Mobile Website: Get Your Business M-Ready

By Leave a Comment

Computing has become very much personal, these days. PCs, Laptops, Palmtops, Pads, and now Mobiles, the changing face of computing and associated activities is prompting business owners to adapt to the demand. Almost every work that someone was doing some few years back with the computers is now possible on your small mobile devices. E-commerce is rapidly changing into M-commerce; and pushing business and website owners to create mobile website.

Mobile Website

International Data Corporation (IDC), in one of its recent survey reports says ‘More than half of next year’s expected 5.7% increase in global IT spending will be driven by sales of smartphones, tablets and e-readers.’ This data indicates that people will be spending life in and around a mobile device; be it a smartphone, tablet, or e-reader.

The global trend in the last few years is showing a sharp change in consumers’ buying behavior. With tremendous support from robust logistic models, easy, affordable, instant, and anywhere access of Internet, people are now able to make purchase decisions on the fly. This has become possible on because of strategic implementation of mobile websites. Name any business, they find a place online and also prompt users to visit their mobile site. More and more FMCG, consumer durable, travel and ticket booking businesses are coming with impressive mobile websites.

However, when we talk about mobile websites; marketers must take care of the following aspects that cause in creating a good mobile website.

User Experience

User experience has to be ultimate. A mobile site is similar to the summary of a long article that gives all the taste, flavors, and essence of the entire article. When it comes to making profit out of your mobile website, developers must focus on the following ingredients for bringing in the ultimate user experience.

  • Easy Navigation: Users must be able to navigate easily within the website. The various sections and tabs must be well placed and clearly visible within the screen. Each page should leave the option open to go back to the previous page.
  • Browser Compatibility: Different users like to use different browsers; the mobile site must be compatible with all the popularly used browser used across different mobile devices.
  • Load Time: The page load time does matter. The home page and the internal pages must be very light enough to load for a wait-less experience.
  • Smart Use of Screen Space: Mobile screens are definitely much smaller compared to the laptop or desktop. The website must be accordingly developed so that it contains all the relevant information and links useful for the readers within the space budget.

Content

Content of the website should speak for its purpose. It solely depends on the power of the content to deliver the desired message to the readers within the permissible space. When we say content; it includes the text, images, and videos. Content has to be concise, actionable, and clear. The images used should be in sync with the overall philosophy of the website. Video streaming should also be effortless and uninterrupted.

Social Integration

Every modern mobile device is built for socialization. The mobile website should also hold this idea by intelligent social integration. This is one golden feather attached to your website that would fling your business to maximum numbers of readers without much effort.

Get your website ready for M-commerce.

Author Bio: Mohit is a seasoned online marketing professional with more than 7 years of experience. He also writes on various topic of his interest including technology, computing, Internet marketing, SEO, telecom, ecommerce, and many more.

Shrink To Fit Market- iPhone Mini Could Be The Next Big Thing After iPad Mini

By Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs, as the world is aware of, always worked towards building quality products that added value for money and gave rich user experience over the ones that came with low price tag and compromised with features including the size. But now, Apple is in for too much of experimenting and trying to get closer to the competition in-terms of redesigning their existing products to fit all pockets!

iPhone mini

After its launch of iPad mini in the month of October last year, rumors has it that Apple is planning to come up with iPhone mini in 2014. As the report is seen on   it is said that the Apple needs to find newer ways to make profit in 2014 which is otherwise doing great business in 2013 through its iPhone 5. But as foreseen by Mawston, Samsung will capture 33 percent of the 2013 smartphone market and Apple will have its share of 21 percent. Apart from Mawston, strategy analytics, Jeffries analyst Peter Misek also believes the possibility of such a smartphone and said it would cost anywhere between $200 and $250 according to the source.

Apple is now on the second position following the lead Samsung in the smart phone business. As per the analysis by Mawston, the high-end smartphone market is nearing saturation and to survive the competition, to gain the first place and also to fill the gap and tap the cheap smartphone market, iPhone is rumored to release this new “iPhone mini” in 2014.

The question is- “would there be a market for this cheaper and smaller iPhone?” As per the Forbes, this “Honey I shrunk the iPhone” version could have a huge market in countries like China and India apart from the craze that could develop in USA.

People already using the current versions of high-end iPhones might not want to switch to the miniature of the same but yes, other potential customers who are using cheaper smart phones would definitely switch to a better alternative like iPhone mini.

If at all this rumor becomes reality, would you opt for an iPhone mini?

How To Download Facebook Photos To Android Phone

By 1 Comment

Facebook Download ImageFacebook is a wonderful website that connects you with your loved ones and the world. More often than not, you come across some very interesting picture, image or photo on Facebook, that you wish to save or store with you. Downloading a photo from Facebook while using computer is very easy. There is always option of downloading it or “save the image” but it is not that straight forward when you are using Facebook on mobile.

As most of us have started using smart phones to access internet, we spend more time browsing Facebook through mobile than the computer. And here comes the problem. Suppose you come up with an amazing photo on Facebook which you would like to save or share on your own page. But, the official Facebook app for android smart phones does not give you the option of downloading it. So what can be done?

Lets see in this tutorial how to download Facebook photos to android phone. Remember we cannot use official Facebook app for this purpose.

Step 1:

Open a web browser in your android phone, preferably Chrome.

Step 2:

Open Facebook.com in the browser. Since you are using it on mobile, it will automatically open the mobile version of Facebook.

Step 3:

Enter your login credentials.

Step 4:

Now go to the image. There are two ways to download the photo from Facebook.

  1. Press down on a picture until a menu pops up. Tap on “Save Image” in the menu. Then tap “OK.” The picture will be downloaded to “Download” folder in Gallery.
  2. Second way is to click on the “View Full Size” option under the image. Clicking on this, will download the picture to Download folder in the gallery. This trick is observed in Chrome browser.
    Download Photo From Facebook Mobile

And that’s it. You are done. Enjoy the images. Ciao :)

Delete A Comment On Facebook Page Using Android Mobile Phone [Quick Tip]

By 2 Comments

Being a Facebook page admin often puts you in delicate situation with unruly, rowdy and impolite fans on the page. You are forced to delete an unwarranted comment left on a post on your Facebook page. This is really easy when you are accessing Facebook through a web browser on your computer but you might be left wondering how to delete a comment on Facebook when you are accessing it on your mobile phone.

Lets take a look at this quick tip that lets you delete a Facebook comment from your mobile. This works on an Android phone (and I hope other touch phones as well).

Here is how to delete a comment on Facebook from mobile:

All you need to do is to go to the comment, move to its right side and then slide your fingers across it, from left to right or right to left. You will see an option popping up for delete. Click on it and the comment will be deleted from the page.

Delete-Facebook-Comment-Mobile

Remember that unlike the web version, this does not provide you several other options such as banning the user, hiding the comment or undoing your action. Though you can do it once you get access to the web version.

Angry Birds Game Maker Rovio to release Angry Pigs?

By 1 Comment

Every dog has its day but it seems even pigs have their day. If rumours to be believed, Rovio’s famed game franchise Angry Birds has its newest version in pipeline and guess what? In contrast to the earlier theme of the game where you had to target the pigs, you will end up saving them in the new series which is supposed to be called as “Angry Birds Pigs Edition”.

There are several Angry Birds rip offs available here and there that could be termed as Angry Pigs but this one comes officially from Rovio. Mind it that it is not a new game series as in “Angry Pigs” but it is an edition of existing Angry Birds where you have to help the pigs survive the attacks of the birds trying to reclaim their eggs.

The game is expected to arrive by the year end. Will you like to switch the sides in this epic war between birds and pigs? Do let us know.

Mozilla’s Next Big Thing: Firefox OS for Smart Phones

By 2 Comments

Popular open source web browser giant has joined the bandwagon of Smart Phone Operating Systems with its Firefox OS to compete with iOS, Android, Windows and Symbian. Mozilla today announced that mobile phones running Firefox OS will be available by early 2013. A number of European Telecom operators such as Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Telenor has backed this Friefox Mobile OS project.

Firefox OS will be Open Source:

Being true to its Open Source philosophy, Mozilla said:

…..(Firefox) will power the launch of smartphones built entirely to open Web standards, where all of the device’s capabilities can be developed as HTML5 applications.

HTML 5 at its fullest:

Firefox OS intends to use the maximum out of HTML 5 with ‘new phone architecture where every phone feature (calling, messaging, games, etc.) is an HTML5 application.’ The work started last year under the project “Boot to Gecko” that allows ‘HTML5 applications to access the underlying capabilities of a phone, previously only available to native applications.’

Firefox, Do you have in It you?

Last few years have shown a number of smart phone OS failures such as Bada, Meego, Palm etc that simply could not make a decent cut in to the mobile OS which is heavily dominated by iOS and Android. It would be interesting to see if Firefox OS could make a cut into the pie. For this we have to wait till 2013 when it will be released in Brazil which is  an emerging mobile market with lots of prospect to grow as it is less penetrated by Android and iOS.

What do you think of Firefox OS? Is it good move by Firefox to jump into a risky smart phone OS which has seen fall of giants? And once available will you opt for Firefox OS over your existing iOS, Android or Windows?

3 Useful Personal Finance Apps

By Leave a Comment

If you do not know what an app is, then you have been living under a rock. An app is a smartphone application that can be used on your cell phone. There are thousands upon thousands of apps out there, for every need you have probably ever had. Apps range from games to driving direction providers to streaming videos and everything in between. There is literally an app for everything, and the same goes for personal finance. If you have trouble keeping or organizing a budget, there is an app for that. If you forget when you should pay your bills and how much you should pay, there is an app for that. If you have trouble calculating or keeping track of your taxes and tax records, well…there is an app for that! I think you get the idea, so here are 3 of the most useful personal finance apps on the market.

1. Keeping your money in “Mint” condition

Mint, an internet finance company, has created, by far, the most popular personal finance apps on the market. Currently, Mint has more than 7 million customers, thanks to their apps. The best thing is that the app is completely free to use. The app offers an all-inclusive examination of a person’s finances. You can track your spending categories in certain categories, and allows the user to design their own budget and see how well they are doing at following it. The app tracks all of your transactions via your checking and savings account, as well as any investments you may have.

2. Biting into PearBudget

PearBudget is another popular app on the market, although nowhere near as popular as the Mint app. PearBudget starts out as a free app, but then requires a $4.95 a month charge after a trial period. Essentially, PearBudget is identical to the Mint app, but with a few tweaks. For one thing, PearBudget tracks your transaction trends and expenses like Mint, but also exports that information to your personal computer so you have a hard copy that can be translated via Microsoft Excel. PearBudget also has an external website that can be accessed via a personal computer, and thus can expedite the sometimes lengthy- especially on a cell phone- sign-up process.

3. Keeping it simple with BudgetSimple

The BudgetSimple app is another completely free cell phone app. The stated goal of the company is to provide a simple spreadsheet budget application, which aims to help someone spend less than they bring in every month. Like the name of the app suggests, they are keeping it simple. The key to BudgetSimple is the plethora of graphs they give the user, which track all expenses in almost everyway you can think of. The app is like an automatically updated Excel spreadsheet. All you have to do is spend money and enter your desired budget and provide your bank information. The app does the rest of it for you.

About Author: Rob is working on masters in accounting online and does a lot with non-profits and his family on his weekends. 

How to Make a Hit Mobile Gaming App

By Leave a Comment

With the news that the latest incarnation of Angry Birds – Angry Birds Space – has hit 10 million downloads within just three days of being released, we’ve been thinking: what’s the dead-cert formula for making an ultra-popular mobile gaming app to blow everything else out of the water? Games are the most popular downloaded apps by quite some distance. If, as a developer, you can successfully crack the art of mobile gaming, you’ll be in the money. Here are our hints on how to put together an unstoppable multi-platform mobile game – and as you can see, Angry Birds aces them all. If only we could code, we’d be rolling in it.

1. Short, snappy stages (Angry Birds, Cloudy, Air Control):

This one’s pretty obvious, but with mobile apps, most gamers are going to be using them at bus stops, on breaks at work, or waiting for the second part of Coronation Street to start – keeping your stages short and fast-paced is what it’s all about. If you’re good, no matter how often people sit down thinking they’re just going to play your game for a couple of minutes, you’ll still end up grabbing them for hours.

2. Appeal to the ‘I can do this!’ mentality (Angry Birds, Red Stone, Bejewelled):

Puzzle games will never go out of fashion, particularly when it comes to mobile gaming. We’ve all done it – spent three hours playing the same level again and again, thinking every next turn is going to be the last. The ‘I can do this!’ (or even ‘I will do this!’ for the overconfident) mentality is probably solely responsible for thousands of hours wasted on games. Build a puzzle element into your game and appeal to our inner egotists.

3. Cute, potentially angry animals (Angry Birds, Cat Physics, Bouncy Mouse):

Even those of us who manage to keep ourselves together in front of pet shop windows can’t resist the appeal of mobile games that include cute animals and characters. Maybe it’s the humorous contrast between their large, fluttering eyes and the abhorrent violence you’re about to make them undertake, but I like to think there’s an animal-lover in us all, and it’s in charge of your app downloads.

4. Keep it simple (Angry Birds, Cloudy):

With quad-core handsets set to take the world by storm in 2012, it’s no big surprise that there are plenty of heavy 3D games out there in the iPhone App Store and Google Play. That said, the games with the biggest download rates will always be the ones that everyone can play. Whether you’re on a quad-core Samsung Galaxy S3 or a 600MHz Galaxy Ace, making a game that can play on pretty much any smartphone with no lag is your key to becoming a gaming god.

So what you waiting for? Stop playing other people’s games and start developing your own!

About Author: This post was provided by Simon from Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website. 

Top 5 Free Applications for Nokia 5800

By 9 Comments

Nokia Ovi Store is growing day by day and now a days it has a decent collection of Application and Games. I have Nokia 5800 for past one year and I like to experiment with the application and games available on the Ovi Store. In this post, I’ll list 5 of my favourite absolutely free, full version applications. No need of data connection to use these applications. (If you cannot connect to internet on your phone here is a little hack which can help you in downloading the application directly on computer from Ovi store: Download from Ovi Store to PC)

1. FingerPrint V3.0:

Use your fingerprint to unlock the phone, this is NOT just for fun! V2.8 enables you to block all key press when FingerPrint screen is on top! When the FingerPrint screen pops up, you need to touch your finger to the screen to be ” scanned ” for your identity, there will be vibration and beep sounds during the scan. The phone will be unlocked not depend on whose finger it is, but on how many beeps or vibrations since your finger touch the screen 😉

Here is the download link: http://store.ovi.com/content/47358?clickSource=browse&contentArea=applications

2. Guitar Chords+:

Chords+. Never be forced to pull out your computer or a bulky chord book just to look up a guitar chord again. Featuring handpicked fingerings of more than 160 chords, Chords+ also explains how to play ” slash ” chords such as D/F# and the mechanics of sliding common bar chord shapes up and down the fretboard to form dozens more.

Here is the download link: http://store.ovi.com/content/63289?clickSource=browse&contentArea=applications

 

3. F-Secure Anti-Theft for Mobile:

With F-Secure Anti-Theft for Mobile you can be sure that your personal and confidential information won ’t be misused by anyone. If you suspect your phone is missing you can remotely lock it or wipe the data so that your private text messages or pictures don’t end up in the wrong hands. You can also locate your phone or the person holding it remotely.

Here is the download link: http://store.ovi.com/content/22205?clickSource=browse&contentArea=applications

4. Best Screen Snap:

Freeware application that allows you to capture screenshots on your smartphone and save them to a file or send them to friends or to your desktop computer.

Here is the download link: http://store.ovi.com/content/1540?clickSource=browse&contentArea=applications

 

5. Nokia Photo Browser:

Nokia Photo Browser is an experimental photo browser that makes viewing your photos quick and fun. NOTE: this is an experimental prototype that may break, change or disappear at any time. You can contribute at http://betalabs.nokia.com

Here is the download link: http://store.ovi.com/content/3612?clickSource=browse&contentArea=applications

 

Hope you liked the post. Would you mind sharing your thoughts on the post and your favourite applications?