It came up with quite a few exciting smartphones from its famous earth-shattering 3310 feature phone to hot cakes like its XpressMusic, E, and N series.

This was a period of great prosperity for Nokia with its consumer division enjoying a whopping half a billion phones annual sales.

Nokia was completely consumed (blinded as well) by the huge success it had achieved over the years.

Success is something that tends to make great organizations become complacent.

While Nokia was in its heyday, Apple, not a name synonymous with smartphones then, was quietly brewing a storm behind the walls of its ol’ Cupertino Campus.

And in 2007, Apple dropped the bomb by introducing its iPhone 3G and changed the way we looked at mobile devices forever.

But Apple wanted to keep control of its OS and didn’t allow other mobile manufacturers to leverage the power of iOS.

This offered a great opportunity to Google, who was also cooking Android in its kitchen.

Since Android was an open platform and offered loads of customization options, it attracted a ton of mobile phone manufacturers.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now Android has graduated to become one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world and powers billions of devices including smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and even cars.

Image Source: Statista.com

Related Read: Java Vs. Kotlin – Which is the Right Option for Your Next App Development Project?

Initially, Apple iOS had the upper hand when it comes to responsiveness, thanks to Apple’s amazing hardware-software integration but Android caught up with iOS by bringing performance improvements in its newer versions.

In this article, we compare two of the latest versions of Android and see what’s gotten better or worse.

1.    Aesthetics

One of the first things you will notice when comparing Oreo with Pie is aesthetics. Pie adds a little more color and curves that were absent from Android Oreo. It is by no means a drastic change but some edges have been smoothed out. Subtle differences such as colorful settings icons, changes to notification drop down and quick settings bar are a welcome addition. It looks far better than the whites of Android Oreo.

2.    Battery management

Since Android Marshmallow, Google has taken battery management seriously by packing in a Doze mode, which puts your smartphone in hibernate state when it is not in use. The results are far better battery life on devices running Marshmallow and newer versions.

Android Pie introduced a new feature called Adaptive Battery. This feature tailor the operating system based on how often users use certain apps. This means that the apps you rarely use will have no or limited background permissions. Notifications from such apps will be delayed due to low priority. Android Oreo did not have this feature.

3.    Brightness Controls

Another difference users will notice between Android Oreo and Android Pie is how they both handle brightness. Android Oreo brings conventional adaptive brightness mode but this mode is nothing special as most smartphones have this feature already irrespective of which version of Android operating system they are running.

Android Pie takes things up a notch by adding some smart capabilities to its adaptive brightness mode. It analyzes your usage patterns and the changes you make to brightness during different lighting conditions and maps out a custom curve. Although, that’s also a minor upgrade still it is a feature you won’t find on Android Oreo.

4.    App Functionality

Android Pie allows developers to create app slices, which functions just like app action, but they can float around the Android Pie interface. Google gave the demo of this feature with the Lyft app during launch. App slices are small but meaningful bits of information that does not have to be saved in the app anymore.

Professional mobile app development companies in Dubai are taking advantage of this feature and saving user’s time. This can enhance the user experience and will give a slight edge to Android Pie over Android Oreo in the long run.

5.    Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The world is raving about machine learning and artificial intelligence but we have not seen its true implementation in mobile ecosystems. Both Apple and Google are slowly but surely changing that by pushing some smart features here and there. Android Pie is no exception to this rule. Unlike Android Oreo, Android Pie predicts feature you want based on your user patterns put it in front of you so you can easily use them without having to fiddle with different menus.

App actions like booking a taxi, making a call or resuming a playlist will appear depending upon the time of the day. In addition to this, you can search for these smart app actions in universal search, Google Play Store or Google Assistant, which was not possible before. The operating system learns from behavior and offers users a convenient shortcuts to get more done faster.

6.    Night Mode

Android Oreo comes preloaded with a night mode that also has a blue light filter. It takes out the blue light as you near your bedtime, helping you enjoy a good night sleep. Yes, the display might have a yellowish tinge but it is far less taxing on your eyes. There is another feature called Wind Down, which takes things a step further, gray scaling the display and put your phone in “Do not disturb” mode when you reach your bedtime.

Which Android version do you prefer? Feel free to share you’re views with us in the comments section below.

The post Android Oreo Vs Android Pie: What’s in and What’s Out and Everything In Between appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

With a new year just around the corner, it is important to stay abreast of the SEO trends for 2019. Additionally, it is important to know which skills you should master to ace the SEO game in 2019. In this article, you will learn about SEO knowledge areas you should focus on in order to rank on top of Google and other search engines in 2019.

1. Audience Research

Yes, you might be a bit surprised to see audience research taking precedence over keyword research, but the fact is that search engines are shifting towards delivering intent and context-based results to users. Voice search will continue to make keyword research less important and the focus will slowly but surely shift towards audience research. Digital marketing companies in Dubai are bound to put great emphasis on learning about their customers and trying to discover what they are searching for. More time will be spent on demographics and psychographic research and knowing what content will resonate with your audience.

2. Analytics

It is quite common to expect SEO experts to analyze their results to evaluate their performance. As a search engine marketer, you must be able to see the impact of your strategy and report on your efforts to higher authorities. Most SEOs are familiar with Google Analytics, but they fail to make the most of the customization options available to them.

For instance, they can dig deeper into customer journeys by leveraging attribution models, but they don’t. Harness the power of all the analytics data at your disposal to get a better idea about searcher intent, customer journeys, and buyer personas. This will enable you to see the impact of your SEO efforts on your business.

3. Indexing

Indexing used to be one of the most talked about things in SEO a decade ago, but it is slowly losing its importance with the passage of time. If you have been in the industry for decades, this must ring a bell. Google used to take longer to crawl pages a decade ago, but the faster pace of crawling today has brought about a paradigm shift in the industry.

Large websites with hundreds of pages, e-commerce websites, and sites with duplicate content will now have a targeted and effective strategy to go with their crawling budget. The right use of robot commands and canonical tags will make a difference. Knowing when to canonicalize, to index and when to stay back and do nothing can make all the difference between higher rankings and lower rankings.

Related Read: 9 Questions to ask before hiring an SEO Agency in Dubai

4. Local SEO

With globalization sweeping across the business world, businesses have ignored local customers to make way for global customers. They are missing out on a huge chunk of customers who are searching for them and willing to buy their products. Here is why you should focus on local search;

According to statistics, 88% of users search for local businesses on their mobile devices, following up with a call or visiting the business physically within 24 hours. 78% of local mobile searches resulted in an offline purchase. 46% of all searches on Google are local searches.

All these statistics clearly highlight the importance of local SEO for business and clear up all the confusion surrounding whether you should spend time and money optimizing for local search. Remember that the ranking factors for local SEO are a tad different from traditional SEO, so you can only win at local SEO game when you know the important ranking factors for local SEO. How can you rank higher for local search?  Check out this visual local SEO guide to rank higher.

5. International SEO

If your business has already encroached beyond the borders, or you are planning to expand your business to a different region of the world in near future, you should pay extra attention to international SEO. I am not saying that you should become an international SEO expert, but you should at least know the ins and outs of it. You should be aware of how different languages and countries differ for an international version of the search engines. Develop an understanding of how top-level domains, hosting and different tags play an important role in boosting your search engine rankings.

6. Link Building

Although link building has not been as popular as it used to be in the past, that does not mean that you should scrap it altogether. Most marketers will now look to create content that attracts backlinks, but you will have to combine that with link building efforts to rank higher.

Another common misconception about link building is that quantity is more important than quality. The focus will shift from quantity to quality as digital marketers strive to acquire more quality backlinks from authoritative websites to boost their search engine rankings. SEO experts will spend more time accessing the quality of links and implement viable strategies to gain relevant and high-quality backlinks in 2019.

7. On-Page Optimization

There is no denying the fact that focus is slowly shifting to content and context, but that does not mean that you should ignore on-page elements altogether. On-page elements also play their part when it comes to getting your website ranked on top of search engines. Add a keyword in the title tag, use SEO friendly URLs and incorporating keywords in the first paragraph can all help you rank for your desired keywords.

Which SEO knowledge area you want to master in 2019? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.

The post 7 Critical SEO Knowledge Areas You Must Master To Rank At The Top appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

Have you ever wished that your mobile devices could communicate with objects inside a grocery store and make your shopping experience a whole lot easier? Perhaps a simple “Accio cereal” would make your rice crispies fly right out of its shelf at the opposite corner of the store right into your cart? If yes, we have some good news for you.

Apple has granted you your wish by introducing a game-changing technology known as iBeacon. If you are interested to know what it is, how it works, and how it stands out from other technologies available in the market, you are about to get your curiosity satiated. This article instills in you everything you need to know about iBeacon, the latest sensation in device-to-object communication and location-based services.

What is iBeacon?

iBeacon is a stellar protocol developed by Apple. Multiple vendors started creating compatible hardware transmitters known as Beacons. These beacons are Bluetooth low energy (BLE) devices that communicate identifiers to mobile devices in their proximity. Your mobile devices can automatically take the pertinent action as soon as they identify a beacon within their radius.

iBeacon technology can also be used as an indoor positioning system, which can accurately provide the precise location at the building level and deliver hyper-contextual content. Despite being developed by Apple, iBeacon technology also supports Android, which is a great news for millions of Android device owners.

Related: Gain Deep Insights from the Future Tech Week (GISEC/GEMEC/IOTX) – Dubai 2018

What Makes iBeacon Stand out from the Crowd?

There are a plethora of location-tracking systems out there but none like iBeacon itself. What makes iBeacon stand a head and shoulder above others is its ability to track location inside buildings with high accuracy. This is where all other location tracking systems fail to deliver. Moreover, it consumes lesser energy as it capitalizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for communication.

How does iBeacon Work?

In order to leverage the iBeacon technology, you need to understand how it works and what you need to make it work. Here are three things to help it function properly:

1. An app
2. A Beacon
3. A User

1.     An App

To implement this burgeoning technology, you need to invest in mobile app development. You need a mobile application that can act as a bridge and help your mobile devices communicate with a Beacon. The ShopKick’s customer rewarding app known as shopBeacon, perfectly embodies this concept,combiningiBeacons with its home-backed ultra-sound technology. The app managed to generate $1 million in sales for retail partners and became an overnight success.

Related: 7 Mobile App Development Trends to Keep an Eye On In 2018

2.     A Beacon

A beacon is capable of transmitting and receiving signals under30 meters in range. As soon as your mobile device falls within the beacon’s radius, these beacons can calculate the transmission power based on data. In addition to this, it can also determine the distance of each beacon along with its exact location. As soon as a user comes in proximity, the communication between mobile device and beacon begins.

3.     A User

You need to ask for permission from your app users whether they are willing to share their location information or not. Only with their consent can you can implement the iBeacon technology. With growing privacy and security concerns prevalent across cyberspace, many consumers are reluctant to share their location information with other users. According to a research, most users will be willing to share their location information with you only if you offer them a discount or a lucrative offer as a recompense.

Beacon IDs

A beacon is regularly sending out messages via Bluetooth, which has a Beacon ID. It is a common misconception that every signal has a unique ID, which is a myth that you need to ditch right away.

Beacon IDs fall under one of these categories:

1. UUID
2. Major
3. Minor

1.     UUID (16 Bytes)

UUID is used to mark a group of beacons placed in an enterprise or company. This means that all beacons in your company should have the same UUID.

2.     Major(2 Bytes)

This type of ID is assigned to a group of beacons located in a particular place.

3.     Minor (2 Bytes)

Minor IDs are assigned to differentiate beacons placed in the same department with the same major IDs and UUID.

Battery Consumption and Security

Two of the most important considerations when implementing a beacon is battery consumption and security of data. Powered by batteries, beacons are standalone devices. They leverage Bluetooth low energy (BLE) which has a low signal strength, therefore, you can expect beacons to last more than a year without needing a battery replacement. The type of Beacon you choose can also affect the overall battery life. There are some rechargeable Beacons available in the market which can be recharged using a USB port or some other power source.

This brings us to the most important question. “How secure is the iBeacon protocol?” It is a shame that iBeacon protocol does not provide even the most basic levels of security. What this means is that anyone can scan your Beacon IDs, which is exactly what you want to steer clear of from a security standpoint.

Users who are aware of different types of IDs can clone or emulate beacons with their smart devices. This is why it is not in good measure to share sensitive information through a beacon. Generating Beacon IDs is also not a tough nut to crack, especially with a host of ID generating apps such as iBeacon scanners and iBeacon Detectors. These apps can help you analyze the number of Beacons in close proximity. You can also purchase Beacons from different online vendors.

After reading this article, would you implement the Beacon technology in your business? If yes, which advantage of Beacon technology persuaded you to take that step? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you and highly appreciate your feedback about Beacon technology

The post Welcome to The World of Beacons: All You Need to Know About iBeacon appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

However, consider a scenario. If you consistently keep finding yourself at places with rather rusty Internet connectivity –for instance when commuting to work- you may thank your lucky stars that you saved a few videos to while away the time. Or what if while preparing for the exams, you need to constantly take references from a few lecture videos, won’t it be better to have them at hand at all times instead of constantly searching for them every time you need them?

If you are oblivious to how you can download YouTube videos, keep them with you at all times, and watch them whenever you want, we can teach you all that you need to know about downloading YouTube videos.

Websites

1. KeepVid

The easiest and quickest way of downloading YouTube videos is through websites. One of the best websites for this purpose is KeepVid. Users can download videos and audio from more than 10,000 different websites with KeepVid. All you have to do is to copy the video URL, paste it into the search box on the website, and click on the download button.

It will take a few seconds to process and reveal download options to let you customize the format, size, and quality. Right-click on the file and select “Save Link As” option from the menu and your download will begin. The only downside with this tool is that you must have Java installed to make the most of this website.

Related: Choosing The Best Social Media Channel for a Business

2. Savefrom.net

Akin toKeepVid, Savefrom.net is another useful website that lets you download videos from 40 different websites, including YouTube, with a single click. You can also download a browser add-on to save yourself from the hassle of visiting the website to download videos. Copy the video link, paste it into the Savefrom.net search bar, and press download. A slew of download options will appear to let you choose between different video parameters to be downloaded. In addition to videos, Savefrom.net also integrates with design platforms so designers can pull data directly from albums with user photographs, audio and video files.

3. ClipConverter.cc

Another website that follows along the same lines is clipconverter.cc.The tool allows you to download any video by copypasting the link. Choose from amongst various download options and get your desired video in your preferred format. Users can even select the start and end time for a video so that you only download the part you want instead of the entire video, a feature that other YouTube video downloading tools are devoid of.

There is also a browser add-on available for most popular browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. The add-on makes the downloading process easier and saves you from the hassle of visiting the website.

Software

4. Freemake Video Downloader

Although there are a plethora of video downloading software out there, what makes Freemake video downloader stand out is its ability to download multiple videos simultaneously. Download and install the Freemake video downloader and it will let you grab and convert videos in any format, save links, and download multiple videos all at once.

For those interested in downloading audio from a video file, Freemake also has a Freemake YouTube to MP3 converter, called Boom. Do not forget to decline third-party extras during installation and prevent Yahoo from becoming your search engine. A custom install will help you do that easily.

Related: Top 8 Video Editing Software for 2017

5. 4K Video Downloader

Download and install 4K video downloader software for Windows and download complete playlists from YouTube. Yes, you read that right, complete playlists! The free software lets you get your hands on360-degree videos and 3D videos from YouTube. Copy and paste the video URL, tailor the download format and other settings to your preference, and hit the download button. Video download will begin immediately. You can download 24 videos at once with this brilliant free YouTube downloading software. There is also a smart move, which is ideal if you always download videos in a particular format. You do not have to tweak your download options every time with smart mode and your video gets directly downloaded in the format of your choice.

6. YTD Video Downloader

Although the simple, intuitive and easy to use interface of this software might not appeal to everyone, but that is its beauty as you can easily download YouTube videos.

The free version is quite limited and doesn’t allow you to download multiple videos at once, so if you are downloading YTD to download multiple videos, you are out of luck. You will have to download videos one by one.

Media Player

7. VLC Media Player

Did you know that you can also download YouTube videos with the help of VLC media player? Yes, you read that right. This powerful media player not only playbacks every multimedia format under the sun but also allows you to capture video stream from YouTube and download your favorite videos from the popular video sharing platforms.

Copy the URL of the video you want to download and select “Open Capture device” from media in VLC media player. A new window will open where you need to select “Network” tab, paste the network URL in the box, and hit the play button. The video will start to playback. There is a small drop-down beside the play button which reveals all available download option. Select one option to begin downloading the theYouTube video.

Which tool do you use to download YouTube videos and why? Which is your favorite YouTube downloading tool? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you. Choose one of the aforementioned tools and start downloading YouTube videos for offline viewing.

The post 7 infallible Ways to Keep Your Favorite Videos with You Forever appeared first on Branex Official Blog.