devices connected to company networks.  What does the company stand to lose?  The reputation of brands for products and services, sensitive documents, proprietary information, customers, amounts in the millions of dollars.