The Important Role of Mobile Apps in Education and E-Learning

        After the evolution of smart phones, tables and notebooks, the demand has increased in education field because of its positive and vibrant results. E-learning has evolved new theory of learning for the students and learners of all age groups with meticulous applications developed by the developers.

How Mobile Apps help students & institution in E-learning?

       E-learning is also called 'technology-enhanced learning' or 'multimedia learning'. Mobile company creates more agile and learner friendly content using e-learning content management system. These applications offer various kinds of learning such as images, audio, text, video, animation and streaming video.

              With the help of audio-visual material students' grasping power increases and they can easily remember what is taught through e-learning. Therefore, the students download many apps that best suit their requirements in specific ways. But, the original and genuine material or the content is available if you have compatible Android development services.

          And if you don't have, you can hire skilled  developer to have best outcome in e-learning solutions. Once you have perfect integration of these apps in your smart phones, the students or the faculties directly start learning and teaching on smart phones.

        Even they assist the learners in group discussions, question-answer sessions, forum and submission. This online learning activities enhances students interest in learning and it can give desired results. With the help of apps, end number of students can participate in learning without seated in the classroom.

             It provides leverage of any corner of the world! The learners can connect with the core group and practice the content as many times as they wish. Also, it creates virtual learning environments for the students anywhere anytime provided they should be having internet access.

How to get best e-learning apps for your smart phones?

            It is rightly said that everything is possible for black-head people. So why to worry? There are many smartphone companies, you can consult a leading & experienced iPhone iPad company that can truly incorporate iPhone apps in your smart phones successfully as per your educational needs. It is recommended that you hire skilled and experts iPhone & Android developers so that you can achieve expected results out of your great investment. Following are some guidelines you can keep in mind while hiring the developers:
 Highly skilled mobile developers

• The developers or the company should provide competitive price
• 24/7 technical support
• Well understanding of content (what you really need)

Apart from this, you can explain them in detail about which phones you are using and which can be the best apps for your mobile.

Understanding iOS App Development and its Marketing

iOS is the standard operating system for Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad and app development offers a lucrative opportunity to please and connect with consumers. A new era of technology experience was created when Apple released the OS 2.0 and iPhone 3 simultaneously in 2008. iOS apps are sold through the Apple App Store and downloads and purchases are very easy and efficient.

Developing good iOS applications require a few key components to ensure positive reception among target audiences such as a need, a solution, glitch free technology & thorough development and effective marketing.

Consumers purchase products to solve particular problems and to meet their needs. The need may be distraction and entertainment in boring scenarios, mile tracking for walkers, photo editing, translation services, or even something as simple as a task organizer. That's when you come in to meet their needs and offer a solution. Your addicting game may offer just the right amount of concentration and distraction to get them through a long meeting, your mile tracker may help them stay on their weight loss track, your photo editor may encourage young photographers to explore their passions, your translation services may be a great asset for businesses, and your task organizer may save a college student during finals.

Once you have a plan in mind you can get to the actual development! There are many avenues to explore online, like Ruby on Rails Development, but no matter who develops your app it's most important that it works and will be easy to navigate for users. Test for glitches and bugs and be thorough with beta testing so that when you release your app it will be suitable for your audience. In order to market it and to ensure that your product actually reaches your target audience you should market your iOS app effectively with concise, relevant keywords and actively pursue opportunities to advertise your app in a niche marketplace.

If you want to get more knowledge related to iPhone, check out these articles that are worth reading.

1. http://www.allerin.com/blog/iphone-5-will-the-history-of-success-continue
2. http://www.allerin.com/blog/iphone-applications-a-worth-investment-for-business-growth

Also, as per sales figures, Android is seen doing better against iOS. So, let's check out the comparison between two mobile platforms – "iOS" and "Android" from the App developer's point of view, in terms of accessibility, learning curve, memory management, and profits.

How to Start with iOS App Development

Apple has been one of the leading names in the mobile industry for its iPhone and iPad series. Since the iOS platform holds a major portion of the mobile market shares, enterprises both large and small want to deploy applications from the App Store. This is the reason why an increasing number of developers have to learn ways of building apps for the iPhone and iPad devices. iOS application development is not very difficult, say mobile market researchers. Below is a comprehensive guide on developing mobile apps for Apple's operating system which beginners in the industry must abide by.

1. Plan the Structure of the iOS App - Planning and sketching are the first phases of designing an iOS app. For this, the developer must understand what purpose the iOS application will serve and why would users want to download it. After the developer is aware of his/her app functionality, features should be planned in a way to enable fulfilment of all the app functions. This is the most important stage of iOS app development and getting this phase right will enable developers to save up on the trouble involved in iOS app coding. 

2. Pay Attention to the UI Bar Elements – The user interface of an iOS app must contain the status bar, toolbar, navigation bar, and tab bar. Elements such as the battery level of the device, the phone carrier,reception  bars, and 3G connection must be included in the status bar. The toolbar, which appears at the app bottoms, contains icons like download, share, delete, etc. The navigation bar comes in the form of a button usually on the left side of iOS apps. They are used for navigating between page hierarchies. The tab bar is used for switching from one view to another which appears in the form of a highlighted icon. Several iOS apps however do not have the tab bar since its function is similar to that of the toolbar. 

3. Use the Interface Builder – This is a tool commonly used in iOS app development for allowing building of app user interfaces visually. Using this tool the developer can drag built in objects like tab bars, buttons, labels, and sliders to the app UI and then configure them by tweaking panels and palettes. The Interface Builder is also used for connecting actions and targets and manipulating objects bindings and controllers.

4. Xcode – Mastering the Xcode is important for all developers of iOS apps. Xcode is the integrated development environment (IDE) that is used not only as a code editor but also in autocompleting support, making analysis of static codes, searching for bugs in the compiled code, and also debugging. 

5. Learn Objective C – This is the programming language used for the development of native applications that can run effectively on the iOS platform. Since Objective C is considered a superset of C language, iOS developers are also asked to be acquainted with use of the C scripting language. However, C++, PyObjC, MacRuby, and MonoTouch are alternative languages that software developers can use for creating iOS apps; though researchers are of the view that mastering C and Objective C are very important for successful iOS app development.

The app development industry is recruiting an increasing number of iOS developers since Apple's platform is used in most enterprises worldwide. The above tips are important to remember for both beginners and experienced iOS app developers. 

The Need of an iOS Developer in a Changing Mobile App Development Scenario

Mobile application development has transformed drastically in a span of five years ever since the release of the first Apple iPhone. With the introduction of five versions of the iPhone since 2007, there have also been significant changes in the mobile apps running on iOS. The rapidly changing requirements for proper functioning of mobile applications on the iOS have come across as a challenge for app development companies across the world. Moreover, iOS is no longer the only accepted operating system platform for enterprises. With the advent of Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, etc., it is a constant pressure for a specialised iOS developer to adapt to the changing requirements of clients.

A survey of the enterprise app market conducted in the last year revealed that more than a thousand mobile applications for the iOS platform were released; in spite of this the growth in new application use was sporadic. While most enterprises are on the lookout for developers well skilled & experienced with the development of iOS mobile apps, the entrepreneurs are not always sure of their expectations from an iOS app, thus leading to its failure post release. Indeed, the thumb rule for success of mobile applications running on the iOS platform has yet not been identified. While some iOS developers have tasted success by incorporating complex features in their apps, others have realized that simplicity of operation is the key feature to victory. However, it is perhaps only target audience engagement and advertising which have helped iOS mobile applications succeed over their Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone counterparts. 

Listed below are the key issues that a mobile app developer needs to focus on for successful development of applications for the iOS platform:

1. Originality – Though inspiration is to be sought from previously released mobile apps, maintaining uniqueness or originality is the main ingredient that separates one iOS app from another. For this, an app developer has to conduct a research of the app store and study the problems in all mobile apps with features similar to his/her own. Improvement on the problems will focus on the originality of the new iOS app. 

2. Good Quality Graphics – Graphic quality of iOS mobile apps is very important to grab the attention of the target audience. Only an experienced iOS developer must be allowed to create mobile apps rich in graphic features. 

3. Code Writing – There is no need to waste time, resources, and energy upon writing a code for iOS applications from scratch. External data repositories & code sources can directly be incorporated in an app program.

4. App Content – Not only graphics but also the content of the iOS app plays an important role in grabbing the attention of users. An iOS developer must make sure that the language used in the app content is compelling but also explains the features of the app in very simple words.

5. Objective C Usage – It is advisable that an iOS app developer makes optimum use of Objective C while designing the app.

6. App Marketing – Advertising & promoting the app plays a vital role in making it popular among the consumer base. Introduce rewards in the form of coupons upon downloading the app and make use of well known platforms for app marketing. The success of an app is equivalent to the number of downloads, for which the iOS app first has to be promoted well. 

An iOS developer must keep the above tips in mind to deliver the most well performing & successful apps in a rapidly changing mobile app development scenario.

Android vs iOS App Development: A Developer's Perspective

     The most popular mobile platforms used today are iOS and Android. That is why several applications specifically are developed only for these platforms. Both are hot, but Android seems to be in the front when compared in terms of the sales. However, when these operating systems are looked at from an App developer's perspective, the ranking order may look different.

       During the application development, some important factors to be considered are accessibility, memory management, learning curve, profits, and inherent advantages presented by a platform. So, let us compare iOS and Android on these parameters.

Accessibility:

       To develop apps for iOS, you always need a Mac. While on the other hand, Android Software Development gives you freedom in terms of the operating system. Android is an open source platform. Its SDK can be installed on Windows, Linux, as well as Mac, whereas iOS can only be installed on Apple devices. Thus, it can be clearly seen that Android offers more flexibility compared to iOS.

Memory Management:

        For better functioning of the apps, it is necessary to have an efficient memory management. This memory management can sometimes become a tedious task for application developers. Android has an automatic memory management feature which can be done through Garbage collector. Also, Objective-C offers safe memory management through Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). As per many developers, ARC handles the memory management much better than Garbage Collector. In this, iOS app developers gain with better memory management tools.

Learning Curve: 

    iOS App Development requires Objective-C as the programming language, whereas for developing Android apps, Java programming language is used. Today, Java is a popular language and thus one can find numerous Java code samples on the Internet. Besides, the popularity of Java exists beyond Android development, and is known by the majority of the developers. This, however, is not same in case of Objective-C. To develop apps for iOS, developers need to learn Objective-C. Thus, the learning curve for developing apps for iOS is much higher in comparison to Android.

Fragmentation: 

       Fragmentation seems to be a serious issue for application developers. This threat of fragmentation issues is highly faced by Android application developers due to diverging variants of the platform. Sometimes, the fragmentation issue leads to improper working of the apps on some devices. iOS App developers do not face significant fragmentation issues. This is because if such issue occurs, Apple device owners can quickly upgrade to new iOS.

Software Development Kit:

        A software development kit (SDK) is essential for application development. Android developers have Android SDK, while Apple offers iOS SDK. Android SDK contains an emulator, while iOS SDK contains simulator. Android emulator can mimic both hardware and software, but the iOS simulator can only mimic the software. You can specify exact hardware requirements to the emulator with the Android SDK, which is not possible with iOS SDK. iOS SDK is fast, and thus you can test and debug the code much quicker compared to Android as its emulator is slow in processing. Thus, when it comes to overall application development, the iOS SDK scores more.

Profits:

         The sale of Android devices is greater compared to Apple devices running iOS. Thus, if looked at the revenue generated, iOS developers earn more income as Apple device owners are ready to spend more to purchase apps. Whereas on the other hand, Android applications are generally distributed free, and the income generated through ads is not significant.

Sphchatbubble to use in chat screens. (Supports iOS 8)

Get the Updated version Here

https://github.com/sibahota059/SPHChatCollectionView

SPHChatBubble

Sphchatbubble to use in chat screens. (Supports iOS 8)

This project is an attempt to create the experience of chat bubbles with image , time and avatar support.

To see the code in action, download the app:

Conciergist

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/conciergist/id670191546?mt=8

Features:

1. You can customize as per your need (Ex: change the bubble image)
2. Message sizes can be vary from small to larger.
3. Copy & paste messages
4. Support for group messages
5. Data detectors (recognizes phone numbers, links, dates, etc.)
6. Timestamps
7. Avatars
8. Subtitles
9. Dynamically resizes input text view as you type

How to use it?

This Library Comes with an Example project ( open the file  "SPHViewController.m" ) where you will find all the methods required to implement this.

1. You need to drag & drop a UITableview from the right panel & connect its deligate & datasource to File owner.

2. Write all the delegate methods same to same as its written in the file  "SPHViewController.m"

Now use the below Function to add a Bubble in the Tableview.

 [self adddBubbledata:ktextByme mtext:@"Hi!!!!!!!" mtime:[formatter stringFromDate:date] mimage:nil  msgstatus:kStatusSeding];

ktextByme          :  User means you are sending a Text message.
ktextbyother       :  Your Friend Sent you a Text message.
kImageByme      :  You are sending a Picture message.
kImageByOther  :  Your Friend Sent you a Picture message.

kStatusSeding   : Message status Sending
kStatusSent       : Message status Sent
kStatusFailed    : Message status Failed

mimage: nil for text messages & UIimage for picture.

Download the Code from github : https://github.com/sibahota059/SPHChatBubble

Mobile Apps - Your Business and How It All Works

f you want app developers who can help drive your business forward then you'll need to choose carefully. If used correctly mobile apps can be a driving force for your business. Tap into the app economy – it generated over 15 billion US dollars in 2011 alone and its growing fast.

1 In 3 Web Visitors Are Using A Mobile Device.Don't miss the mobile opportunity. Normal websites can look very small and be difficult to navigate.Mobile visitors will spend 40% less time on your website if it is not mobile optimised. Develop an app for your business and a reminder can be set to remind your mobile visitors to download your business app.

How A Mobile App Help Your Business – The Features?

Push Notification Messages:

Communicate your marketing messages directly to customers for an instant effect.

Gentle Reminders:

Set appointment reminders for customers.

Social Media integration:

Enhance social strategy with live social network feeds. Go viral with app shares!

Mobile Bookings/Sales:

Customer's on-the-go can book appointments or purchase items whenever they want, wherever they are.

GPS Features:

Guide customers to your office, events or nearest stores with GPS directions.

Video Integration:

Entertain your app users with your video content. Promote your key products and services.

Slide-shows:

With photo images showcasing your work and engaging your app customers.

Contact Us:

With phone, email and website links.

About Us:

With a description of your business and services.

There are many more features available which can be tailored for your business. But this is a snapshot of the possibilities and opportunities that come with your own branded mobile app.

Mobile apps provide an engaging and interactive platform and enable your business to make an impact with marketing campaigns, increase bookings/transactions and connect with your customers. The following article has a range of possible features which can be integrated into your mobile app and can work for you! Are you considering app development for your business? Make sure you choose app developers who can work with you and help your business. It's not about gimmicks – it's about customer convenience, branding, increasing the regularity of customer contact and boosting sales. All while integrating into your existing work flows to ensure that no additional workload is created. It's all about efficiency.

A Case Study -The UK Stats!

In 2011 there were 11 million smartphone users in the UK. This is expected to grow to 15 million by 2013. That means that 21% of the UK population will own a smartphone. There are many devices out there with different operating systems. This can impact on your development costs as each app development project will take time and money for example (iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile) each platform will cost. There are ways to keep your app development costs down and keep your benefits high. 80.5% of smartphone users are using iPhone or Android smart phones. This means that if you can find an app developer that operates dual development for iOS & Android. This method can reduce your cost by 50% (in comparison with development costs for the 4 platforms described earlier). 80.5% of the smartphone market are using Apple or Android products.

 Developing mobile apps is not as complex as some people may think. In fact our app development team can make your business app not only help you achieve your KPI targets but also provide increased ROI when compared with other marketing methods. With our expert consultants and creative design elements – App developers are only included in one part of the whole app development process. We make apps. Easy.

A More Detailed Look at How App Development Works:

1) Consultation – ‘The Discovery Stage' – We talk to you about your business. Find out about your ideas and strategies. We can then tailor a specific mobile app which fulfils and more often than not will exceed your expectations. Communication is key – we're plain old app developers based in Manchester, UK. But we communicate with businesses across the World and we love to discover new and innovative methods to help your business.

2) App Design – ‘The Creative Stage' – Your app needs to look good and follow the lead set by your brand. Your chosen logo's, colour schemes and other graphics can be integrated into your app and combined with unique graphics and animations to enhance your app ‘look and feel'

3) App Development – ‘The Technical Stage' – Our app developers will take the lead from graphics drawn up by the design team and turn all the creative artwork from the app design stage into a fully functional, fully developed app. With skill sets ranging from augmented reality to social apps – our app developers certainly know how to code.

4) Beta Testing – ‘The Testing Stage' It is in this stage that our development team fully test your app to ensure that everything is perfect. This takes place throughout the development process.

5) AppStore Approval – ‘The Publishing Stage' – If we develop an iPhone or iPad app then the Apple approval process can take on average 7 days. We take care of the uploading and management of the app at this stage to save you time and to save you the hassle. We're nice like that! When developing Android apps approval is almost instant so no waiting around for those guys!

6) Marketing – ‘The Promoting Stage' – In reality decisions relating to the marketing of your app will be made very early on in the app development process. Whether its AppStore keyword optimisation, websites, social media or viral videos – we know how to market your newly developed app. Make sure it's discovered by the right people on the right devices. Don't forget to promote the app through all your existing marketing channels to ensure the app uptake is high. When your business develops an app it's worthwhile to ensure that you get full value from that and utilise all the new opportunities. To name one example push notifications have a 97% read rate in comparison to email which is 1%. If all of your existing customers (with smartphones) have the app then you can communicate your promotions directly to your target market to increase repeat business. Whether your leaflet, utilise POS or simple word of mouth – letting your customers know about your newly developed app important. Shout about your new and improved customer service. Use QR codes if required to provide direct access. The options are endless but we can work out an app marketing strategy for your business budget.

This covers the app development process for both iPhone apps, iPad apps and Android apps.