Creating The Perfect Android App For Beginners

Building an Android app comes down to two major skills/languages: Java and Android. Java is the language used in Android, but the Android part encompasses learning XML for the design of the app, learning the concepts of Android, and using the concepts logically with Java.

Once you learn Java and XML; XML is really easy to get used to, and you should learn the language as you program your app rather than learning it beforehand like you would with Java. You need to learn how to connect these two using Android principles.

Now for a total beginner, we recommend YouTube tutorials to get the basic idea of how to install Eclipse (the Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, for Java) and the Java Development Kit (JDK). It also helps to get the basic idea of syntax behind Java concepts, such as for loops and if statements.

Here is an example: Click to watch video 

But from then on, after you have learned the very basics, we HIGHLY recommend ditching the YouTube tutorials in favor of a book or a lecture series. YouTube tutorials very often do NOT give intuition behind important concepts.

Keep these following things in mind as you venture on your journey of building a successful Android App.

7 things to know before building your first Android App:

1. You need to learn Java, there is no way around it. Knowledge will only help you through the process of building an app.

2. Android part encompasses learning XML for the app design, understanding concepts of Android and using said concepts programmatically with Java.

3. Beginners should probably use an IDE. It is really useful and lets you experiment.

4. Building your first app is time-consuming: it won’t happen overnight. This is not a project for those looking for a shortcut to success.

5. When stuck on a problem which will inevitably happen, turn to Stack Overflow. Utilize Google, and have no shame in asking assistance from the experts.

6. Before hitting the market and start developing an application you should conduct a proper market research. Analyzing the market thoroughly will give you insights about your competitors, their strategy, their strengths and weakness too. This information will prove to be useful as you can avoid repeating the mistakes your competitors made.

7. Defining your target audience is very important as the audience plays a huge impact on the development of your mobile application. All these questions such as who will be using this app, and how is it going to help them, should be answered well before hand.

Best Of Luck.

Solve For India

Google on Friday announced a new initiative called “Solve for India”.  Google with this innovative program plans to expand and boost the start-up ecosystem and inspire new-age entrepreneurs to “Solve for India” and its untapped potential. As the name suggests “Solve in India”, Google intends to work on solving problems that majority of the Indians have been facing from the past few decades.

With enhanced connectivity and the ever growing Internet user base, it provides an opportunity to everyone to pursue their dreams and curate solutions for Indians. Google is going to offer the same with the “Solve in India” program.

Below are the features of the initiative:

1. “Solve for India” program is set to inspire the emerging group of entrepreneurs in cities like  Jaipur, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkatta, Indore, Nagpur, Kanpur, Madurai, and Chennai.

2. It will provide a platform for developers, entrepreneurs in the above mentioned cities to collaborate with experts and understand latest Google technologies. They will also get support and other assistance directly from Google.

3. For startups who’re looking to build scalable solutions, Google will provide over $20,000 of cloud credits under this program to boost their growth.

4. Developers can also expect to build on their skills and learn from experts on latest in Android, Firebase, Machine learning, Cloud APIs, Progressive Web Apps and Indian Language Translation solutions.

5. Entrepreneurs will be able to learn from a plethora of Google’s program starting from Google Launchpad mentoring program. It will help them to build, scale and accelerate early stage product ideas into category leaders.

“Majority of India’s Internet users are Indian language users, and over 80 per cent of them access the Internet from their mobile phones. But the current Indian startup ecosystem is building products for English speaking audience and caters only to 15 per cent of the population. There’s growing number of entrepreneurs in smaller Indian cities who are focusing on building solutions that caters to the real needs of India. Through this initiative we want to bring the best of Google under one program and join forces with them to help create solutions that serve the needs of a billion Indians,” says Karthik Padmanabhan, Program Manager Lead for Google India.

Understanding Offshore Development

You’re comfortably relaxing on your couch and enjoying a football match. The television suddenly switches off and the switch box explodes with sparks flying around. You have no clue what has happened and you look up on the internet searching for an electrician. The local electrician is charging $100, whereas a veteran electrician from the neighboring community is ready to visit your place and rectify your electrical setup for just $30.

Whom will you call?

Keep these options in your mind as we dwell into the concept of offshore development.

From the past decade or so, an unexpected trend has arisen in the technology sector. Multi-national companies, start-ups, and even local businesses have started adopting the business models of offshore development services. Offshore development was something that only large global companies engaged in many years ago due to the geographical and language challenges that existed. Today, these are not a factor as communication and transparency challenges have been both negated due to the technology that has come into everyday life.

First, let us discuss what exactly is offshore development as well as why it has become such as a popular option for companies worldwide.

Offshore development means the process of outsourcing your development needs such as web, mobile or even custom software to countries such as India, Philippines, China and so on. The reason why people look at offshore web or software development is mainly because of the cost-savings and the time that can be saved. Also, it minimizes internal overhead costs. The offshore model has been around for a long while but with the world becoming more global and technology making it easier than ever before to communicate to anyone no matter where they are located, the demands for offshore development have increased substantially.

The Offshore Development model is used for multiple things: offshore software and offshore web development or services such as customer service, data-entry, cold-calling along with BPO or KPO processes. The main reason is that a person in India or any other developing country will cost significantly less when compared to the US, UK or Australia. The bottom line is that if you are able to find a good offshore development partner, you can really save yourself time, money, HR hassles and other operational expenses. The key is to find a good offshore partner who has the experience, expertise and technical skills to accomplish what you need. Ranging from a simple website or even a fully operating customer service center, your offshore partner must be well equipped to handle your requirements.

Professional offshore development can be beneficial in the following ways:

Reasonable services :

Not all the countries boast of a talented pool of web developers and designers in abundance which makes it difficult to get work done at a nominal amount. The reason being that they charge substantially as they develop products knowing that they are in monopoly. It turns out to be quite expensive build a website or mobile app. Offshore development can disrupt the monopoly and be more cost effective.

Quality:

One of the best things about the offshore software companies is that they have a vast pool of talent and can render top notch development services. This ensures that the quality of the projects is superior and also matches the international standards.They also ensure that they utilize the best tools and technologies to create highly competitive products.

Communication:

Technology has ensured that there is no delay in any communication between the client and the developers. Offshore developers tend to be more approachable and communication friendly. This ensures that the process does not go haywire during any stage.

No deadline delays:

Following deadlines is a big aspect when it comes to product development. The entire marketing and operations of a company depends on the product being delivered according to the stipulated time. Offshore development can cut down these hassles as they have the flexibility of employing more resources at a lower cost.

24×7 availability:

Round the clock availability sometimes becomes a norm for a global company and offshore centers offer workflow accordingly which might not be possible in the parent country due to cost and labor-force constraints.

Conducive Environment:

Outsourced processes, usually are very strenuous in nature. The workforce needs to be seated in an environment that can boost productivity and reduce stress levels. It is one of the main factors why Offshore Development is a good option since infrastructure is available cheaply as compared to the parent country.

Security:

Security of confidential data and client properties is a buzzing concern when dealing with offshore companies. Most of the offshore development companies offer high end security protocols and systems to ensure the client’s data is never compromised.

And now, back to the electrician conundrum. If a veteran electrician with years of experience is ready to travel to your house at a cheaper rate, any sensible man would choose him over the $100 electrician. The same logic may also be applied to the concept of offshore development.

So, sit back and relax as your offshore partner takes charge of your processes and product development and frees you of the basic organizational hassles.

Offshore development may seem a far fetch off for most of the most organisations, but if the current global trend is to be observed, it is one of the most trusted and cost effective options for an organisation that is looking to cut down on costs and build quality products.

Virtual Reality to Practical Confidence.

“People think every creative idea possible has already happened, unfortunately, technology is greedy, it wants more.”

In this hotchpotch of a world that we live in, sometimes some souls lack behind in certain basic skills such as communication and decision-making. It is either due to lack of exposure or hereditary to put it in simpler terms. Most of us are afraid of the stage or fear facing a huge crowd. And some of us live with that fear forever, protecting ourselves in a cocoon not realizing how it affects our overall growth. It is not just the basic skills that need confidence. It can be your professional skills as well. And it is time proven that confidence can only be harnessed through practice and gaining experience.

Virtual reality is capable of stimulating experiences in our mind that as of now no other tech can match up to. It can virtually make you face your worst fears and teach you to cope with them. VR can fool your mind that you’re already well versed with something which you may or may not have experienced in reality.

Let us discuss 7 possibilities on how VR can train the mind:

1. Medical Training: Medical students can now perform surgical procedures on live 3D models of the human body instead of corpses till they perfect the procedure. They will get a hands-on experience with virtual patients and emergency cases. This will result in medical professionals with experience and embedded with confidence.

2. Stage fear: There are already mobile apps that let you practice in front of a virtual audience in your choice of environment. From best man speeches, lectures and interactive talks, you can practice them beforehand and be more confident at delivering your words. Soon, there will be Tedx talk environments for the enlightened ones as well.

3. Meditation: Imagine meditating in the middle of a forest under a banyan tree sitting on a couch. Virtual reality can take you anywhere you want, with minimal noise and utmost peace. Stimulating the senses in such an environment can calm our emotional facade.

4.Therapy: Stress and mental fatigue can break down anyone. Virtual reality can provide relief to the affected by psychologically planned scenarios, creating a therapeutic environment or interacting with a long distanced loved one in a VR environment.

5. Military Training: A trainee soldier or a trainee pilot can now experience real-life attack scenarios and respond accordingly. The military will save tremendously on their training costs and in turn, will gain soldiers who are ready for the brunt of their profession.

6. Sports: Virtual Reality can entirely change the way a batsman, footballer, athlete or a race car driver practices. It can simulate different environments, difficulty and fatigue levels to keep the players geared up for the action by enhancing their confidence levels.

7. Surrealism: Sometimes, all we need is time by ourselves. It is a proven fact that solitude once in a while can do wonders. Virtual reality can set up an environment of your choice, on a beach, on the top of a hill or just floating in the outer space. This will immensely help you feel better and drive your productivity sky high.

Escaping reality is not a bad idea, in fact, it is one of the best ideas mankind has had. Right from books, media, and gaming, we have been constantly evolving ourselves to diverge from reality for a few moments. And when technology is in our hands, why not use it and improve our personality, stimulate our minds for an improved performance and in the overall process boost our confidence.

App development is perhaps one of the biggest technology disruptors in today’s world. Every IT or software firm and even individuals are looking forward to build their own app and publish it on Google Play. However, building a successful app is not an easy task. Before you put out the app developed by you or your team on Google Play and make it available for the users, there are few things you need to consider doing. Towards this end, we have compiled the basic pointers you need to follow before publishing an app. Let’s look at each of them in detail –

Steps Involved in Publishing an App

• Quality test- It is extremely crucial to make sure that the app passes the quality criteria, so that it can meet up to expectations of the users.
• Publishing Process – First of all, check out the documents related to publishing workflow, and get an idea of the process involved in making an APK (application package) ready for release.
• Policies and Agreements – Next, go through the list of policies and agreements of Google Play. Google Play aggressively put into force the policies, and if your app if found violating any of the policies then it may lead to its termination; even the developer account may get suspended.
• Country Distribution- In this step, you have to decide the distribution of your app on the basis of countries as well as territories.
• App’s Size- The maximum space provided by Google Play to publish your app is 50 MB. In case your app’s size exceeds 50 MB, you can seek help from APK expansion files.
• App’s Platform- This step is about confirming that you have created the app on a platform which is compatible with Android OS.
• In-app Billing- In case you do not want to give your app for free, consider making use of an In-app billing, which will let you to sell your digital content. In addition, also set a price for your app.
• Localizing- If you have any particular country where you want to promote your app specifically, then you have to work towards localizing the app and its elements, such as images, strings, screenshots, etc.
• Promotion- In this step, you have to work towards the promotion of your app by creating graphics, videos, and screenshots.
• Release Ready APK- After taking care of the above mentioned steps, now you should focus on uploading the APKs to the developer console of your account.
• Beta Release- Distribution of a pre-release edition of the app can be useful in getting the feedback from the users, which in turn will prove helpful in fixing bugs.
• Apps’ Store Listing– This step is about furnishing the details of your app to the users, on the store listing page. This detail will help the users decide whether to purchase/download your app or not.

Those were the major steps involved when it comes to publish an app on Google Play. You can also make use of Google Play badges to promote your app in a better way. Write in to us with your comments if these pointers help you with your app approval process.

It’s fascinating how not too long time ago we once envisioned a future like how people in science fiction movies did. Today, we are almost living it! But this is not it; technology will continue to get much better. The past few years have seen great leaps in technology. Many innovations we use today have revolutionized the way we live and work. One of the most revolutionary innovations that have completely changed our lives is the “mobile”. Mobiles today have become a necessity. They are equivalent to oxygen for a human! What differentiates one mobile phone to another is its “operating system”.

One of the most popular operating systems in the market today is Google’s Android.

 But what sets Android apart from the rest? Open source. It’s a software that makes the source code freely available, for anyone to see and use. Google has opened up the software to all who have a spirit to create and provide applications and programs to others. Competitors like Apple and Blackberry have limited their system to developers by safekeeping some of its computer code. This limits creativity, as it puts restrictions and limitations as to what exactly what one can create. Thus, Android boosts a plethora of apps. Any kind of application one desires may already be in the Android play store. While creating an app, the developer must ensure a fantastic user interface. Why? A good user interface and user experience (UX) enhances the aesthetic appeal of the app, making the user use the app more often. The goal of developer is to create an app with a user interface, which makes it easy, efficient, and enjoyable in a way, which produces the desired result.

What makes Android more desirable is the security it offers to its users. It is designed with security as one of its cornerstone principles. Without comparing it to any other platform, it does a fantastic job of making sure processes don’t collect too much information. It has multiple layers of protection to keep malware at bay, and it requires the user’s specific permission to do almost anything that could lead to one’s data or the system being compromised. The user is generally always aware of what’s happening behind the scenes.

An Android phone is generally backed up with a RAM, ranging from 512MB to 4GB, the latter being rare. So, the developer must keep in mind that any app he creates must not consume a considerable amount of space, that ends up making the phone slower, and which ultimately results in a bad experience. A good app is one that takes the least space possible yet provides an enjoyable experience to the user. In terms of performance, Android never backs down. It constantly releases periodic updates to make the existing OS more efficient! New phones in the market come pre-installed with the latest Android OS.

Android is a system that allows one to constantly be in the loop. It automatically synchronizes Facebook, Twitter, emails, and numerous other accounts that are integrated into the system via apps or at stock for the user. Live widgets that monitor in real time, accounts, any and all social networks, social feeds, and business/personal accounts are updated instantly. In addition to that, its flexibility and power to design impactful user-interfaces build compelling, user-friendly applications that will look great on any device.

Android is only progressing. The future for it is bright and promising. It has shattered mobile systems realm, and will continue to do so. And its decision to be an open-source software, has made a bigger difference in the world of mobile operating systems. In a short span of time, Android has given other operating systems a run for their money.

GoodWorkLabs adds Samsung, the largest electronics and mobile company, to its envious list of clients and partners! We are excited to work alongside the giant to bring out kickass solutions and products. Welcome Samsung!