What’s New In Android L, Windows 8.1 And IOS 8

As all the three major mobile players in smartphone categories  i.e. Apple, Google and Microsoft come up with their latest version of Operating Systems i.e. iOS 8, Android L & Windows 8.1 respectively. Let’s have a look how it is worthy for users to switch over the most-recent OS version based upon the new features.

Android L:-

  • Personalized unlocking features, which make your smartphone or tablet search for familiar Bluetooth’s gadgets, Wi-Fi networks, locations and even voice imprints to deactivate any lock screen protections, letting you jump straight into your phone when it knows you’re nearby. If the device can’t detect any of this metrics, anyone trying to use it will be presented with the standard lock screen.
  • Google is focusing on its stock android keyboard for Android 5.0 Lollipop for adding more personalized and scrapping the individual tiled keys.
  • There is one more exciting feature i.e. “Do Not Disturb mode”, which automatically deactivates all notifications and audio during set times, support for Bluetooth 4.1 and a completely redesigned audio back end with support for USB audio devices.
  • Also Android L is going to introduce 64-bit processor support and  improving battery life with Project Volta. Project Volta includes a new battery historian which will help users work out what a device was doing at any given point in a battery cycle to find out which apps are draining the most power.

Windows 8.1 :–

Microsoft has already rolled out windows 8.1 few months back. Some of the features that were added windows phone 8.1:

  • Cortana, which is very much similar to Siri in iOS device, act as your personal assistant. Cortana notebook features store things that you tell her about yourself and also keep tracks what you like and what you’d like done. It can access apps, set alarms, send messages to specific persons, post a Facebook status, add a tweet, search for something and a lot more.
  • The action center which is finally added, and here you can get all your notifications and other controls such as setting Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
  • Another interesting feature that added to windows 8.1 was Quiet Hours. Here You can set what time you want your phone to be “quiet,” shutting out noise or notifications coming from it.

There is some other new features like setting up your personal photos as the background on the said start screen, connects you to free Wi-Fi hotspots near you through Wi-Fi sense, transferring files from the internal memory and SD-card seamless through Storage Sence etc.

iOS 8:-

iOS 8 also launched with lots of new features and here I am going to share few of them:

  • iPhone has new feature “Send Last Location” which allows your iPhone (or iPad) to send its last-known location to Apple when the battery drains to a critical level. If you lost your device, it will help you to find the last location of your device even if it’s battery is completely drained.
  • You can now include photos when making notes, to-do lists and reminders in Apple’s iOS 8 notes app.
  • Now iPhone can identify the song due to Shazam integration in Siri. If you ask Siri, “What song is playing?”, it will cause her to listen to the ambient sound, using Shazam to identify music.
  • You can notice iOS 8 has new keyboard with a very smooth predictive type features, which suggests three words right above the keyboard.

I hope you liked this post. What you would like to prefer- Android L, iOS 8 or windows 8.1 and why. Please share your answer in the below comment section

Recommended Blog: Useful features of iOS 7

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How To Monetize IOS App Through Apple In-App Purchase Integration

What Is In App Purchase?

Apple’s In-App purchase lets you the ability to sell items within your free or paid app which includes premium content, virtual goods, upgrade features and subscriptions. Apple takes 30% of the commission and you receive 70% of the purchase price.

Each purchase is associated with a product type. The product types are:

  • Apple-In-App-Purchase-208x300

    Consumable Products:

Consumables are In-App Purchases that must be purchased each time the user needs that item.

  • Non-Consumable Products:

Non-Consumables are In-App Purchases that only need to be purchased once by the user and are available to all devices registered to a user.

  • Auto-Renewable Subscriptions:

Auto-Renewable Subscriptions allow the user to purchase episodic content or access to dynamic digital content for a set duration time. At the end of each duration, the subscription will renew itself, until a user opts out.

  • Non-Renewable Subscriptions:

Non-Renewing Subscription allow the sale of services with a limited duration. Non-Renewing Subscriptions must be used for In-App Purchases that offer time-based access to static content.

  • Free Subscriptions:

Free Subscriptions are an extension of Auto-Renewable Subscriptions that permit the delivery of free subscription content to Newsstand-enabled applications.

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The Free Subscription In-App Purchase type is implemented in the same way as an Auto-Renewable Subscription, just without any charges to the user. Free Subscriptions do not have expiration, but the user can turn off the subscription at any time.

You can use any one of the above as best suit to your application.

For example, integrating InApp purchase for Non-consumable type product.

In Non-consumable products type, user has to pay only once. Then the content or items will be available to all the device against that user’s apple ID.

What To Do Before Integrating In App Purchase To Your Application?

  1. Connect to iTunes
  2. Then create an unique App ID for your application and enable in-app purchases for that.
  3. Update the app with created bundle ID and code signing in Xcode with corresponding provisioning profile.
  4. Create the app using the AppID you’ve registered. Then goto Manage Applications in iTunes Connect.
  5. Make sure you have set up the bank details for your app as it is necessary for supporting In-App purchase.
  6. Then Add a new non-consumable product for In-App purchase.
  7. Last step is to create a test user account using Manage Users option in iTunes connect page of your app.

Lets write the code

First include StoreKit Framework into the app.Then write the following code in ViewController.h file

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <StoreKit/StoreKit.h>
 
@interface MyViewController : UIViewController
<SKProductsRequestDelegate,SKPaymentTransactionObserver>
 
{
 
}
-(IBAction)PurchaseButtonClicked:(id)sender;
 
- (void) completeTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction;
- (void) restoreTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction;
- (void) failedTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction;
 
@end 
Write the following code in ViewController.m file
-(IBAction)PurchaseButtonClicked:(id)sender {
    SKProductsRequest *request= [[SKProductsRequest alloc]
initWithProductIdentifiers: [NSSet setWithObject: @"your_product_ID"]];
    request.delegate = self;
    [request start];
}
- (void)productsRequest:(SKProductsRequest *)request didReceiveResponse:(SKProductsResponse *)response
{
   [[SKPaymentQueue defaultQueue] addTransactionObserver:self];
 
   NSArray *myProduct = response.products;
   NSLog(@"%@",[[myProduct objectAtIndex:0] productIdentifier]);
 
   //Since only one product, we do not need to choose from the array. Proceed directly to payment.
 
   SKPayment *newPayment = [SKPayment paymentWithProduct:[myProduct objectAtIndex:0]];
   [[SKPaymentQueue defaultQueue] addPayment:newPayment];
 
   [request autorelease];
}
 
- (void)paymentQueue:(SKPaymentQueue *)queue updatedTransactions:(NSArray *)transactions
{
 for (SKPaymentTransaction *transaction in transactions)
   {
      switch (transaction.transactionState)
      {
         case SKPaymentTransactionStatePurchased:
              [self completeTransaction:transaction];
              break;
         case SKPaymentTransactionStateFailed:
              [self failedTransaction:transaction];
              break;
         case SKPaymentTransactionStateRestored:
              [self restoreTransaction:transaction];
         default:
              break;
      }
    }
} 
 
- (void) completeTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction
{
    NSLog(@"Transaction Completed");
    // You can create a method to record the transaction.
    // [self recordTransaction: transaction];
    // You should make the update to your app based on what was purchased and inform user.
    // [self provideContent: transaction.payment.productIdentifier];
    // Finally, remove the transaction from the payment queue.
    [[SKPaymentQueue defaultQueue] finishTransaction: transaction];
}
 
- (void) restoreTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction
{
    NSLog(@"Transaction Restored");
    // You can create a method to record the transaction.
    // [self recordTransaction: transaction];
    // You should make the update to your app based on what was purchased and inform user.
    // [self provideContent: transaction.payment.productIdentifier];
    // Finally, remove the transaction from the payment queue.
    [[SKPaymentQueue defaultQueue] finishTransaction: transaction];
}
 
- (void) failedTransaction: (SKPaymentTransaction *)transaction
{
    [activityIndicator stopAnimating];
    if (transaction.error.code != SKErrorPaymentCancelled)
    {
      // Display an error here.
      UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Purchase Unsuccessful"
      message:@"Your purchase failed. Please try again."
      delegate:self
      cancelButtonTitle:@"OK"
      otherButtonTitles:nil];
      [alert show];
      [alert release];
     }
 
    // Finally, remove the transaction from the payment queue.
    [[SKPaymentQueue defaultQueue] finishTransaction: transaction];
}

That’s it, now your app is integrated with the inApp purchase with non-consumable subscription.

Note: Please review Apple Guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html) before publishing the app to the app store.

Andolasoft has expertise in iOS application development and other iOS integration.

See Also: E-Signature SDK for iOS App Developer

Like this blog? I’d love to hear about your thoughts on this. Thanks for sharing your comments.

Apple Promises To Fix The Security Exploit That Lets People Gain Access

In our previous post we had outlined some of the latest features of iOS 6.1 update, mentioning it to be a fix for its old mistakes. But it turns out that, it does have some security flaws which let the users bypass the locked iPhone devices.

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This exploit was first spotted by a French user who later uploaded a video to YouTube, by demonstrating the procedure to unlock a pass-code protected iOS device.  Seeing this Apple has promised to release a fast fix to this security issue. In a statement, the company said “Apple takes user security very seriously, we are aware of this issue, and will deliver a fix in a future software update.”  But the company has neither offered a specific timeline for its next update nor any quick fix to the handle issue.

The video depicts a sequence of steps in which the French guy easily hacks the “locked” iPhone, that was running iOS 6.1. The process involved is somewhat weird, such as ending an emergency call, consecutive pressing of home button and etc. Below I have provided the exact steps as posted by the users, to unlock the iPhone.

First Part:

  • Go to emergency call, push down the power button and tap cancel.
  • Dial 112 and tap green and immediately red.
  • Go to lock screen.

Second Part:

  • Go to passcode screen.
  • Keep pushing down the power button …1…2…3…seconds and before showing the slider “turn off”…tap the emergency call button and …voilá!
  • Then without releasing the power button press the home button and ready…

The procedure allows the users to access contacts, photos and to make calls. But it doesn’t offer access to its home screen or any iOS apps that exists on the home screen. The iPhone lock screen hack seems to work on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 too, if they are running iOS 6.1.

Apple IPhone Smartwatch Is Expected In This Year

In this current year is supposed to see some amazing technological innovations. This would be the year of wearable smart devices and compact gadgets. From recent news, it is now revealed that tech giants like Apple have decided to develop a smartwatch.

It will be developed to facilitate easy access to Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad. And it is also expected to be available during this year.

‘Apple’ has teamed up with ‘Intel’ to create this Bluetooth-equipped wearable smartwatch to sync operations and notifications with the iPhone.

It would allow the users to remotely access the phone from their wrist, without necessarily holding the phone when needed. That means the users can send text messages, make calls, and update their Facebook status directly from their watches.

With an embedded Siri- integration and a 1.5in display, an iPhone compatible smartwatch is definitely in high demand.

It is expected to run a certain version of iOS for which it will give more opportunities to the iPhone developers around the world. This new device assumed as the ‘iWatch’ would be a hot favorite among the phone lovers in this year.

At Andolasoft we develop the most intuitive iPhone Applications for our customers. Our experienced developers keep updating their skill set with the latest technology and iOS releases to match the competitive market.

Apple AppStore, Google Play & Revenue Earnings

Apple Store, Google Play StoreWe all know that Google and Apple are the most dominating players in the smartphone industry and they get most of their revenues from their application stores i.e. ‘Google Play’ and ‘App Store’ respectively.

But according to a new study from App Annie Intelligence, both Google and Apple have shown interesting numbers in their respective application stores.

App Annie Intelligence has been monitoring numerous apps from Google Play and App Store to measure their performance based on the volume of apps being downloaded and the revenues being earned from their apps.

According to their report, Google Play has seen phenomenal growth in revenue in October 2012, which has increased by a staggering 311% compared to January 2012, but it’s still unable to match App Store, which attracted four times more revenues despite of growing just 12.9% in the same period.

Since the release of the report, Apple has disagreed App Annie’s numbers by saying that App Store’s revenue grew over 200% and not just 12.9%, but later it was revealed that both companies were right in their own way because the two entities were looking at the growth differently.

Practically Apple has grown around 200% every year, but according to App Annie, Apple’s growth is 12.9% in October 2012 counting from January 2012. So it turned out that both Apple and App Annie were right.

According to other findings from the study, there are other interesting statistics like:

  • 10% more free downloads are available from App Store compared to Google Play
  • Only 3.3% growth in app downloads for App Store whereas 48% growth is seen for Google Play in the last five months

In the recent past USA was listed for the highest iOS app downloads with 26% than the rest of the world and the revenue collected for the same was 33% of the rest of the world.

Whereas for Android 21% of app downloads came from USA and collected around 29% of revenue from Japan. Among the free mobile game apps for iOS, companies like EA, Gameloft and Facebook pulled maximum downloads and for Google Play, the top free app publishers are Google, Facebook, Rovio, Go Launcher.

Taking revenue into consideration the grossing iOS apps were from companies like EA, Zynga, Supercell. For Google Play the leaders were DeNA, COLOPL and GungHo Online.

There are other free iPhone and Android apps which also play a major role in generating revenues and traffic to the application stores. At the same time, iPhone application development and Android application development both are improving day by day.

We at Andolasoft have team of iPhone application developers and Android application developers to provide business solutions. We have developed iOS apps like Orangewall, Andolapic and kurrentjobs and Android apps like Christmas Tree Puzzle which you can download Free from App Store and Google Play.

The Largest Selling Smartphone in USA Irrespective of Some Flaws

iphoneSince the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, Apple has received mixed reviews for its new operating system as well as the iPhone 5 design.

But it has turned out to be the most popular smartphone in US, Apple has managed to gain around 48% of US market share from the iPhone5. Despite of some faulty applications, iPhone is still popular in US.

New features like a faster processor, taller screen, and slimmer design have definitely played a crucial part in driving the iPhone’s success to nearly half the share in the United States.

Surveys reveal that customer loyalty is also the reason behind Apple’s profound hold on the US market.

Besides the hardware updates, there are other features like Siri, cloud integration with the safari, and Facebook photo-sharing integrations, which works seamlessly with the device.

As expected, the Retina Display is pretty staggering and the A6 chip has improved the performance and speed to a great deal.

With the introduction of iOS6,iPhone application developers have found a better opportunity to explore more features and customization of their codes.

Since its first release, developers around the world are trying to develop applications for iOS6. The Retina display, taller screen, and faster A6 processor allow developers to create stunning applications with high-resolution images and complex functionalities.

Even though Apple’s Map App is filled with flaws and still remains unfixed, it seems to have no effect on iPhone lovers in the US. They solved the problem by using Google Maps instead of Apple’s native navigation app.

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We at Andolasoft develop exquisite iPhone and iPad apps for iOS6 devices. Our experienced iPhone developers use the latest resources to create apps that are engaging and fun. Our apps are rigorously tested to ensure no flaw exists.

Along with development we also release updates for our applications with each improvement in UI and functionalities.  Some of our apps are showcased in App Store which can be downloaded for FREE.