It’s already obvious that the consumer market moves in the direction of smart homes and appliances with Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality devices. One of the central devices in the future smart homes will be the smart speakers with built-in voice assistant like Amazon Alexa, Google assistant ot Apple HomePod. Which one to choose? Let’s take a look.

Amazon Alexa has been around since November 2015. The series of Echo smart speakers with Alexa on board have made their way into a great number of households and hearts worldwide. The speakers are rather slim, stylish and lightweight, with two button controls (wake and mic on/off) and a detailed voice configuration. They do require an Amazon app running on your mobile device to use, but they allow swift and uninterrupted access to the whole variety of Amazon (and partners) services.

A year later, back in November 2016, Google has introduced their smart speakers — Google Home, carrying the might of Google’s 17 years of search and experience within. These speakers, equipped with Google Assistant, help you control a variety of smart devices in your household and do a convenient googling for any topic you might imagine, while also listening to your favorite music. These speakers are much bigger and weigh more than the Amazon’s counterpart, also have the wake and mute buttons and use the Wi-Fi connection to exchange content with the Google’s online behemoth in order to carry out your orders.

An upcoming Apple HomePod, which was presented at WWDC in June and is due to be released in the December of 2017, will be a speaker grille, with the whole side surface being a fabric-covered speaker. It’s weight is around 2.5 kgs and it is much higher than Google Home, yet a little bit lower than the Amazon’s cylinder. The main feature of Apple Homepod the company emphasizes on is not being a smart control center, however — it’s being a superior sound system with Siri on board.

While Amazon’s device costs £149.99 and Google Home is sold for £129, Apple’s device will cost $350 and £350 across the pond, regardless of the currency exchange rate. The first question to come to mind is – why would people pay £200 more for just a speaker system?

Hello, Siri

One of the possible answers is Siri. Apple’s AI is already present in iPhones, iPads, across a variety of Macs and Macbooks and is able to interact with a plethora of different gadgets. When becoming accessible through a centralized speaker system with sensitive microphones, Siri will become the rightful control and synchronization tool for all your Apple devices. However, Apple did not explicitly state that HomePod will become the smart center of the house. Instead, they made a point at the speaker providing a superior sound quality. Which is quite strange, as iTunes provides rather lower-bitrate samples, which will not sound significantly better on any smart speaker system.

Thus said, there are two equally possible reasons for such situation:

• Apple seriously expects its fans to pay $350 just for the good sound for their music and a centralized Siri access point
• Apple has some HomePod functionality up their sleeve, which is not yet fully tested and not yet revealed. This functionality might justify the price tag after being announced and might tip the balance to force Apple fans buy otherwise useless HomePod.

If the latter is correct, we are eagerly waiting for HomePod release, which is due in December 2017. This smart speaker and voice assistant system has all odds to become the market leader within the next couple of years, due to huge Apple fan base, who adore using Siri in new ways to improve their everyday user experiences.

If the former is correct, however, HomePod risks following the route of other overpriced Apple products, who caused only slight notion within the audience. As of now both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa do their job pretty well, yet have their limitations. Apple is known to not always being the first, yet quite often being the best. In half a year we will know if HomePod is going to become the epicenter of a smart infrastructure – or merely an overpriced speaker with voice control.

The post What is the Best Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or the upcoming Apple HomePod? appeared first on QuanticApps.

This June on WWDC Apple announced its ARKit — a platform for developing augmented reality apps. Also add into the fray a new generation of Apple devices like iPhone8 coming this fall. Finish with the release of iOS11, which will support AR functions on multiple devices out of the box. What do we have as the result? A bright new future ahead of us. A world where AR and VR will become an integral part of our everyday lives.

There is a list of the main ARKit components the developers can use to build their apps:

• Stable tracking of motion at any speed
• Finding a plane (like floor or tabletop) and estimating its boundaries to insert AR objects on it
• Dynamic estimation of lighting level to create realistic effects
• Analysis of scales and proportions
• Built-in support for Unreal, Unity and Scenekit engines
• Xcode templates for building custom apps

Developers worldwide (including Quantic Apps, of course) are eager to discover and master the capabilities of ARKit. Meanwhile, a substantial part of consumers are still not aware of the full potential of using AR on their iOS devices. In the same time, many businesses are not yet sure how using AR with their product can drive profit. We compiled the list of 5 real life use cases of ARKit by Apple to show everyone that AR is much more than a geek’s toy. Much, much more…

Education using AR

Imagine a school, college or university lesson on STEM science like  physics, chemistry, biology or even history and sociology using AR. Actually, this can involve any subject where practical exercises involve experiments with consumables or modelling different situations in society.

Using AR apps for creating a set of consumables for a chemical, physical or even biological experiments is much cheaper and safer than buying consumables, holding experiments… and cleaning afterwards. Brewing chemical concoctions with dangerous vapors? Creating electrical circuits? Vivisecting frogs? All of this can be done using apps built with Apple ARKit.  Every teacher would be glad to remove the danger while retaining the quality of the experiments.

Real life examples of such apps would be the likes of Labster.com or Dance Reality, a freshly-created app that teaches you to dance using your iOS device!

Construction and architecture using AR

Undoubtedly, you had to have some minor refurbishments to your apartment or house at some point. Even moving the closet involves certain measurements and requires having certain tools. Well, not any more. Using ARKit from Apple allowed Smart Picture 3D create their Measurement Cloud — a simple tool for measuring the proportions of any object the camera can see. While definitely useful for planning the furniture positioning, this feature can scale up to placing AR models of future buildings into the existing landscape and modeling their exterior, complete with lighting and reflections on nearby buildings.

Entertainment using AR

The ones who didn’t hear of Pokemon Go, please raise your hands. No, we won’t measure the size of our collections, no… though it’s tempting. Yet applying the AR capabilities in entertainment is obviously one of the most lucrative fields and should be considered by any business, big or small. Little helping dwarves scattered around the workplace and helping the new employee with orientation during the onboarding process. Real life Minecraft using AR? Easy! 3D drawing of beautiful pictures, you name it.

Virtual tourism will emerge, where AR-enabled apps will read special tags on museum expositions and provide explanations on every piece of art, complete with simulated scenes of its usage or creation. Now anyone will be able to visit museums and carve their own path across the halls, without the need to hurry or walk slower and listen to the explanations in a strict sequence and tense silence, to hear what the guide has to say. This is a huge profit possibility, given the millions of Apple devices that will receive iOS11 this fall, and their owners who will be eager to experience all the wonders of the world within their mobile device.

On the brink of entertainment and usefulness lies a simple and fun app called Pixie that helps you locate items using their BlueTooth trackers and AR. Finding the lost keys or a phone in silent mode will not be a problem ever again.

Tutorial using AR

Do you know how to construct an IKEA office table or a chair? Well, it’s like learning to cycle — once you’ve done it at least once, you will quickly recall the actions in the future. However, what about that first time? Paper instructions might be not that self-explanatory sometimes… especially with IKEA appliances…

ARKit from Apple brings a wonderful new world of possibilities to goods manufacturers. Including an AR tag with the product allows providing an interactive AR instruction that can be re-accessed any time for the user’s convenience, and will never be lost or torn). Also think of maintenance and repair manuals. Forget bricks of paper or numerous videos. An interactive app is here to make your life much, much simpler!

Consumer information using AR

Another field of application for aforementioned tags would be consumer information in groceries and pharmacies. Scanning such tag will bring up information of the product fabrication and end of term date, nutritional values, possible meal recipes and diseases that prohibit consumption of this  product. These AR tags will transform the way we do shopping!

There will be a myriad of new apps we cannot even imagine as of now, of course. ARKit, in our opinion, can be the tool that will change the business landscape across multiple industries and services. Forever.

What do the people say of ARKit?

Tim Sweeney of  Epic Games (game developers using Unreal engine) said that “Apple entering the AR market is a milestone of a beginning of using AR and VR as the mainstream technology for mobile devices. This fall the market will grow from several million enthusiasts to hundreds of millions, and possibly even billions consumers.”

Arc Touch co-founder Adam Fingerman said “ARKit from Apple is a much more attractive platform for developers and businesses looking to provide augmented experiences to their customers”

Loup ventures CEO, Gene Munster said “Apple’s ARKit is light years ahead of anything we had before. AR will become the leading user interface in the future and iOS devices will be the main access points for the next 5 years or so, before being replaced with some wearable. The ARKit will enable the developers to build immersive AR environments far beyond the limits we knew before today”

http://www.cnbc.com/video/3000624595

Conclusions

Apple will reap the fruits for their titanic multi-year effort of providing hundreds of millions of devices with powerful processors and cameras. iPhones will become the de-facto standard for experiencing  AR in our everyday lives, so creating AR-powered apps will be an extremely important market in the next few years. As Tony Rodriguez, Digimarc CTO said, “The real power of ARKit lies in giving an Apple user capabilities to discover rich experiences in the world around them, filled with a wealth of interactive information”.

We are ready and willing to embrace this brave new world. Let’s bring your dreams of augmented reality to reality— together!

The post 5 Real Life Use Cases of ARKit by Apple appeared first on QuanticApps.

iOS 11 is due this fall along with the new series of Apple devices and gadgets. New features in iOS 11 are widely discussed as some of them are slightly improving the user’s experience, while some can be the real game changers. We’ll help you learn to get the most our of your iOS 11!

Design updates in iOS 11

First things first, there are gentle interface design updates across many apps and features in iOS 11. For example, fonts become bolder across the OS, Phone and Calculator apps have new look and feel, Lock screen and Control Center received a complete overhaul. We will describe this in more detail below.

The Control Center is now completely customizable, supporting a much wider range of settings. Unlike in iOS 10, the tool is not split across many screens any more. It also takes the whole screen, so much more icons can be placed there. You can add and remove the icons in the phone settings.

iOS 11 supports a much better 3D Touch integration for a more deep and satisfying UX. Tapping and holding an icon brings up a variety of additional actions, providing much better control over the apps and functions like Apple music. In addition, iOS 11 delivers a one-finger keyboard for convenient typing with a single finger.

The Lock screen has been united with the Notification Center, so swiping down to get to Notifications brings up the Lock screen. All the missed notifications are listed there and can be accessed with ease, while swiping upwards brings up the already read notifications. “Today” view is still accessible via a wide swipe to the right and the rest of the features are still there, they are just merged with the Lock screen now.

App Store got a complete redesign. Games and Apps are now separated, and Today view holds the newest apps and games, updated daily based on Siri’s recommendations. Game and App of the Day are featured, along with Apple’s editorial choices, interviews with developers, detailed tutorials and real-time reviews of the apps, to provide more grounded choices of new content.

Siri got even better!

Siri got a better-sounding male and female voices and the Apple AI algorithm received great improvements due to deep learning. This leads to much better results on learning user preferences, synchronizing them across multiple devices and predicting the user anticipations. Cross-device Siri sync will help it become smarter much faster. As always, Apple is all for privacy, so end-to-end encryption is used to ensure data security.

In addition, Siri can now speak and translate English into Spanish, German, Chinese, French and Italian, with more languages planned ahead. Another great thing about Siri is that Apple is finally delivering speech controls for Apple Music, in addition to syncable playlists, so that you can discover what music are your friends currently listening to, listen to it and share your playlists to  them!

New features for iPad in iOS 11

iPad owners were not left unnoticed. iOS 11 introduces a bunch of useful and convenient features for improving work and entertainment using iPad. Simple swipe up closes any running app, the Dock in the lower part of the screen allows organizing apps into folders for convenience.  

iCloud Drive was replaced and expanded into Files feature, mimicking the Mac Finder. Files provide access to local content on iPhone or iPad, app data, iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox. Files has open API, so developers can use it for simple integration to their apps and provide convenient exchange for photos, videos, documents, music and other content between apps. To say even more, Mission Control’s twin brother, App Switcher is here to allow browsing every launched app at once, and Drag and Drop feature is there to simplify the content exchange between apps.

iPad Pro owners get extended system-wide Apple Pencil functionality and all iPads now support in-app drawing in Notes and Mail. For example, Pencil can be used to instantly annotate any screenshot using Instant Markup feature (which actually works well on iPhones too). To say even more, Notes now provides handwriting and document scanning. Keyboard functionality was also greatly improved by adding “Flick” feature, enable more quick and simple typing of numbers and symbols.

Maps were also improved, due to Apple purchasing several mapping startups. It utilizes them by providing detailed indoor maps of public places like malls and airports, showing locations of bars, restaurants, security, restrooms, administration and other important indoor facilities. Driving also gets much easier, as iOS 11 is adding lane guidance and data on speed limits for a safe and convenient driving.

New apps and features for them in iOS 11

Do Not Disturb in a Car is a great new feature that works automatically and mutes all notifications when it detects a connection to a car Wi-Fi or movement with a car speed on a road. In this mode, calls and notifications are muted and auto-responded with configurable explanations. Important calls and messages can still go through by replying *urgent* to the autoresponder. Parents can also remotely configure the app to be always on on their children’s devices to promote more responsible and less distracted driving.

Remote automatic configuration is another great feature iOS 11 brings to the table. Just placing a new iOS device close to a configured one brings up an offer notification for synchronization. If a user agrees, all contacts, linked credit/debit card and preferences are copied automatically, removing all the hassle.

Paying through chat  is now possible in addition to previous Apple Pay functionality. If banking cards are linked to the device, payments can be issued and paid directly from the chat, using finger scan for transaction authorization.

Core NFC feature greatly improves the everyday experience. It scans corresponding tags, which are surely to appear everywhere around us soon. For example, scanning a pack of oatmeals in a grocery store shows their expiration date, nutritional value, possible recipes and even can provide recommendations based on user’s health conditions, synced from corresponding apps. Yes, health data in iOS 11 can be collected and synchronized across all your Apple devices, for the purposes described above and a plethora of other uses.

In museums these NFC tags will provide a possibility to quickly get a summary of any piece of the exposition, which will drastically improve the experience of solo exploration, without loud groups, planned routes and tedious guides.

Apple AR Kit in iOS 11

Apple unleashed the full potential of AR for developers, providing a powerful AR Kit, which allows using all the sensors and systems of iPhones and iPads in order to create realistic and immersive educational and entertainment environments. When the camera is pointed at a flat surface like a table, AR Kit allows adding a variety of virtual objects on it. Tremendous computational power of iPhones and iPads ensures the developers are able to create any environment the user might desire to experience. We will describe the Apple AR Kit capabilities in more details in one of our upcoming articles.

HomeKit and AirPlay2 features

Home app and its development kit, HomeKit, receive support for various speakers now. This ensures smooth control of all audio devices in your house, either through Home app or via Siri. By the way, all the leading speakers manufacturers have already announced support of HomeKit in upcoming updates. Apple TV can also be used for accessing Home App and smoothly controlling various devices across your household.

AirPlay 2 fully utilizes this feature, so music can be configured to play on multiple speakers across the rooms, or select few at your current location, similarly to Sonos. Have the music following you across the house without having to install overpowered speakers!

Conclusions

This list is by far not complete, as iOS 11 introduces a huge number of new features and improvements, like password autofill for 3rd party apps, location tracking, Uber auto-location, emergency SOS, Wi-Fi password sharing and many, many others. We will describe them in more details in future.

As of now, iOS 11 promises to be a worthy successor to previous iOS releases, compatible with all devices (except for the oldest and currently unsupported models), and paving the way for iPhone 8. It is still under development, yet can be freely accessed and uploaded from Apple’s website, so every user can experience it firsthand. Here at Quantic Apps we are thrilled and inspired with iOS 11 new features and capabilities and look forward to developing great apps based on them! If you already have an concept for an iOS 11-based app and want to turn it into reality — contact us right away, we are always ready to turn your ideas to successful products!

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We will provide a brief overview of mobile apps and web apps to depict their strengths, weaknesses and differences between these approaches to mobile development.

Mobile apps are built specifically for a certain mobile platform, using its coding language. The user must download them from an appstore and install them, so the app can work on a device. These native apps utilize any needed functions of the device (like camera, geolocation, notifications, work with contact list, etc.). They also are noted for delivering greatly customizable interface and excellent performance. Most of mobile apps (like games) can work offline and utilize the resources of the mobile device. They provide the design aligned with the design principles of the platform, thus yielding the usage experience the users are accustomed to.

Web apps, on the other hand, are built to be run in mobile browsers, using HTML5 and CSS/SASS to provide consistent usage experience across many platforms. These apps work via the mobile browser of the device and are actually simply bookmarks for web services the user can access. With web apps, most of the workload happens on the server side, with mobile device being simply a terminal to access the web-based service. Due to the fact that one service is designed to be run on any device, the interface and design might be the same for any platform, providing somewhat unusual user experience. Obviously, web apps cannot work offline and most of them have little to no access to the phone’s features. However, a user would not expect their weather app to be keen with using the phone camera — they just need the app to be able to tell if it is going to rain in a few hours, that’s it.

Thus said, mobile apps and web apps should be utilized for different purposes, to maximize the  advantages in each particular case. Below we will list several focal points to let you make an informed decision when choosing to develop a mobile app or a web app for your project.

Level of control over device hardware and features. As mobile apps are developed using the platform’s main coding language, they harness full control of the device’s functions and hardware needed, like the camera, GPS locator, notifications, gestures, etc. Web apps have to access device hardware via some web wrapper, so their capabilities are quite limited.

Offline operability. Many if not all mobile apps perfectly work offline, and if they do need network connection – they can often cache the needed information for later use. Web apps need the device to be online in order to function, which obviously limits their usefulness in locations with bad coverage.

The ease of content discovery. This is where the web apps shine, as you can easily create a bookmark to a specific page on the web, like a certain  merchandise in the store, certain weather forecast location, certain map location, etc. You do not need to download and install a mobile app for that. Thus said, web apps win the prize for accessing the content online with ease. QUite contrary, mobile apps are installed only if the user expects to use them quite often, so they justify the resources spent on their downloading, installation and ongoing updates.

Speed of operations. Mobile apps win hands down in this nomination. When the app uses the resources of the device instead of relying on the remote server to provide the action over the Internet connection, results are gained immediately.

Hassle with installation. As we already mentioned above, installation of a mobile app takes some time and traffic, meaning the user has to really need this app in order to make such investments. Web app, on the other hand, is merely a bookmark, taking seconds to create and using no system resources.

Maintenance and update problems. How many times did your Google maps app update last week? I counted 6, and it’s only Friday. Keeping mobile apps up-to-date is a pain for both users and developers, especially if multiple versions of the app are in use in several platforms. The updates must be packaged and uploaded to corresponding app stores, which takes time and effort. Updating a web app, on the other hand, needs no actions from user and is no harder than updating any other web page or service for developers. Thus said, web apps are obviously much easier to update and maintain.

Coverage of different platforms. As mentioned above, having multiple versions of the app running on multiple platforms is a nightmare for developers. On the other hand, as web apps operate via HTML5, their core code base works well on any platform, with slight adjustments needed.

Licensing, fees and publisher’s approval. Having to comply with the publisher’s policies and waiting for their approval to upload the app to the store can be costly, both in terms of money and time to market. For example, uploading the app to Apple’s App Store means 30% of the income generated by the app goes to the publisher as a fee.  Web apps are free from such limitations, but this also means they need to search for alternate ways of income generation.

App monetization. Mobile apps benefit from using platform’s standard payment gateways, greatly simplifying the process for both developers and end users. Quite contrary, web apps have to implement their own payment systems and ensure their security in order to be able to monetize the service.

The cost of app development. As HTML5 forms a huge chunk of web app’s code base, developing such apps is much cheaper, as compared to developing fully native mobile apps. However, the latter are usually developed by stale teams of developers, as finding a talented Java or Objective-C developer is quite hard and once employed, these become valuable assets that work long-term. Web development using HTML5 is easier and such developers are not valued that much, which might lead to excessively fluent teams and impair the development workflow.

Harnessing the power of UI/UX. One of the most important differences lies in the area of user interface and experience. When building a mobile app it’s much easier to provide interface and user experience similar to the majority of the popular apps on said platform. This makes the learning curve shorter and easier for the user. This does not mean web apps cannot provide the same interface, yet accessing it online is slower, fonts and colors do not always match exactly and such small details can make a huge difference for the customers.

Conclusions

Thus said, there is no panacea, as mobile apps and web apps have their strengths and weaknesses. The intended target audience, most probable area of use and, most importantly, the main idea of the app can dictate the type of the app to choose. A game should respond quickly, a banking app should provide secure interactions and a weather forecast should be able to provide information within seconds.

At QuanticApps we always help the customers analyze the needs and pain points of their target audience and find the best way to cater to those needs. Therefore, the choice between developing a mobile app or web app becomes a well-informed decision, making it much easier. We wish you the best of luck with your products and contact us anytime should you need some advice or help!

The post Mobile App or Web App: which to choose? appeared first on QuanticApps.

Decision to develop native mobile applications yields such benefits:

• Application’s core code base is optimized to work under a certain platform
• Application runs natively on any device with said platform without the need for compilation or web wrapping
• All capabilities of any device are supported out-of-the-box
• UX/UI can be made native, as every app version is developed for a certain platform
• No limitations in terms of loading and work speed. The game with rich graphical content or an application run by  millions of users won’t lag (if the code is well-written and optimized, of course)
• Usage and heavy customization of all interface functions and features is possible, as well as automatic updates with each new version of the chosen platform.

The constraints of developing mobile apps using native languages are the following:

• Separate app versions should be developed for every platform
• The developer company should have separate employees or teams for each platform
• Different tech stacks, SDK’s and frameworks, which need to be regularly retrained
• Increased expenses and overall time spent on developing, bug testing and updating every mobile application.

To sum it up, choosing native mobile app development provides excellent results. Unfortunately, such method has several limitations and imposes significant investments. The developer companies need to keep the developer teams trained up-to-date in order to remain competitive.

Pros and cons of Xamarin

Xamarin, one of cross-platform development tools, delivers such advantages:

• A single code base written for each app, allowing to reuse up to 80-90% of code base and rendering the remainder using native libraries
• A single developer team using a single tech stack to create apps for various platforms
• UI rendering involves ‘native’ controls, so UI works nearly as fast as for native apps
• Xamarin TestCloud: a tool for automated testing of your app’s behavior using above 2000 devices, helping to deploy, test, update and monitor how your app performs in the cloud after initial in-house development and public release
• Xamarin uses specific APIs and connectors for every mobile platform to enable various hardware functions
• Xamarin.Forms library is used for creating and rendering UI for your app. It employs native controls for each platform
• Xamarin HockeyApp: online DevOps support for Xamarin-built apps, helping collect crash reports and feedback from live users as well as analyze testing results.
• Multiple design patterns: MVC, MVVM, etc.
• Companies like GitHub, Slack and FourSquare use Xamarin to develop their products

However, working with Xamarin (or other frameworks for cross-platform development like React Native, Appcelerator, or NativeScript) has certain disadvantages the developers should be aware of:

• Some quantity of native code still needs to be written, so developers for each mobile OS are needed
• App’s speed of load and work might be impacted to a certain degree, as some code rendering will take place “on the fly”
• Full compliance with all requirements of all devices relies upon plugins and framework support
• The same goes for interface customization, which heavily depends on the framework capabilities

Thus said, both cross-platform and native development method can be applicable to develop a mobile app. While native apps help deliver unmatched user experience and work speed, they demand OS-specific app versions to be created and maintained. While Xamarin and the tools alike allow cutting time and budget, they impose certain limitations on the app work speed along with overall convenience of usage.

Which approach to choose then? At QuanticApps we develop native apps along with cross-platform applications, helping our clients reach their business goals while meeting the budget limits and timeframes. Want a great app able to work on any device? Or a set of apps to cover all target audiences? Contact us and we will make it happen!

The post Building mobile apps: native vs Xamarin (or other cross-platform frameworks) appeared first on QuanticApps.

There are two main differences between Apple Homekit and Google nest:

• Homekit runs on local Wi-Fi using a proprietary HAP protocol and requires each IoT-compatible device to include an MFi module, shipped by Apple in order to contact a control app on iPhone. Quite opposite, Google Nest works in the cloud and uses standard 802.11 g/n Wi-Fi features in Alphabet’s Weave to communicate between gadgets.
• Homekit is a proprietary solution, developed by Apple and working with quite a limited list of top-notch hardware and software brands. Google Nest is an open solution, allowing developers integrate their apps for a wide variety of IoT devices with the centralized control app.

Thus said, Apple follows a traditional approach — both customers and third-party developers should have as little access (and need for access) to the code, as possible. Everything is centered on usability and convenience, turning iPhone into a secure remote control device for all household appliances. Working over a specialized Wi-Fi protocol ensures data security and drastically lowers the chances of unauthorized access. In addition, low latency to the cloud server is not an issue, as all interactions between the devices happen locally.

The drawback of such approach is a relatively short list of supported home appliance models and vendors. However, this is the way Apple operates in general. Thus said, most of the users are accustomed to this behavior and choose security over diversity and ease of access.

Quite contrary, Google Home is an open solution, supporting hundreds of models of devices from a variety of manufacturers. It works with washing machines, ceiling fans, even pet feeders and baby monitors! However, most importantly, it works and connects over the cloud. All the setup and configuration is done server-side, in the cloud, and can be done wherever and whenever you are without the need to be at the site in person.

The downside here is the need for high latency Internet connectivity, which is not always available, at least for now. Data security is also a concern for many users, though cloud systems security has drastically improved with time.

Therefore, Google Nest would be a great choice for experimenters who aim at creating their unique smart home ecosystem, choosing from a variety of vendors and configuring apps the way they like — wherever and whenever they want.

Thus said, both Google Nest and Apple Homekit are decent choices. While one of them aims at security and intuitivity of usage, the other boasts the speed and simplicity of setup, configuration and adjustment of your smart home ecosystem.

Both systems are merely making their first steps at the moment. However, the provider that will meet the customer’s expectations best will ride the wave of success. Once the vast majority of consumers decides it’s time to make their homes smart — the great leap into the future and the Internet of Things. As for today, both Google and Apple grow their muscles, readying for that leap.

The post HomeKit vs Google Nest solution: Pros and Cons of each app appeared first on QuanticApps.

The world of digital media is… a mess. With Netflix being so popular, along with Amazon Video following on its footsteps and leading a horde of smaller providers — digital TV consumers do have a wide variety of options. This would have been great in any other industry, yet in digital media this only means you have to have separate apps with different accounts and separate subscription fees in order to consume their favorite movies and shows.

Apple tried to fix this by offering a unified TV app, which was meant to become the center of digital entertainment, a single interface to access from your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. Apple TV App has such 4 main tabs:

• Watch Now with two sections, Up Next and Recommended. The first shows the currently scheduled shows and movies, while the latter displays the content you can watch, including free and available from all your subscriptions.
• Library allows adding existing owned content from iTunes and subscribed providers to a convenient list,
• Store to offer apps and purchases from iTunes and providers the user did not yet subscribe to.
• Search helps discover new content like movies or TV shows by title, members of the crew (director, producer, etc.) or cast (actors). The content can then be added to Up Next using Siri or default product page options.

Thus said, at a glance Apple TV app seems to be a well-thought solution, providing an easy, reliable and self-explanatory experience across all Apple devices — the kind of app Apple customers value most. There is a darker side of it, if you dig a little deeper.

The bitter Apple: the new TV app is a hollow husk of what it is supposed to be

Let’s take a closer look at  the situation. The new Apple TV app is all about the ease and convenience of managing content, right? This means that the user is finally able to have all of their subscriptions like Netflix, Amazon, CBS, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and others nested under one interface and accessible from their Apple gadgets using a convenient Single Sign-On feature, instead of jumping across various apps on multiple devices?

NO! Despite several years of negotiations, Apple failed to sign treaties with a majority of leading cable TV providers and streaming services. The resulting list of supported providers is rather long, yet it lacks the presence of the major industry players and is, therefore… nearly useless.

How to make it work then? Well, Apple is fighting the system here. While it supports the wish of customers to have easy and convenient access to all of their paid TV apps via a single app, cable TV providers and streaming services are more than satisfied with the existing state of events and continue to provide their services through their own apps.

Sadly, Apple is actually the only market player capable of transforming the cable TV planescape  the way it did with music when iTunes hit the market. Naturally, TV market players do not want to follow in the footsteps of music providers that were either consumed by Apple or squished under its mighty iTunes boot. Which means that cable TV market will remain an uncontrollable chaos — unless Apple is able to make their rivals an offer they can’t refuse…

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Throwing the biggest new feature right at you — the freshly released Android Wear 2.0 makes all compatible smartwatches independent from companion phones. No more worrying about keeping your Android or iPhone in the pocket during the workout. The devices running this new OS stay connected with the Internet over the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or the LTE connection. Being independent of the smartphones means that smartwatches now have their own standalone Play Store with hundreds of apps that can be downloaded and installed to the gadget directly. The existing Wear 1.x apps are also accessible and fully functional.

The owners of the WiFi-accessible smartphones enjoy direct WiFi connection for some time already, yet these are great news for the people who happen to use Android-powered smartwatches with iPhones and previously lacked the easy app support. Security is ensured by using a specific API for Wearable Data Layer coupled with username and login authentication using the new watch face keyboard, handwriting recognition or voice input through Assistant.

New App launcher design

The latest Android design overhaul found its way into the updated OS for Android smartwatches. Instead of using side swipes to access apps, you can now simply push the side button, and the apps are displayed in an arc, which seems more fitting for the round screen of smartwatches. The list can be reorganized – just drag and drop to move your favorite apps up the arc. The action drawer now resides near the lower edge of the display and provides the content-specific actions, just as you would expect on a smartphone. Zooming in and out are also available for better user experience.

Customizable Watchfaces and Widgets (Complications)

This update introduces watchface widgets, also called Complications. Developers can use the API to supply the watchface Complications with data output from various third-party applications like Spotify or Google Fit, for example.

Changing to another watchface is also one swipe away now. The users can set up three watchfaces, all packed with different apps suiting for their roles — for business hours, workout and home usage, for example — line them up and simply swipe between them.

Messaging and replying via Android Wear 2.0

Messaging was quite inconvenient with small screens of wrist-held smart devices. The new input methods are aimed at rectifying the situation. Google proposes its self-developed keyboard you can swipe in to type a response and provides the API access for third-party keyboard-enabling apps. Handwriting recognition allows easily responding to the messages and the smart replies (a replica to Gmail feature) are also available to make the answering process as effortless and convenient as possible. Just tap on the message received and choose the way to respond to it.

New fitness possibilities

This Android OS for smartwatches release provides more features for fitness apps like Google fit (these features should be supported by the smartwatch itself, of course). The parameters like the number of repetitions in various exercises, distance jogged, calories burnt, heart beat ratio (if the appropriate sensor is present in the device), etc. — all of this can now be calculated and presented on the watch face.

In addition, listening to your favorite music during workout becomes much easier, as this smartwatch OS supports direct streaming from Spotify or other services alike, via the LTE or Wi-Fi connection. Note that the smartphone is not required, as the music is downloaded and played directly through the gadget itself! Calling and messaging capabilities are also available, so that smartwatch becomes the only device needed for staying in touch while enjoying the workout session!

Notifications overhaul

Notifications used to fill the watch face before, making it fill slightly encumbered. Android Wear 2.0 fixes this issue, as notification cards are now displayed as small icons in the lower part of the screen, with numbers showing the quantity of the cards in stack. This helps you manage the notifications easily — like accepting the call before answering to those three messages or changing the playlist. The screen remains clean and unobscured, providing convenient access to other functions of your wrist-held technological wonder.

Android Pay functionality

Full support of Android Pay for contactless payments with NFC-enabled smartwatches is another useful feature the users will enjoy. Just enter your banking card details into the app once and enjoy seamless shopping experience from now on!

Android Assistant for Smartwatches

One of other particularly interesting features is the voice input via Google Assistant. It is activated with standard “OK Google” or by holding down the standby button – and you can ask for directions, set timers, check the weather, etc. More functions are coming soon, but being able to use your smartwatches hands-free — while driving,biking, jogging or working out — this is already a nice feature to have, isn’t it?

Android Wear 2.0 rollout schedule

As we said above, the new version of Android OS for smartwatches is not coming to all devices at once. While newer smartwatches from LG receive the updated OS at once, the older series will have to wait for their turn, and some of the most outdated models will never be covered. Thus said, the owners of such devices now face the choice of adding a new gadget to their collection or envying their friends and colleagues who already did it.

Which way will you choose?

The post Android Wear 2.0: a brief description of a huge update appeared first on QuanticApps.

Both car integration systems use smartphones for computing and rendering the operations, then sending the picture to the car display, which is basically an external touchscreen monitor. However, while Apple went for a proven choice of a grid of icons, Android Auto created a refreshingly interesting choice of a home screen with a notification dashboard and 5 tabbed sections in the bottom. This is the major design difference, which affects all the other functions.

Apple CarPlay – your “iOS for the car” choice.

Apple CarPlay has the same simplistic design of the grid of icons iOS users are fond of.  However, adding additional apps results in pagination, which means there can be two and more pages with grids of 8 icons. To say even more, third party apps face certain pagination  restrictions, meaning your favorite app might end up on the third page without the chance of being moved to the main page.

The status bar resides to the left, showing the current time, network connectivity level and the on-screen Home button. The icons are the focal points in Apple CarPlay – big, bright, easy to tap. The “three taps” philosophy is in work here, so 8 starting icons grouped in two rows of 4 allow reaching any app or feature with a couple of taps from the main screen.

Phone icon provides access to contacts, favorites, recent calls, keypad and voicemail. Music is the same old Apple Music all iOS fans are well familiar with. Messages holds all messages, can read the out loud and allows replying to or initiating new messages with a voice. Pressing and holding the voice command button (usually mounted on steering wheel) activates Siri with all its benefits.

Maps is the place for planning routes and navigating. Apple Maps are used, so no big changes here either. Podcasts, Audiobooks and all other native or third-party apps mostly duplicate the standard iPhone or iPad experience.

Android Auto – a creepy but useful self-learning system

While Apple CarPlay’s bet is on simplicity and convenience of access to the same old iPhone functions while driving a car, Android Auto has certain important differences with Android smartphones.

For example, the notification dashboard with 5 tabbed sections below (navigation, phone functions, home screen, audio, manufacturer apps) is actually a snapshot of what is  going  on right now. New notification cards appear and can be accessed directly from the dashboard. New call, incoming message or email, beginning of the favorite shows, possible traffic jams, preferred shopping locations and routes to them and a myriad of other notifications can appear on the screen. When there are few notifications of the same type (like 5 new replies to your FB post) – a little red circle with the number appears in the notification window. Thus, a quick glance helps you understand which areas demand more attention.

Google Music has somewhat limited functionality, as Android Auto does not let you browse your content library – you can select the playlist only. However, while being used by default, Google Music is not the only app supported for audio, so using other programs helps find the most convenient solution for enjoying music while driving.

Driving and navigation. It is the key feature of Android Auto. The (somewhat creepy) yet incredibly useful Google Now self-learning route prediction system analyzes your schedule, driving routine, calendar events, recent voicemail and messages – and suggests several destination points based on the data analyzed. While selecting the point itself is nothing new, having it chosen for you according to your daily routine or recent email is a whole other story.

Drawbacks of both solutions

Thus said, while both being helpful, none of the iOS and Android systems proposes something essential. Mostly duplicating the smartphone functions. Low tolerance for third-party apps is also a drawback, yet Android Auto supports much more of them as compared to Apple CarPlay. Accessing another key section of the app is also a bit easier with Android Auto. Voice command system integration (both with Siri and Google) is a great feature for relieving your hands from the phone – but does it relieve your head from driving?

A playlist or route can be chosen before driving off and are rarely adjusted mid-motion. However, answering the messages or listening to them aloud requires drawing some cognitive power and attention from controlling the traffic situation. This poses a potential threat, though it’s lower than typing on the phone while driving.

Conclusions

Thus said, both Google CarPlay and Android Auto are great systems, which are in their infancy now and did not hit the consumers with full power yet. Both systems have great potential and watching them evolve and compete with each other will be an interesting experience. However, from our point of view, route prediction and traffic jam notification system is way more useful than an ability to listen to the podcasts of the sports games on the move.

The post Apple CarPlay vs Android Auto: Pros and Cons of Both Systems appeared first on QuanticApps.

Since it release in September, 2016, iOS 10 was closely examined by various experts and millions of users worldwide. According to the overwhelming majority of reviews, the OS overall performance has improved greatly and UI/UX has gotten even more comfortable and feature-rich. While certain features aim at improving the usage convenience, some are introduced for the sake of the ease of app integration.

For example, Find My Airpods is the feature that will undoubtedly become one of your favorites, as these slim earbuds seem to be able to hide in the open! Simply download Find My iPhone app, sign in with iCloud account, tap on the Airpods, select Actions and Play sound. That’s it, the Airpods will begin to chirp and you  will be able to find them easily.

Quantic Apps composed a list of 15 most noteworthy iOS 10 features to be aware of. The list is presented in no particular order and will be useful for those, who just decided to leave Android behind and enter the world of iOS10 — and even more useful for those who are now making the long-awaited upgrade from previous devices and want to know what’s new, what has improved and what is left intact.

New Facial Recognition algorithm

The users now have much more convenience while browsing Photos in search of great selfies and other shots with their friends as Facial Recognition feature now works much better. The new People tab in Albums also allows grouping those photos as the user sees fit. Possible security concerns are well addressed – this features works only for the photos stored on the device itself.

New Widgets functionality for many Apps

You will not need to unlock the iPhone any more in order to check the latest messages in FB, news, weather and much, much more. New Widgets feature in iOS10 allows doing it by adding animated, expandable and highly customizable widgets that can display text, play audio and even video. SImply swipe to the right from the lock screen – and there you go! Adding new Widgets is also simple – use 3D Touch on the app icon and tap Add Widget!

Emojis just got so much better!

iOS 10 emojis boast much richer functionality, as compared to their predecessors. The emojis are 3 times larger when sent without text, and can be used as substitutes for text inside iMessage or Message app — iOS simply highlights the words that can be replaced with emojis as you type. After you finish typing the text, simply tap the Emoji button and replace all suitable words with shiny emojis!

In-text URLs are now visualized

This is a great feature, enhancing any link you send in iMessage or Message app with an image (automatically fetched from the site) and a short description. This works for iTunes, Youtube, Vimeo, etc. (yes, you can now watch a video or listen to the music without even leaving the chat with a friend!). This feature supports URLs to track on Spotify, but these are not played in-line, of course.

6 types of third party apps are integrated with Siri, more are to come

iOS10 was a milestone in many meanings, including the long-awaited opening of Siri SDK (Sirikit)for developers. This allows using voice commands for requesting a Lyft, messaging in LinkedIn or WhatsApp or even browsing for photos on Pinterest. The initial 6 types of apps will undoubtedly be followed by others, which will allow using Siri with favorite third-party apps of each customer.

Apple Music receives a new personalized playlist

The new Discovery Mix playlist will enrich the Apple Music usage experience greatly, offering new tracks in the user’s preferred categories. Two other playlists, My Favorites Mix and My New Music Mix are on rotation already. The structure the tracks either according to the most repeated ones, or deliver new songs from favorite artists, os it’s only logical that My Discovery Mix will bolster this functionality.

Apple Music now comes with lyrics!

Finally! No need to browse for lyrics for a great new song any more! Whenever you are listening to a track on Apple Music you can just pull up — and the lyrics module will be downloaded. Unfortunately, not all publishers signed a contract with Apple, so some lyrics might be unavailable, but the majority of great tracks are now available for karaoke whenever and wherever you want it!

Transcription (and spam protection) for Voicemail

Voicemail can be great, but listening to it is not always comfortable.One of iOS 10 new features is the long-requested transcription for Voicemail, turning it to an easy-to-read text. In addition, Voicemail SDK (Callkit) is in place, which aims at stopping the Voicemail spam.

Any VoIP to your service

Not all contacts are stored in the phone. We speak with people in Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and other VoIP services. Previously, you had to store these contacts separately or add them to a contact list by hand. One of the  new iOS 10 features is the ability to treat all such calls like native Phone calls. They are stored in the journal, you can add them to the list of contacts and the app of choice will be used for calling such contacts in the future! No more hassle, just select the contact and call it — iPhone will launch Skype or Slack automatically!

3D Touch is really useful now

This feature introduced with iPhone 6 and 6s was not very popular as it obviously came ahead of the demand. With iOS 10, however, 3D Touch becomes an important and useful feature. You can now deep-press the app icon and create a widget for it, accept a Calendar invite or clear all Notifications without even unlocking your iPhone! Many more functions are sure to come and 3D Touch will take its rightful place amongst the most widely used iOS 10 features.

Remove Native Apps if you wish so

In the new iOS version all Native Apps can be removed from the Home screen. They are not deleted, however, to prevent the system from crashing, the user can simply hide the launcher icons from sight. Should the need arise, any Native App can be easily “reinstalled” from the App Store.

QuickType is your new best friend

Another iOS 10 feature that is drastically improved is QuickType. It can now read the text requests you receive and help answer them with ease. For example, questions like “Where are you” will surface a suggestion to pin your current location on a map. Inquiries about a friend’s phone number or address will surface the needed info from the contact list, etc. Finding a needed information in your Calendar or contact list just became a lot easier.

Multilingual keyboard from QuickType

Another welcomed functionality is the QuickType’s ability to automatically write the text in multiple languages, even if you did not switch to the correct keyboard before typing the text. Simply add the keyboard in Settings — General — Keyboard and QuickType will analyse the text as you type and stay put for switching the keyboard if need be.

Apple Pay makes its way into your buying routine

Whenever you want to shop online you can use Apple Pay feature directly from your iPhone now. Setup it once and use it on any sites supporting the feature, instead of inputting the credit card details over and over again.

Home app for your smart home

A brand new app called Home was released with iOS 10. It allows connecting all HomeKit-enabled devices into groups and controlling them with buttons or Siri voice commands. For example, a simple “Goodnight!” can turn all the TVs off, close the shades, lock the doors and switch the thermostat on. No more walking around half-asleep checking if everything is done. Home app will keep your home safe!

There are many more great new iOS 10 features, yet we suggest you explore them on your own, as there is nothing compared to the joy of discovery. Be sure that Quantic Apps will use all the opportunities iOS 10 offers to mobile developers, so expect new great apps from us!

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