apps – Social Media SEO

iPhone apps are crushing – What to do?

Aleksa — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 17:55:30 +0000

Although iPhone apps are pretty stable, sometimes iPhone apps are crushing.

Here we are going to review a couple of solutions that usually work to solve the problem.

Steps when iPhone apps are crushing

Reboot the device

Before doing anything else, reboot your device. Namely, it solves many problems when iPhone apps are crushing.

The best approach for app crashing issues is to try to force reboot the iPhone or iPad by holding down the Power button and Home button until the device flashes the Apple logo.

Furthermore, let it boot back up and try to use the app again.

Quit and re-launch he app

To resolve iPhone app crushing try quitting the app and launch it again.

You will clear the app from memory and allow for a clean launch.

Firstly, double-click on the Home button to bring up the multitasking screen.

Locate the application you wish to quit, swipe up on the app to quit out of it.

Additionally, hit the Home button to return to the Home Screen of iOS, tap the app icon to re-open it again.

iPhone apps are crushing – Update the app

Keeping apps updated is often vital to maintaining application stability.

This way developers identify bugs within the apps, fix them and then push an update to the app.

Many users ignore app updates, however, if you are experiencing difficulties with them then keep the apps updated.

First of all you should open the App sore and go to the “Updates” tab.

Install any updates available to the application which is exhibiting crashing problems or bugs.

Lastly, relaunch the freshly updated app.

Delete the app and re-install it

For this step you just have to delete the app from your home screen and find it again on the App Store and download it again.

Moreover, the perk to deleting and reinstalling apps is that it dumps app cache at the same time, which will free up some storage capacity.

iPhone apps are crushing – Update iOS to the latest version

Updates to iOS often include bug fixes for system software, but some of those bug fixes and refinements also impact third party apps too.

Additionally, some apps actually require a new version of iOS for certain features to work.

Make sure to back up your device before you update iOS.

When the iOS device boots back into the latest version of iOS, the app that was crashing will work without a problem.

How to delete apps on iPhone – Important Things to Know

Aleksa — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 18:20:30 +0000

As we all know, there are some apps on our phone that are outdated, or you simply don’t want to use them anymore. Therefore, it’s important to know how to delete apps on iPhone.

Reasons for deleting apps

It is very easy to install apps on your iPhone.

This might be the reason why some iPhone have a lot of apps that may not even be useful to the users.

Namely, there are many reasons why we may want to delete some apps on our iPhone.

One of them is that we may become tired of a certain app and want to delete it.

Secondly, the apps could be taking up a lot of space on the iPhone which prevents installing new apps.

Another reason for deleting some apps is that it is no longer useful.

Moreover, iPhone storage is small compared with what it is used for. We store pictures, videos, music and plenty other apps that take up space.

Some apps, such as games, can consume a whole lot of space that you will end up with not enough storage on your phone.

There are multiple ways on how to delete apps on iPhone.

One of the methods is deleting apps from your home screen. Another one is deleting numerous apps, deleting apps from settings and by One Click.

How to delete apps on iPhone

There are multiple ways to delete apps on your iPhone. So, let’s check it out.

Deleting apps from home screen

Find the app on Home screen
Press and hold on the icon for one second
Tap Delete App when the menu options appear

Deleting multiple apps

Select an app on your Home screen
Press and hold on the app icon for two seconds
Tap the “X” in the upper-left corner of each app icon you want to delete
Tap “Done” in the upper-right corner of your phone

Delete apps in Settings

Click the setting icon on your phone
Select the general option and tap the “Usage” under it
Tap the “Show all App” option and select the app you want to remove from the list
Select “Delete App” button
Tap the “Delete Button” again to confirm you want to delete the app and the app will disappear as you go back to the home screen

Mass delete apps by One Click

iMyFone TunesMate is a great iPhone manager. It will manage and reduce unused apps in order to free space on your phone.

Connect your iPhone device
Got to “Apps” icon on the top bar of interface
Select the unwanted Apps and click the “Delete” button to uninstall them

Apple To Launch New AI Chips and Ditch Intel and Qualcomm

Fahad Saleem — Sat, 27 May 2017 19:20:10 +0000

Apple has long been planning to cut its reliance on other companies when it comes to hardware chips for its iPhones. The company is reported to be working on new chips to ditch Intel. But a new report from Bloomberg suggest that Apple is also working on a new hardware chip specifically designed to power AI-based devices, apps and automobiles. The hardware is known as Apple Neural Engine. The source said that Apple’s new chip will minimize the requirement of human intelligence. Apple will use Neural Engine in facial recognition, speech recognition and self-driving cars.

Apple is coming to terms with the hard market reality that the smartphone market has already reached its saturation point. The future belongs to Augmented Reality, IoT, Self-Driving cars. AI is the centerpiece of these technologies. Apple is also investing heavily in these areas. In 206, the company acquired about 6 startups which were working on innovative products in the realm of AI.

The competition is already heating up for Apple. In 2016, Google launched a special hardware chip, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), to handle complex graphics in the Cloud. NVIDIA and Amazon already have similar products. Apple’s devices currently have two chips, one is designed to perform normal processing while the other one handles AI-based tasks. Apple Neural hardware will help the company fix its battery time problem.

Apple is expected to announce these new devices in Developers conference in June.

How To Nest Folders Inside Other Folders In iOS 9

Fahad Saleem — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:12:17 +0000

Apple devices have only one layer of display screens to arrange your apps on and if you have apps that are rather dummy icons than oft-used apps, there is no easy way to hide them. Well, at least there was no easy way until iOS 7, which allowed a nesting solution so you might create folders for collecting a family of apps together. It however was not such a user friendly feature and required more effort than ease.

With iOS 9 however, things are far better in this regard. Now you can easily nest folders inside each other and create your own hierarchy of apps contained in folders; here is how.

Positioning the Parent Folder

Place the folder on your home screen, i.e., on the first page. For convenience, position it such that it should be the right top most item on your home screen. Now it is ready to take other folders in as sub-folders.

Positioning the Child (Inner) Folder

Bring the folder that you’d like to nest inside the parent folder on the same home screen where you placed the parent folder. You can Place it anywhere on the screen.

Home Screen Editing Mode

To bring the home screen into editing mode to be able to allow movements of apps, press and hold a screen item (app/folder). It will cause the apps to wiggle at their positions, indicating that the apps are ready to be rearranged.

Moving the Folder Inside

Now tap and hold the folder that you wanted to nest inside the parent folder, while still holding the folder you have to tap the parent folder to open it. When the parent folder opens up, drag the child folder inside the opened window and voila! You have successfully nested the folders.

You Can Now Doodle on Facebook Photos Before Uploading: Here’s How

Fahad Saleem — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 19:56:23 +0000

Photo upload has been one feature which has constantly been updated by Facebook; thanks to the ever growing competition between photo sharing apps and social media platforms. Facebook has always proved to be not-so-late at catching up a feature whenever it seemed like capturing the attention of social media users, even if that meant buying some apps out (yes, you guessed it right, we are referring to WhatsApp!).

There are enough photo sharing outlets, both on iOS and Android to draw people away from Facebook when it comes to sharing their images online, and as it happens, Facebook cannot afford to ignore them.

In a recent update, which many are saying inspired from Snapchat, Facebook has announced to roll out a new future for photo uploads. It allows you to doodle on Facebook photos. The new feature will allow users to

Draw shapes on photos.

Sketch a picture and add them to photos. Or,

Scribble on faces/things in images they would share on Facebook.

The feature will be available for both iOS and Android versions of Facebook app. The how-to-doodle-on-Facebook-photos is pretty simple and only needs following few steps:

Upload the photo as you always did on Facebook.

Tap ‘Edit’ button when it appears after the loading.

Choose ‘Doodle’ as your editing tool.

There you are; set to doodle on Facebook photos.

Just choose color of the drawing

Move finger up and down on right hand side.

Set size of the mark that you’d like your pen to have

Tap the color bar and drag your finger to the left.

That’s it. Go on, doodle on Facebook photos and make your fun sharing moments more fun!

Google Rolls Out New Logo – New Font

SMSEO — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:20:01 +0000

If you popped into Google today you’ll notice they had a new animation showing their logo change.

They changed the logo to a Sans Serif font, one without much variation in thickness.

Here’s a brief explanation from Google explaining the change:

So why are we doing this now? Once upon a time, Google was one destination that you reached from one device: a desktop PC. These days, people interact with Google products across many different platforms, apps and devices—sometimes all in a single day. You expect Google to help you whenever and wherever you need it, whether it’s on your mobile phone, TV, watch, the dashboard in your car, and yes, even a desktop!

Today we’re introducing a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens. As you’ll see, we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk).

It doesn’t simply tell you that you’re using Google, but also shows you how Google is working for you. For example, new elements like a colorful Google mic help you identify and interact with Google whether you’re talking, tapping or typing. Meanwhile, we’re bidding adieu to the little blue “g” icon and replacing it with a four-color “G” that matches the logo.

They seem to be using the dots as a pre-loader image for apps and devices, which will show a playful side to the boring waiting GIF’s we are all used to.

Also, they added a new icon that will be used across apps and as a favicon in your browser:

In my opinion the logo change is a good one. I feel that it was only time before they changed the font to a Sans Serif, especially after already flattening the original font that was beveled. Of course you will see all kinds of hate comments when a company makes even a subtle change to their logo, but that’s part of it I guess!

Here are some comments on the change:

What are your thoughts on the new Google logo?

Yahoo’s New Livetext App Lets You Do Audio-Free Video Messaging With Style

Fahad Saleem — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 11:33:14 +0000

Yahoo has launched a new messaging app “Livetext”, which has some pretty unique features promising to give your daily chatting experience a new vibe. Livetext superimposes text on videos, but there is no sound involved. So for example, if you are hiking somewhere, you can quickly send the video of yours with a text on it saying “enjoying a hike” or something like that. Yahoo will launch Livetext for iOS and Android.

In an introduction session with media, Yahoo’s executive showed a demo of the app. In order to communicate with your friends and family on Livetext, you will need to be “friends” with them. You can start the session and start sending faces, expressions with your texts written on them. There are a lot of emojis, colors, expressions, edits available natively in the app.

The only novel feature of Livetext is that, unlike other video messaging apps, it has no sound. This decreases stress and increases the usability of the app, as most of the people want to communicate along with doing their routine tasks. Using Livetext, you can start a session and share your environment, make expressions, do texting without saying anything. This becomes nifty when you are in office or a classroom.

Download Livetext for iPhone

How to Send Funny GIFs Directly from Imgur in Facebook Messenger in Android, iPhone

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 18:32:32 +0000

Imgur has introduced a new feature in its Android and iOS app using which you can send reaction GIFs from Imgur directly in Facebook Messenger. This really spice up things; you can post funny, interesting GIFs in chats. A GIF can sum up all the reaction and feeling during an online chat. The process is really simple. All you need is the Imgur app, and the Facebook Messenger app.

Just launch Facebook messenger app and tap the ‘More’ icon from the middle right corner of the chat screen.

You will see a list of apps which allows sending GIFs in Facebook Messenger. Imgur is now in this list. Tap Imgur, and you will see different categories like “Happy”, “Angry”, Nope”. You can tap any category, see and choose thousands of GIFs. You can also put a keyword in the search bar above to search the GIFs. For example, you can put “WTF” in the search bar to get interesting and funny GIFs depicting hilarious surprise reactions. You can also shake your device to get a random GIF.

Once the GIF is selected, just tap “Send” and it will be sent. The recipient of this GIF could see this image even without the Imgur app.

Enjoy

Samsung’s Game Recorder + App Lets you Record Screen While Playing any Game on Android Phone

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 13:16:08 +0000

Samsung has launched a great new app that will be useful and nifty for millions of Android users. Samsung’s new Game Recorder + app lets you record your screen while playing any game. So next time you make new records on Candy Crush, you won’t need to make empty claims as you will have a video proof to brag about it in your friends. Game Recorder + also gives an opportunity to add a video commentary by turning on your front facing camera and mic.

Once installed, the app gives a floating option on your screen using which, you can turn on the camera, recording and mic anytime you want in any game you play. You can record the screen while adding the video using your camera. It will also record your voice. So the game recorder + is pretty much a powerful experience recorder which will track and record your whole game play experience.

The app is available for download for free from Samsung’s app store in Samsung’s Galaxy devices. The app supports Jelly Beans and above. You can download Game Recorder + in Samsung S3, S4, S5, S6, all Note devices and many more Samsung flagship devices.

Facebook Launches Moments App for iOS, Android for Better Photo Sharing

Fahad Saleem — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 13:03:25 +0000

Facebook has launched a new app for photo sharing called “Moments”. This time, Facebook is more focused on saving the countless photos that are saved in your phone. The app will allow you to quickly share your friends’ photos with them. Moments app scans through the saved photos in the camera roll, and automatically suggests the people who are in the photo in the form of tags. So if you are sifting through your photos using the Moments app; it will scan the photos and suggest the name of a friend who is in the photo along with an option to share that photo with him/her.

You can quickly press the Sync option and the photo will be shared with the friend. But, this could only happen if that user is also using the Moments app. If not, the app will send a notification to the friend in the Facebook Messenger app, alerting that there is a new photo you want to share with him.

There are literally hundreds of photo apps out there, but what makes Moments unique is its ability to detect faces, and options of sharing them quickly. This would really increase the interaction. We all have hundreds of photos in our camera rolls which are lying there unshared because we are too lazy to do the whole process, tagging manually.

Download Moments for iOS and Android

Doodle Draw: Facebook Messenger’s First Game

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:35:37 +0000

A few weeks ago, Facebook announced that it is opening its Messenger platform for third party apps, games, stickers and GIFs to make it more lively and user-friendly. We saw a plethora of apps related to stickers, GIFs and whatnot after the announcement, but one important thing was missing: a complete, true game for Facebook Messenger which could be played in the messenger.

Today, Facebook has announced that the first game for Facebook Messenger has arrived. It’s called “Doodle Draw”. It’s a simple game, which lets you draw doodles and quick friends to let them guess what it is. The app is similar to the famous doodle drawing app “pictionary”,

Doodle Draw for Facebook Messenger suggests you a word. It could be any word showing any objects,animals or something else. You quickly draw it in the game interface, share it with your friends over Facebook or in Messenger via Facebook message and they guess what is it.

The app awards points to more quizzes and guesses. The app is completely free.

Official: Windows 10 Coming on July 29, Free Upgrade from Windows 7, 8 Will Be Possible

Fahad Saleem — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 14:22:42 +0000

Finally, the wait is over: Microsoft has announced that it will launch Windows 10 on 29^th July. Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 users will be able to upgrade their existing OS for free. Windows 8.1 and 7 users have started seeing the Get Windows 10 sign, which gives an option to ‘reserve the Windows 10’. Here’s how it looks it. You should be able to see it on the task bar.

All you need to upgrade to Windows 10 is 3GB of free space.

Windows 10 will have exciting new apps like Cortana, Office 2016, Cloud integration of OneDrive and Dropbox, Xbox Live, a new mail and photos app, Windows Continuum, which would allow you to duplicate Windows display on multiple mobile and desktop devices.

On July 29, Windows 10 will be available to install or upgrade for PC, laptops and tablets. All the devices running official Windows 8.1 will be upgraded. The devices which will be shipped after the official launch of Windows 10 will have pre-installed Windows 10.

Instagram, Facebook, Google Chrome: Most Favorite Mobile Apps in the US

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 15 May 2015 17:20:16 +0000

A new survey has shown the Facebook and Instagram are the top choice of mobile users in the US. App Annie’s survey was done by parsing app session data from various countries like US, Germany, Japan, South Korea and England. Instagram and Facebook are the most favorite apps for US mobile users, whereas Germans and Brits love using WhatsApp for one on one chats with their friends. Line is the most popular app in South Korea and Japan, the survey claims.

The survey also showed the popularity of the Google Chrome app around the world. Google Chrome app is the second most used app in the US. This depicts the massive shift from desktop to mobile.

The survey claims that mobile app revenues surged by 70% in just one year over the period between 2013 and 2014. More than 64% of the Americans now have smartphones.

BitTorrent’s Bleep Messaging App Offers End to End, P2P, Serverless Encryption for Free

Fahad Saleem — Thu, 14 May 2015 15:12:22 +0000

BitTorrent has launched a new messaging app which will provide end-to-end, peer-to-peer encryption and security over your messages. The app is called ‘Bleep’ and it is now available for free for iOS, Windows, Android, and Mac. BitTorrent. The best feature which could make this app stand out among the hundreds of messaging apps is its ability to operate without any central server or Cloud. BitTorrent claims that the messages sent or received via Bleep will not be saved on the Cloud or at the servers, so no third party could hack and read your messages.

Bleep has a ‘Whisper’ feature which lets you send self-destructible messages. A ‘whisper’ will be deleted as soon as it is read.

Bleep supports end to end encryption, which, surprisingly, is not supported by iMessage, WhatsApp or Viber. You can also make secure Voice Calls using Bleep.

Download Bleep By BitTorrent

Woman Alerts Police Using Pizza Hut App In Critical Hostage Situation

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 06 May 2015 15:47:39 +0000

A startling event took place on Monday in Florida, which shows how staying calm in the most difficult and challenging situations can do wonders. Cheryl Treadway, a woman from Florida was held hostage with her 3 kids by her boyfriend Ethan Nickerson. Nickerson was high on drugs. He had a large knife and held Treadway hostage for hours. He insisted accompanying Treadway on her way to pick her 3 kids from school. On their way back, Treadway somehow managed to convince her mad boyfriend to let her use a phone to order a pizza for them using the Pizza Hut app. Treadway added SOS messages in the delivery instructions. Here’s how the order receipt looked like.

Luckily, Pizza Hut Chef, Alonia Hawk, spotted the message “Please help. Get 911 to me” on the order receipt. He quickly checked the details of the order and found out that the order is coming from a regular customer. Hawk called 911 immediately.

According to a statement released by Florida PD, the chief negotiator, Lt. Curtis Ludden, was dispatched with a team. Initially, Nickerson didn’t open the door, but Ludden managed to talk him through this. Nickerson, 26, was immediately nabbed and the hostage situation came to an end.

Google’s New Feature Makes Finding New, Useful Android Apps Easy

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 16:47:57 +0000

Google has launched an amazing feature using which Android users can discover useful new apps based on search. The feature is launched for the Android app developers to beef up the app install ads and promotions. But if you are an Android user, you can get the best app install suggestions from Google.

Literally thousands of Android apps are launched daily on the Play Store. One cannot keep track of everything. And frankly, apps can make our lives easier. There is an app for everything. Google wants to make content discovery easy for its users.

Suppose you go to Google to search for tricks to make a perfect sandwich. Apart from the results related to content, Google will now suggest you apps that have your related answer. For example, it could suggest you the Daily Mail or Buzzfeed app; after installing the app, your will be directed to the article having the answer to your question.

This process is called app indexing. Back in 2013, Google launched it, but it was pretty useless because all the apps that were shown or suggested were those which were already installed in the user’s phone. Now, you will get the app that are not installed on your phone.

Google is taking these steps to increase its mobile grasp. This is in an effort to tackle its competitors like Facebook. Google’s new feature is basically for the app developers. App developers could now use this feature to showcase their apps in front of thousands and thousands of Googlers.

You can read in detail about the new feature on the official Google’s announcement.

Imoji App Gives You 3 Million Hilarious Emojis and Stickers from Real Photos in All Apps

Fahad Saleem — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 17:41:33 +0000

Messaging and interaction becomes fun, lively and speedy with emojis and stickers. The trend of using emojis, GIF and stickers in our messages is becoming quickly common, thanks to the nirvana and fun they provide. You must have heard of Imoji, an Android and iOS app that lets you use emojis in your messages. Well, guess what! Imoji has announced that it will roll out its SDK for third party app development, which will let you send emojis stickers in your favorite social media apps like Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter. The company has around 3 million stickers and emojis in its database. You can search these stickers based on the feelings, reactions.

Imoji’s also lets you create funny stickers from real life images. So you can create hilarious stickers, emojis out of the friends’ images or your own images from the camera roll of your phone.

More than 3 million stickers and emojis at your disposal will make your messaging way more interesting. Imoji is also a partner of Facebook’s Messenger platform, a program which now lets third parties to make apps for Facebook Messenger. Flesky, the famous emoji keyboard is also partnering with Imojis to make a complete emojis keyboard out of this great app.

Facebook Testing WhatsApp Integration in its Mobile Apps

Fahad Saleem — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 16:41:49 +0000

Facebook is reportedly testing a WhatsApp integration in its Facebook app for Android. Facebook acquired WhatsApp, the most famous messaging app used by millions of users worldwide over a year ago. The social media juggernaut wants to create an ecosystem and platform of all its apps. It has Instagram and Facebook Messenger under its belt which can dwarf any other app in the world. When WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, it was expected that the company will integrate it, and now it’s happening.

WhatsApp integration with Facebook will be a dream come true for the social media fans. You could also be able to send Facebook videos to your WhatsApp contacts, a feature wanted by billions of users around the world now.

Many news sources reported that a number of Facebook app for Android users spotted a ‘Send’ button with a WhatsApp sign in it. The button was placed on the right side of the images/video and other shareable content. The option was later removed, but that is the sign that the testing is in progress and WhatsApp integration in Facebook would be revealed pretty soon.

OnePlus Official ROM OxygenOS Now Available For Download

Fahad Saleem — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 12:52:16 +0000

OnePlus, the famous company which launched the beautiful OnePlus One phone has finally launched its own mobile operating system ROM OxygenOS to compete Google’s native Android. OxygenOS is another flavor of Android, with more beautiful customized and essentially useful features. OnePlus was promising a new Android based OS for months. Two deadlines passed but the new OS didn’t land. But finally, OxygenOS is now available for download.

Based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop OxygenOS has its own file manager, gestures, design and notification system. OnePlus has released this operating system to make an ecosystem around its devices. OnePlus users will get all the apps and services of this mobile OS pre-installed in their devices.

OnePlus faced issues in the development and launch its OxygenOS because Cyanogen, the organization behind CyanogenMod had given right for a custom Android based OS to another vendor in China. But it seems that OnePlus has sorted out the problem.

OxygenOS is another ROM for OnePlus One phone, but it’s good to see that the new addition of ROM is coming straight from the source.

Download Oxygen OS

Run Android Apps in Windows, Mac and Linux Using Google’s New ARC Tool

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 13:33:09 +0000

Google has announced a new tool that will let the Android developers to run the Android apps in Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The tool is called App Runtime for Chrome (ARC). This is a huge step by Google because currently, the developers had to use Android emulators like BlueStacks to run the apps. ARC will allow the developers to run and test any Android app directly in Google Chrome.

The news was first reported by Ars Technia. The ARC Welder in the new app lets the developers to convert any .apk file in the system and run it directly in the computer. This process is called ‘mobile to desktop’ conversion. The latest step from Google will boost the Android app development and speed up the development process.

One drawback of the new tool is that it does not support the Android 5.0 Lollipop version and only run apps that are developed for Android KitKat. Google may resolve this problem in the upcoming versions of the tool. Google’s new tool also supports all the Google services, Google Cloud, app patches and Google+ social media platform. This is also a great feature as most of the developers need the Cloud and social functionality to test any Android app in their computer or the testing environment.

Microsoft is about to release its Windows 10 platform. This OS will support one-in-all feature, where all the apps would run in the same style for mobile, desktop and tablet. Couple this with Google’s new tool, the app developers in the coming days would be able to produce responsive designs and apps from their Windows computer and all the problems regarding cross-platform development will be solved.

Facebook Launches Scrapbook for Better Photo Management

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:08:09 +0000

Facebook has announced a new feature called ‘Scrapbook’ which will let people organize photos of their babies, toddlers, pets at one place in a form of collection. The Scrapbook feature will start rolling out for Facebook iOS, Android and Desktop apps in the US very soon.

You must have seen people frantically sharing and inundating Facebook news feeds with baby photos. If the baby pooped, they will post a photo; if the baby said something silly, there will be a photo. If you are like me, who hates the constant influx of baby photos on Facebook, this feature would help you tell Facebook to hide Scrapbooks. On the other hand, this feature is the best for parents who faced problems while searching, organizing and adding all their baby life in the form of photos at once place. Scrapbook will let parents make a photo story of their child on Facebook.

You will be able to create Scrapbook in Facebook by going in the About tab of Facebook, Family And Relationships tab and here, you will see an option to create a Scrapbook from scratch. You can share a Scrapbook with your partner/wife so that he/she will be able to tag the photos of the baby, add photos, edit settings and much more.

Facebook will also give a ‘subscribe’ option for those who want to stay updated with any Scrapbook. So for example if parents have made a Scrapbook for their cute little baby, the grandparents of the baby could subscribe the Scrapbook on Facebook. Any photo update will be notified to the parents on their Facebook profile.

Microsoft Announce Surface 3: A Beautiful Hybrid Tablet Running Full Windows

Fahad Saleem — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:33:19 +0000

Microsoft has announced a new iteration of its Surface hybrid tablet line today with Surface 3. Surface 3 costs just $499. It is a beautiful slate, sleek, less in weight as compared to its previous versions. It will not have Windows RT like the previous versions, rather a full Windows operating system. Surface 3 is a complete laptop, with 10.8 inch screen and detachable keyboard.

Surface 3 looks exactly like Surface Pro 3 tablet, which is far costlier than Surface 3. But obviously, Surface Pro 3 has more power and storage. Surface 3 packs a 2GB Ram, 64GB internal storage. You will not get the accessories and covers in the $499 tag price. Microsoft also announced that you could double the RAM of Surface 3 in $100 extra. Surface 3 has ATOM X7 Cherry Trail processor.

Surface 3 tablet will have a one-year long free subscription of Office 365 apps. The best part is that it will be running full Windows 8.1— and would be upgraded to Windows 10 when it comes of course. This solves a lot of problems for the users who hate windows RT because of its inability to run the apps like we want in the original Windows productivity style.

Surface Pro 3 had a huge price tag and a lot of users were complaining. I think Microsoft has solved the problem as Surface 3 tablet can easily be labelled as another, slightly slow (as compared to Surface Pro), cheap version of Surface Pro 3.

Surface Pro 3 is now open for pre-sales and the general rollout will be done by Microsoft in May.

Facebook Phone App: A Threat to Carrier Service Providers?

Fahad Saleem — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:13:28 +0000

Last night, some Facebook users spotted a mysterious notification and sign about a new app called ‘Phone’ in Facebook for mobile apps in Android. Facebook immediately took it off from the interface, but a number of users took screen shots of this app notification. The Phone app allegedly is being made by Facebook which will let the users to make calls to numbers. In the description written in the leaked app description, it says that Phone app will also let you see from where the calls are coming from and you could block the numbers as you please.

This is a huge news. A free Facebook phone app could mean a massive dent to phone carrier services providers. Facebook acquired WhatsApp and turned it into a billion dollar business. It also rolled out calling feature in WhatsApp for Android. The latest Phone app could be announced anytime soon.

Facebook already has a voice and video calling feature in its social platform, both for mobile and desktop. Then why is the new Phone app coming to the scene? The answer lies in another speculation, which seems close to reality. Facebook wants to make a bridge between carriers and users. So when a Phone app comes for Facebook, you could quickly make calls from your Facebook interface. The calls will be routed through carriers, but extra features like blocking, texting and VOIP calls will be given by Facebook. This could turn out to be a huge business for Facebook.

Facebook Messenger App Will Become Messaging Platform for WhatsApp, Viber and other Apps

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 15:31:31 +0000

Facebook has announced that it plans to make its Facebook Messenger app a platform where other third party messaging apps and services will be able to get hosted and users will be able to enjoy services like Viber, Skype, WhatsApp, Line in one window. This is a huge news because this step could eventually grow Facebook Messenger user growth drastically, killing the user base of all other famous messaging giants.

Facebook’s revealed its plans at the Tech Crunch Disrupt event. The company wants to tackle the Asian messaging apps like WeChat and Line, which are letting its users play games, share content, share money and data in the messaging apps. Facebook will announce its plans for third party resource integration with Facebook Messenger in the upcoming F8 conference. In the start, Facebook will start letting its users share content and other data. If all goes successfully, the company will start integrating other messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber and other apps. But this would be a daunting task for the search engine giant as other messaging services will never let its user base go as a subsidiary of Facebook Messenger.

Avoiding spam will be the single most important factor in the latest services. Facebook’s Open graph algorithm made Facebook web games and services a hub of spamming. Third party apps and services published games, news and ads without the user permission. Facebook will have to be very careful while allowing third party sources into the Messenger app.

You Can Now Send Money to Friends Using Facebook Messenger App

Fahad Saleem — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 20:24:12 +0000

Facebook has launched a payment service which will let you pay your friends via Facebook Messenger. The service will be absolutely free. You will be able to connect your VISA or Mastercard debit card with your Facebook account and press “$’ sign which will appear in the Facebook Messenger app. Once you press this button, you can enter the amount and press send in the chat with your friend to who you want to send money. That’s it. The money will be wired.

Facebook has launched this service in an effort to tackle payments behemoth PayPal. Twitter also launched a payment service in partnership with Barclay’s Bank. Facebook wants to make sure that it leaves no domain untapped in the contemporary tech world.

Facebook already processes over 1 million payments daily for its ads and games business. These payments are done via PayPal. SnapChat also signed a deal with Square Cash payment service for its SnapCash payment service. Google Wallet, Venmo are some other competitors Facebook want to compete.

Giving a payments feature in Facebook Messenger app is a smart move by Facebook. People mostly don’t want to open new apps and service for a single task. Just pressing the $ sign and sending money to a friend will be preferred by Facebook users. Security and authentication will be a key factor in the success of Facebook payments service.

Facebook’s plans for its payment service were leaked in some hacked images a few months back. The service is now officially announced.

Facebook payment feature will be rolled out in the US in the coming months. PayPal also issued a statement and said that it has strong working relationships with Facebook and both companies will keep working on joint endeavors in the future as well.

Apple beats Samsung in Phone Sales and Revenue With Clear Margins

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:44:56 +0000

Apple has finally crossed Samsung in the long, grueling race which is continuing since years. In Q4 2014, Apple sold 74.8 million smartphones whereas Samsung sold around 73 million smartphones. Apple also reported the biggest ever profit in a quarter ever: $18 billion. Apple is continuing to take the market by storm. The company has the highest market cap and on its way to be the first company in the US with a market cap of $1 trillion. Samsung on the other hand is struggling because of rising smartphone players like Xiaomi, Microsoft, HP and Sony.

According to Gartner, Apple has around 20.4% market share in the overall phone market. Samsung’s share is on the decline and in Q4 2014, Samsung market share went to 19%. The reason behind the loss in the market share of Samsung is its lack of a solid product strategy. Gartner recommends Samsung to follow an ecosystem approach like Apple. Samsung must develop its own apps, software, hardware and services to garner a wide customer base.

But Samsung was the biggest phone vendor in 2014, beating Apple by a larger different. Samsung shipped 307.5 million smartphones whereas Apple shipped 191.4 million smartphones in 2014. But in Q4, things changed drastically, thanks to the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Customers around the world were waiting for a big-sized phone from Apple. Samsung had the edge in the market because of its large screen phones. When Apple launched big phones, sales of Samsung tumbled. But the complete picture will come out in one or two quarters from now as the iPhone 6 sales come to normal.

Google has Shut Down Google Talk for Windows: Find Alternatives

Fahad Saleem — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 06:47:04 +0000

Google Talk, also called as GTalk, has been ignored by Google for a long time and now finally it has been shutdown recently on February 16. Google is now urging the users of GTalk to try Hangouts for Chrome app. The users can still use Google Talk service using Chrome browser though.

Google has been boasting about its Hangouts app for a long time as a better alternative for Google Talk. However, users of Google Talk kept using the app for file sharing and some other purposes until it was shut down by Google. This also means that the Google Talk support for third party apps has also ended now since Hangouts doesn’t support the required protocols of third party apps like Adium and Pidgin.

The users of Hangouts would disagree with the claims of Google since it is not that easy to use. It presents difficulties for messaging and contains a really confusing interface. The status of the availability of the contacts is also missing. The Chrome extension is not fast enough and crashes often.

Considering the disadvantages of Hangouts, you need to find better third party alternatives. Apps like Psi and Digsby were quite famous once, but don’t hold water now. Trillian is a great app in this regard for messaging your buddies. It supports many chat networks like Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, and many more. Lighter option of Pidgin is also available. It might seem old, but serves the purpose very well.

You must find the app that best serves your requirements after the exit of Google Talk. The above mentioned apps are some examples.

Facebook Is Working On Exciting Virtual Reality Apps

Fahad Saleem — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 18:04:40 +0000

About a year ago, Facebook invested $2 billion in Oculus, a virtual reality headset firm and experts were sure that the social media giant is up to something big. In a recent development, Facebook has announced that it will be developing specific apps for virtual reality. At Recode’s Code Media conference in Dana Point, Mr. Cox, product manager at Facebook revealed Facebook’s exciting plans about virtual reality apps.

Cox didn’t mention the time frame of the launch of these apps but claimed that it could be ‘soon’. About the nature of apps he said that it will be like sharing your experiences in reality. He termed it as stepping into other people’s reality. He said people will be sharing their reality with other people’s reality. “You’ll do it. Beyoncé will do it,” he told in his interview. He also mentioned that looking into a virtual reality now through these apps will be like looking into the future.

Cox told Re/code’s senior editor Peter Kafka about some apps that Facebook is currently working on. One of the apps he mentioned is about piloting an aircraft; the other app Facebook is working on will be able to take you to Mongolian yurt. However, He mentioned that we are a long way from a time when everyone will have virtual reality sets and will be sharing experience rather than simple text, photo or video.

The consumer version of the Rift -Crescent Bay- is also many months away from reaching to public. This version was unveiled in September and it has improved features than its predecessor. It has back tracking LEDs, practically capable of 360 degree tracking. Its refresh rate has also been increased and unlike the previous version, this comes with integrated headphones. These features show a potential for virtual reality app development and Facebook will soon be tapping into this billion dollar space.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Will Have Microsoft’s Preloaded Productivity Apps, Tilted Glass Sides

Fahad Saleem — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:39:35 +0000

Samsung has started teasing its billions of fans across the globe with Samsung Galaxy S6, the much awaited flagship of the Korean tech giant. Samsung just renamed its Twitter handle to “The Next Galaxy” and posted a video. The video starts under a black tunnel and the background voice says “Unique View” and “Vision” and the video teaser ends with the sentence “I am the new Galaxy”. Recently, many reports stuck the web touting claims about the launch date and features of Samsung Galaxy S6.

Source have claimed that Samsung Galaxy S6 will have curved glass screen on both sides unlike Samsung Note Edge, with has its one side tilted. The camera of S6 will also be sensational.

Regarding the Samsung Galaxy S6 release date, an internal memo from Samsung revealed that the company is planning to call back its employees from vacations during March and April. This hints that Samsung will launch its next flagship before summer.

Samsung is reportedly ditching Qualcomm for Exynos and you can expect a fast and improved processor in the upcoming device.

Another startling report from Sam mobile has claimed that Samsung has planned to quit its own OS and preloaded apps. The company will adapt Microsoft’s apps and UI. This will be huge if true. Samsung is suffering in its sales. Apple, Xiaomi and other mobile players in established and emerging markets have given a tough competition to Samsung recently.

If Samsung pulls its preloaded apps from Galaxy S6, this would mean the end of S Health, S Note, S Voice. You can expect Microsoft’s OneDrive, Office 365(free), productivity apps in the next flagship of Samsung. Samsung is heavily changing its strategy to target the enterprise mobile users.

How Google Is Planning to Crush Microsoft from the Enterprise

Fahad Saleem — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 18:23:48 +0000

Google is planning to take Microsoft head on by killing its core business: the enterprise Office apps. Google’s Rajen Sheth, who is the product manager at the team dedicated to build Enterprise level apps thinks that in the past, when Google launched Google Docs, analyst were skeptical about its success. But 10 years have proved that Google not only contains the potential to limit Microsoft’s penetration in the enterprise domain, it can also undo its impact.

In an interview to Business Insider, Google for Work manager Amit Singh said that Google has a complete business plan to knock out Microsoft out of its primary turf. Google’s Cloud based docs suite of apps has the edge over Microsoft in terms of collaborative work, which is the primary need of the modern world. Although Microsoft has given OneDrive and DropBox integration in its latest Office for Windows 10 apps, people feel much comfortable using Google Docs.

Singh said that Google is garnering the customer base of Microsoft by harnessing the core features of Office in its Cloud based apps. Google’s analysis has shown that most of the people use Google Docs for light editing, reading and sharing. No one uses Google spreadsheet for heavy report making or invoicing. This is the area where Google lacks but Singh doesn’t care about this. He thinks that if Google is able to get to 90% of the user base of Microsoft, the rest will follow.

Microsoft acquired QuickOffice, a software which can open Microsoft Office documents. This move was to deplete Office penetration. How? Most of the users make their documents in office and when they share or work on them in a collaborative environment, they open them on Google Docs if Office is not installed on the device. Google Docs cannot open an Office document, but now that is possible with QuickOffice.

Next comes the pricing model. Microsoft works in a licensing model, which is costly as compared to Google apps. Google has no plans to convince the Enterprise to dump office and buy Google apps for work. They are cutting the costs and showing the performance, which will imbibe the companies sooner or later towards Google apps.